Obama has found his oppressor

Why would President Obama openly challenge the highest rated news channel in existence?

Obama's poll numbers are dropping, his policies are running into serious problems even though his own party has a super majority, and even his personal appeal has failed him. Many in the media are scratching their heads trying to figure out why a sitting President would do something so foolish.

The answer is simple. Obama's stock and trade when he was a community organizer was peddling a victimization mentality that blames all manner of bogeymen but never looks at the culture of failure that created the conditions he railed against. For a every victim our community organizer needs an oppressor. Finding an oppressor when you're the President of the most powerful country in the world isn't easy. It appears President Obama has formerly decided that Fox News will be his oppressor and has sent out his aides to tell the world. Obama has decided to play role of the victim.

Playing the victim accomplishes a few things;

• Openly challenging FoxNews takes up a news cycle or two among the talking heads and serious issues won't be explored. Every time the public starts to examine Obama policies closely the lower the President's poll numbers go, so, distractions are viewed as good for Obama and his policies.
• It plays to the storyline that the committed left lives by and believes. This helps keep the leftist base active, which is important for a left of center President trying to govern in a center right country.
• Playing the victim absolves Obama of the responsibility among his supporters if things don't go his way. If the public option doesn't make it into health care reform, you can bet it will be Foxnews' fault. We saw similar rhetoric from the left in the lead up to the war in Iraq.

The American people expect the President to perform. Unlike Annenberg, the Illinois State Senate, and the US Senate, Obama will actually have to accomplish something by leading.

Obama forgets that his is the leader of a center right country, he's not in the leftpdominated halls of academia anymore. Whining may score points with the base, but a vast majority of Americans prefer to choose not to be a victim, and as a country we don't like whiners.

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Baltimore Sun Critic Praises Fox News For Giving Obama the 'Tiny Bit of Scrutiny' He Faces On TV

Subject: txt msm fnn -
[This from the B-Sun!?!]

David Zurawik, a TV critic for The Baltimore Sun, has called for the

“TV press...to step back and question how it is covering President Barack Obama.”

Referring to a CNBC interview where President Obama complained that "one television station is entirely devoted to attacking" his administration, Zurawik gives a laudatory nod to Fox News for its balanced coverage of the President:

“I hesitate to write these words, but good for Fox. It must be doing something right, if it has the President complaining about the tiny bit of scrutiny he gets on TV.”

[Ah, there it is; somehow 'hesitant' to give credit to a news organization for actually doing its job because it's FOX. Why?]

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image toon 1st fnn hcare msm = Can't take heat = close kitchen & blame Fox

Benanke's bomb

[HT:MM]Subject: txt mny -
At least one rising congressman, Rep. Mark Kirk of Illinois, is raising an alarm about the Federal Reserve's ability to protect the dollar and maintain the Fed's own inflation-fighting capacity. At the root of his concern, he says, is the Fed's new role as "one of the largest bondholders in the world."

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has been piling up purchases of "mortgage-backed" securities to keep money flowing into the housing market. Though the Fed recently said it would slow its buying, the central bank now sits on a giant portfolio worth $650 billion.

Here's the problem: If the Fed decides to raise interest rates to combat inflation, even a small hike would likely knock billions of dollars off the value of the Fed's holdings.

Mr. Kirk estimates that if rates go up two percentage points -- a plausible scenario given short-term rates are near zero now -- the Fed could lose $100 billion from its own balance sheet. The danger is that the mere existence of such a concern could become a self-fulfilling prophecy if the markets doubt the Fed would endanger its own financial welfare to fight inflation.

[The predictable consequences of letting the government into the business of business.]

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Global Warming Alarmist Appeared in 1978's 'The Coming Ice Age'

Subject: txt grn -
Stanford University's noted global warming alarmist and Al Gore advisor Stephen Schneider appeared in a 1978 television program warning Americans of a coming Ice Age.

For those that have forgotten, "In Search of..." was a televised documentary series from 1976 to 1982 that was normally narrated by Leonard Nimoy.

One climate expert cited was Stephen Schneider, a climatologist working for the National Center for Atmospheric Research at the time who was asked to address some of the possible solutions being discussed to stop the coming Ice Age... [snip]

DR. STEPHEN SCHNEIDER: Can we do these things? Yes. But will they make things better? I'm not sure. We can't predict with any certainty what's happening to our own climatic future. How can we come along and intervene then in that ignorance? You could melt the icecaps. What would that do to the coastal cities? The cure could be worse than the disease. Would that be better or worse than the risk of an ice age?

Now, thirty years later, Schneider is INDEED predicting what's happening to our climatic future by using models, and advocates government intervention to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to prevent global warming.

Now that Schneider's appearance on "In Search of..." has been uncovered, will journalists - always concerned about presenting all sides of the story - report this video and its implications or bury it for fear that it might impact pending legislation to cap and tax carbon dioxide emissions?

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The Times Waddles in on Another Big Story

Subject: txt grn engry msm -
The New York Times ran a story that has been big news across the blogosphere for quite a while but not, until yesterday, fit to print: global temperatures have been steady for the past decade, not rising inexorably toward a climatic Armageddon. Many scientists even think they will decline over the next few years.

Today, the Times is at it again, running an above-the-fold story on how this has been a banner year for oil exploration. Major strikes have been found in Iraq, Australia, Ghana, Brazil, Russia, Norway, and Sierra Leone. BP has hit what may turn out to be the largest field yet found in the Gulf of Mexico, currently estimated at 4 billion to 6 billion barrels. Even Israel has struck oil, in the Dead Sea area.

Indeed, oil companies have found more oil in the past two years than they have extracted - ever. So much for the we’re-inevitably-running-out-of-oil-and-soon meme so popular on the Left... [snip]

Naturally, the Times, still the Paper of Record for the liberal elite if not many others, remains adamantly opposed to oil exploration—even just finding out if the oil is there, let alone extracting it—in most of the most promising areas in the world: the United States and its offshore waters...

[Everyone but U.S.]

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image toon - grn engry = first elec cars then no pwr plants = nothing

DISENFRANCHISING CITIZENS

If the Obama Administration succeeds in counting 12 million illegal immigrants in next year's census, it will effectively disenfranchise an equal number of U.S. citizens

Next year's decennial census is rife with opportunities for a major power grab by the president's party, says Linda Chavez, president of the Center for Equal Opportunity.

The White House has made very clear that their intention is to put extra effort into counting illegal immigrants in the next Census. It wants to make sure that all 12 million illegal immigrants are counted, a task that's not easy given the desire of most people who are illegally in the United States to avoid detection:

• Estimates are that if illegal immigrants are counted in the 2010 census, California will keep two seats it would otherwise lose (since that state has been losing citizen residents at a rapid rate) and Arizona and Texas will each pick up seats.
• The big loser will be the Midwest, however, with a loss of six seats among five states, according to a study by the Connecticut State Data Center.

The real issue is what this will mean to individual voters in districts that are made up mostly of citizens. Their votes will, in effect, be diluted by the votes of citizens who live in districts where large numbers of illegal immigrants live.

This change has the potential to dramatically alter the meaning of representative democracy...

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Protesters Rail Against Obama Song In N.J. School

Subject: txt edu msm bias bdd -
A New Jersey elementary school is under scrutiny after students were seen on tape singing a song in praise of President Barack Obama. On Monday, dozens of protesters chanted outside the school, saying the children are being brainwashed.

"Educate, don't indoctrinate; Educate don't indoctrinate,"

The demonstrators protested across the street from the "B" Bernice Young Elementary School in Burlington Township....

[Funny thing about the protesters and demonstrators - ALL of those interviewed turned out to be parents. Yet, except to identify their quotes, "parents" isn't otherwise used - even once, whereas protesters and demonstrators repeatedly alternate throughout the piece.

Ah: It's by local CBS TV News professionals.]

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Will Media Help Sell the New Obama American Flag?

Subject: txt msm bias sclm bbro - lbrty -
There's a new American flag available on the Internet that has a picture of President Obama in the corner where the stars representing our fifty states normally reside.

Given how our media have assisted in selling Obama paraphernalia since Inauguration Day, one has to wonder what their position will be on the attractive keepsake pictured right.

(larger picture of flag below the fold, h/t Atlas Shrugs):

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Sunshine scares academic-labor complex

Subject: txt edu crpt -
It is not uncommon to find tax exempt and state-supported academic institutions hosting labor study centers that conduct research and offer training programs for unions. Because unions are highly partisan political powerhouses, the possibilities for abuse are endless, in effect funneling public money into politics (as may have been the case with ACORN). The left's dominance on most campuses only increases the hazzards.

Accordingly, The Landmark Legal Foundation has filed information requests and complaints with 11 academic institutions. Sunshine is as much anathema to the left-labor cozy campus arrangements as it is to Dracula. The American Association of University Professors, which is a labor union more than an academic organization is outraged, crying that academic freedom is at risk... [no news there - snip]

The AAUP statement reads in part:

Thus far, to our knowledge the most serious complaints, which threaten academic freedom, appear to have taken place at UC Berkeley and Evergreen, where the foundation seeks to restrict the work of the centers, in terms of who they serve and what they do.

At Berkeley, among other charges, that the Labor Center provides services for private (union) benefit rather than for public benefit.

The letter from Landmark went on to say that "Rather than a valid public purpose, the Center's activities are designed to promote a particular political ideology."

Academics are accustomed to zero public accountability for their use of public funds. In the leftist hothouse on campus, serving the cause of the left is often seen as a question of simple morality. The doctrine of academic freedom has been perverted into lack of accountability.

Academics often defend labor centers on the ground that they offer a counterbalance to business schools and economics departments. This is nonsense. Business is commerce and industry, activities upon which human welfare depends. It is the stuff of life, not of politics.

Labor unions, on the other hand, exist only to enrich their members, and monopolize the supply of labor in a particular employment relationship. They are legalized cartels, operating for the benefit of their members, and they survive at the expense of the majority by devoting a substantial portion of their extorted income to political donations.

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image toon - mny crpt = Union payback expensive re tires

Pulitzer Winner Likens Rush Limbaugh to Plantation Owner

Subject: txt bdd vals msm -

One of the most damaging accusations you can level at opponent is call that individual a racist in one form or another. And that's the tactic MSNBC and others left-wing opponents of Rush Limbaugh are taking to thwart his bid to purchase the St. Louis Rams.

During a segment on MSNBC on Oct. 13, former Pulitzer Prize winner Karen Hunter appeared to voice her opposition to the Limbaugh's NFL bid. She made one of the most outrageous - likening Limbaugh's ownership of an NFL team to being a plantation owner, a metaphor that invokes the image of antebellum South during the 19th Century, when slavery was rampant.

"I can just see the visions of plantation grandeur dancing in his head as we speak,"

[Yet it's always the Left that always inject race - in this case, what she sees in someone else's head.]

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It's Safer When We're Packing

Subject: txt lbrty gdd guns -

"Allowing more people to carry concealed handguns in densely populated cities, on crowded subways, on buses and in sports stadiums, is a recipe for disaster."

- The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence

Source: US Dept. of Justice.

Number of states allowing "shall issue" or unrestricted concealed carry;

In 1988: 10.
In 2006: 39.

[Better manners, too. Wait for the below graphic to go active...]

SOURCE

NBC’s Williams Derides Blogosphere as ‘Comic Element of Our Society’

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“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

Mahatma Gandhi

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image toon 1st fnn owg = Oby's other absurd awards

POLL: Most Say Politics Drive Nobel Awards

ubject: txt 1st - owg -
Americans are much more skeptical of the motivation behind the awarding of the prestigious international Nobel Prizes following President Obama's win Friday of the Nobel Peace Prize.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 58% of American adults now believe that politics plays a role in the awarding of the Nobel Prize. That's an 18-point jump from 40% a year ago.

Just 21% of Americans say politics does not play a role in the awarding of the Nobel Prize. Twenty-one percent (21%) are not sure.

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Stephanopoulos Laughs Re: Obama's Nobel Being 'Well-Deserved'

Subject: txt 1st fnn owg -

A marvelous thing happened on Sunday's "This Week": Donna Brazile said Barack Obama being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize was "well-deserved," and host George Stephanopoulos couldn't restrain his laughter.

Such happened moments after George Will said,

"[T]he Nobel Prize committee would with this decision have forfeited its reputation for seriousness - if it had a reputation for seriousness."

Quite comically, Brazile was as serious as the Nobel committee (video embedded below the fold with partial transcript, video available here for Internet Explorer users):

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A NEW ENTITLEMENT THAT CUTS THE DEFICIT?

Subject: txt 1st hcare mny -
Anyone who reads beyond the top-line numbers of the CBO's estimate of the Senate health care bill will find that the it creates massive new spending commitments that will inevitably explode over time, and that this is "paid for" with huge tax increases plus phantom spending cuts that will never happen, says the Wall Street Journal. For example:

• Baucus spends $10.9 billion to eliminate the scheduled Medicare cuts to physician payments --but only for next year.
• In 2011, he assumes they'll be reduced by 25 percent, with even deeper cuts later, with no specifics as to how provided.
• Congress has overridden this "sustainable growth rate" every year since 2003 and will continue to do so because deeper cuts in Medicare's price controls will cause many doctors to quit the program.
• Fixing this alone would add $245 billion to the bill's costs, according to an earlier CBO estimate.

Source: Editorial, "The Greatest Show on Earth; Step right up: A new entitlement that cuts the deficit!" Wall Street Journal, October 9, 2009.

[We're evidently not supposed to notice that while the taxation half of the bill would start immediately upon its passage, the benefit payouts won't start until 2013. I.e., several years of loading the pipe with 'free' money and the only way the CBO could arrive at its absurd claim of deficit reduction.

2013 is also after the next presidential election.]

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'Conceptual Language' Hides Health Care's Costs

Some of the headlines in recent days are not worthy of belief.

I'm referring to the headlines earlier in the week to the effect that the health care bill sponsored by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus will cut the federal deficit by $81 billion over the next 10 years.

Yes, that is what the Congressional Budget Office estimated. But, as the CBO noted, there's no actual Baucus bill, just some "conceptual language." Actual language, CBO noted, might result in "significant changes" in its estimates.

No wonder Democratic congressional leaders killed requirements that the actual language be posted on the Internet for 72 hours before Congress votes... [snip]

More significant is the number most publications did not put in their headlines and lead paragraphs: CBO's estimate that the Baucus "conceptual language" would increase federal spending by $829 billion over 10 years. So how do you increase federal spending and cut the deficit at the same time?

In a word, taxes... [everywhere on everyone - snip]

We can reasonably conclude that the Baucus bill -- or whatever similar measure Reid and Schumer concoct -- would vastly and permanently increase public sector spending and impose a crushing burden on the private sector in a weak economy.

That burden would be particularly heavy on low earners forced to buy expensive policies or else pay stiff fines, with money they would otherwise receive as wages or salaries.

There are no good public policy reasons to pass such a bill hurriedly or otherwise. Only political ones...

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POLL: To Pay for Health Care Plan, 59% Say No New Taxes

Subject: txt 1st hcare -
During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama said,

“No family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.”

But 72% of voters say it is at least somewhat likely that taxes will be increased on those earning less than $250,000 during President Obama’s time in office. Fifty-two percent (52%) say it is very likely.

Fifty-nine percent (59%) of U.S. voters favor putting a provision in the health care reform plan that would prohibit any new taxes, fees or penalties on families who make less than $250,000 a year.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that just 22% of voters oppose such a provision. Nineteen percent (19%) are not sure.

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Show Me the Bill!

Subject: txt 1st hcare bdd -
Do you think Congress should vote on bills without reading them? How about voting on bills that don’t even exist yet, except in fragments? The Senate Finance Committee is poised to vote on a massive health care reform bill on Tuesday allegedly authored by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.).

A glaring, outrageous, unreported fact is that the bill’s actual text has been kept secret. No one actually knows what’s in it – not even the senators...

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[Yet they're voting on it TODAY...


"REJECT BAUCUS BILL"


Senate-Reid: http://reid.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm
YOUR Senator: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

or: Speed Message them with your personal distribution list...

and as always, pass it on...

contact-template

image toon - 1st hcare = Congress's hypocritic oath re health care

Afghan official: Foreigners bolstering Taliban

Subject: txt gwot -
KABUL - Thousands of foreign fighters have poured into Afghanistan to bolster the Taliban insurgency, the country's defense minister said Saturday as he called for more international troops.

[Again and again. G.W.O.T.]

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Cherry-picking Intelligence

Subject: txt gwot nsec - ... Again
For Vice President Joe Biden and some senior Obama White House staff members (we do not know the position of the president yet), the alleged weakness and ineffectiveness of al-Qaida is sufficient justification for ending our major ground troop presence in Afghanistan.

The current discussion of al-Qaida's capacities in Afghanistan is being carried out with cherry-picked intelligence. The assertion of al-Qaida's weakness by the White House is merely an excuse to justify the political decision that already has been made (by some) to get out of Afghanistan.

On Sept. 30, the Post ran a spectacular front-page, above-the-fold lead story, headlined

"Success Against al-Qaeda Cited: Infiltration of Network Is a Factor as Administration Debates Afghanistan Policy."

The White House-fed article leaked to the Post by "senior U.S. officials, who spoke about intelligence matters on the condition of anonymity," expressly argued that al-Qaida had been penetrated recently by our spies and other intelligence and can be hit by drones and that therefore, such "an improved counterterrorism effort" is

"evidence that Obama's principal objective -- destroying al-Qaeda -- can be achieved without an expanded troop presence."

The next day, the Pentagon responded through Jake Tapper's blog on ABC News' Web site, arguing that those successes were

"largely because of better intelligence, stemming from a stronger U.S. counter-insurgency program on the other side of the border in Afghanistan."

Nor, regarding al-Qaida's alleged inability to reach young Muslims nowadays, was the Post reporter directed by the White House leakers to FBI Director Robert Mueller's testimony last week that al-Qaida in Somalia is having great success with al-Shabab, which translates as "mujahedeen youth." "They could strike the United States," the FBI director testified.

We must trust that the president will not permit himself to be misled by some of his most senior aides, who clearly are trying to cherry-pick the intelligence to gain their political objectives rather than honestly assess the intelligence on behalf of our national security needs.

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POLL: Plurality Say U.S. Can Win War in Afghanistan,

Subject: txt gwot - 29% Disagree
Voters aren’t brimming with confidence that the United States can win the war in Afghanistan, but, despite news reports of a worsening situation there, support for a continued U.S. military presence in the country is unchanged.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 45% of voters believe it is possible for the United States to win the eight-year-old war in Afghanistan. Twenty-nine percent (29%) do not think a U.S. victory is possible there, and another 25% aren’t sure.

But 52% of voters continue to believe that no firm timetable should be set for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. That number is unchanged from a survey at the beginning of September.

Fifty-eight percent (58%) of men say America can win the war in Afghanistan. Women are evenly divided.

Sixty percent (60%) of Republicans say a U.S. victory is possible, a view shared by just 35% of Democrats.

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NBC Reporter Waves the White Flag: 'Time to Start Leaving' Afghanistan'

[Meanwhile, our professional media...]

In 2006, Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz found that NBC correspondent Richard Engel had strong political feelings: "I think war should be illegal...I'm basically a pacifist." That pacifist opinion is still surfacing, Kurtz reported Monday, although he didn’t recall the sentence from 2006:

"I honestly think it's probably time to start leaving the country. I really don't see how this is going to end in anything but tears,"

"The idea of going in to nation-build and win hearts and minds, I think, over the long term is kind of a loser."

[As usual, the Left learned all wrong lessons from Viet Nam.]

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image toon - gwot = Viet Nam v Iraq re Afghanistan

Black Nationalism Provides Foundation for African-American Islamist Movement

Subject: txt islm bdd vals -

"America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem,"

Malcolm X wrote in 1964 during his pilgrimage to Mecca. Malcolm's words now appear on countless Islamist websites dedicated to finding black, English-speaking converts. The assumption that all African-American Muslims broke their ties with the anti-Western, anti-white, and anti-Semitic worldview of the NOI [Nation Of Islam] is a naive one.

Islamists have harnessed these radicals' anti-Western black nationalism for their own purpose: establishing an indigenous Islamist movement in the United States that can advocate their political agenda in the foreign and domestic policy spheres. The Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA) and the As-Sabiqun movement are proof that their efforts have not been in vain.

Imam Siraj Wahhaj, the founder of the primarily African-American MANA, is a product of the volatile intersection of black nationalism and politicized Islam. A former member of the NOI, Wahhaj often has been portrayed as a "moderate" by the mainstream media. However, his words speak for themselves:

"In time, this so-called democracy will crumble, and there will be nothing, and the only thing that will remain will be Islam,"

Imam Abdul Alim Musa of the As-Sabiqun movement is even more overt about his Islamist worldview. As-Sabiqun, founded in the early 1990s, advocates the establishment of an Islamic caliphate in place of America's democratic system... [snip]

Today, many African-American prisoners are turning to radical Islam. The government has neglected its oversight responsibilities, allowing men like Imam Warith Deen Umar to become influential Islamic chaplains in the prison system. Umar has noted the utility of prisons for terrorist recruitment and made such reassuring statements as,

"Even Muslims who say they are against terrorism secretly admire and applaud the 9/11 hijackers."

Under the supervision of men like Umar, Saudi-funded programs have introduced the most intolerant Salafi and Wahhabi interpretations of Islam to convicts. We face a well funded and increasingly effective network of Islamists who seek to take advantage of black nationalism's lingering racial intolerance.

It is therefore imperative to marginalize fringe Islamist elements of the African-American Muslim community and empower those who seek personal fulfillment, not political dominance, in their Islamic faith...

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Newsweek: Rejecting 'Religion-based Bigotry'

Subject: txt msm bias bdd vals islm -

[The usual anti-religious bigotry - albeit just for religions of the Cross. Can you imagine such a graphic, in Newsweek, based on the Koran? You know, that document that calls for the murder of homosexuals? Oops, forgot: there we need be 'tolerant' of the diverse view...

As an atheist I tell you: the liberal left in all its guises (judicial, academia, old media, DNC) is at war with the religion that this country was and continues to be founded on (as in 3 out of 4, below) - to our nation's detriment. ]

[click to enlarge]

[Interesting re: the decline in Judaism and Agnostic - I wonder which way the Agnostics 'broke'...]

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Obama adviser: Sharia Law is 'Gender Justice'

Subject: txt islm - Barack
President Barack Obama's adviser on Muslim affairs, Dalia Mogahed, has provoked controversy by appearing on a British television show hosted by a member of an extremist group to talk about Sharia Law.

Miss Mogahed, appointed to the President's Council on Faith-Based and Neighbourhood Partnerships, said the Western view of Sharia was "oversimplified" and the majority of women around the world associate it with "gender justice"...

[On our Presidents council...]

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Russia confirms plans to help Iran enrich uranium

Subject: txt gwot intl - owg -
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Monday that a plan for Russia to help enrich uranium for an Iranian reactor has yet to be finalized, in the highest-level Russian confirmation of a tentative agreement reached between Tehran and six world powers last week. Lavrov said that experts would have to work out specifics of the deal involving the United States, France, Russia and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

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Decision to Cut Funding to Iran Watchdog Is Misguided

Subject: txt gwot intl othr lbryt -
A decision by the Obama administration to deny federal funding to a group that keeps track of human rights abuses in Iran is a misguided attempt by the White House to appear non-confrontational with the Islamic republic, critics say.

The Connecticut-based Iran Human Rights Documentation Center has received more than $3 million in grants from the State Department since its inception in 2004. Executive Director Rene Redman learned in July that the group's federal funding request was denied, an unexpected decision given the abuse of protesters in Iran following the country's disputed June 12 presidential election.

The State Department has not divulged the reason the request was denied.

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Barack Obama to talk tough to Japan

Subject: txt intl -
Tokyo - Barack Obama will visit Japan next month, putting his hosts under pressure to resolve pressing alliance issues arising from the recent change of government in Tokyo.

[Last I checked, Japan was an ally, so yeah - there he'll talk tough...]

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image toon - intl - NKorea out of toilet paper - grab another American

THE TRADE DEFICIT AND JOBS

The idea that job losses can be blamed on the trade deficit is simplistic and wrong

The Wall Street Journal reports that the

"U.S. trade deficit unexpectedly narrowed for the first time in four months in August, with exports rising to their highest level of the year and imports easing despite higher oil prices."

Given how trade skeptics often argue that job loss can be ascribed directly to the trade deficit, this might be a good moment to reflect on the relationship between the trade deficit and jobs:

• Between 1993 and 2007, the U.S. economy created 26 million new jobs, net; this is one of the greatest job creation booms in American history.
• During the same period, the trade deficit swelled from 1 percent of gross domestic product to 6 percent of GDP.
• Since 2007 the trade deficit as a percentage of GDP has fallen by half, to about 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) today; but the U.S. economy has shed 6 or 7 million jobs.

Did the growth in the trade deficit create 26 million jobs? No.

Did the collapse of the trade deficit cause the loss of 6 or 7 million jobs? No.

But what these recent experiences have done is exploded the simplistic myth that job losses can be blamed on the trade deficit.

[Recall: we only run deficits because the consumer - that would be 100% of us - feel they're getting a better deal on imported goods. And unlike exports, every dollar saved on less expensive but acceptable goods by consumers - that would still be all of us, without exception - is 100% profit - dramatically more beneficial to our collective standard of living than artificially supporting a comparatively few union jobs because they've bribed politicians to do so.

We claim to be a consumer-based society for good reason. What's best for the average consumer should be our strongest and nearly sole guide in setting related policy - starting with the win-win benefits of free trade.]

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Another Hush Rush Campaign

Subject: txt fnn msm bias bdd lbrty -
MSNBC Features Lefty Sports Writer to Trash ‘Racist’ ‘Swine’ Rush Limbaugh

"about having somebody in an NFL owners box who [players] know views them with naked and open contempt because of the color of their skin."

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Sportswriter: Black NFLers Claiming They Won't Play for Rush 'Are Lying Through Their Teeth'

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Limbaugh Transcends 'Today' Attempt to Discredit Him

“Lord, thank you for my enemies.”

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SOAK-THE-RICH STRATEGIES BACKFIRE IN STATE AFTER STATE

Subject: txt mny -
When David Paterson became governor of New York, he shocked New Yorkers by declaring that taxes were too high and that he had many friends who had left the state because there were better opportunities elsewhere.

Paterson quickly got rolled by the big-government wing of his own party, which passed a budget for this year with $6.1 billion in projected new taxes and fees, led by sharply higher rates starting for those earning more than $200,000 a year.

Asked if the budget made sense in the recession, an outgunned Paterson said: "None of this makes sense."

Revenue from tax increases was running 20 percent below projections and that, in particular, the wealthy were not paying up - they were leaving.

"You heard the mantra, 'Tax the rich, tax the rich,'" ... "We've done that. We've lost jobs and driven people out of the state."

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STUDY ASKS $10 TRILLION FOR CLIMATE

Subject: txt grn engry owg -
An 'investment' of $10 trillion in 'renewable' energy and 'carbon-abatement' technology will be "necessary" over the next two decades to limit the rise in the Earth's temperature, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warns in a new report.

The IEA, energy adviser to the world's richest nations, urges more-aggressive reductions in carbon emissions than what many nations are already planning:

• The IEA calls for investment -- in clean-energy initiatives such as solar power, new nuclear plants and other measures -- of $500 billion a year over the next 20 years.
• That is 37 percent more investment than what the IEA estimated was necessary just a year ago.

The additional investment called for could be particularly expensive for consumers in developed nations such as the United States which would likely face higher costs to fill up their vehicles and keep their lights on.

The IEA also says sales of vehicles powered by the internal combustion engine will need to fall from around 95 percent of the world's total purchases today to 40 percent in 2030; electric and hybrid vehicles would need to account for the majority of new vehicle sales over the next 20 years.

[If we're stupid enough to buy this scam we'll deserve what we get - but our children?]

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image toon - grn = India = no thanks to Hillary's CO2 caps

SQUEEZING MORE OIL FROM THE GROUND

Subject: FW: txt engry -
Forecasts that global oil production will soon start to decline and that most oil will be gone within a few decades are pessimistic hogwash, says Leonardo Maugeri, group senior vice president for corporate strategies and planning at the Italian energy company ENI. For example:

• When Kern River Oil Field of California was discovered in 1899, analysts thought that only 10 percent of the crude was recoverable.
• In 1942 after more than four decades of modest production, the field was estimated to still hold 54 million barrels of recoverable oil, a fraction of the 278 million barrels already recovered.
• In the next 44 years, the field produced 736 million barrels, and it had another 970 million barrels remaining.

The Ken River in California is not an isolated case, as most of the world's oil fields have revived over time. This is in defiance to the common theory that suggests that a field's production should follow a bell-shaped trajectory (known as the Hubbert curve) and peak when half of the known oil has been extracted.

Advanced technologies are just half the story though. The real cornucopia is that new and larger oil deposits continue to be found around the world, and in fact continue to outstrip growing demand...

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[Again and again: the history of oil has been one of always finding more, faster, than even our growing demand needs. 'Peak Oil' is a myth not supported by the facts.]

FLASHBACK >

'PEAK' OIL SHORTAGE IS POLITICAL FICTION, NOT REALITY
· Bailey, who did a thorough survey of the "peak oil" debate, found that most of the world's leading analysts and agencies simply do not think we are running out of oil.

[Yet] The disinformation cycle keeps repeating itself: [snip]

Estimates put the amount of shale oil in the Intermountain West at 1.2 to 1.8 trillion barrels. If we chose to recover just the 'easiest' 800 billion barrels of that, it alone would represent an American reserve three times Saudi Arabia's oil stockpile...

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mage toon - engry - PLMA of 09 = Keep Out of Oil drills
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Subject: txt reps libs msm bias fnn - CNN:
White House Attacks On Fox Help Its Ratings,

Three days before Howard Kurtz talked with White House communications director Anita Dunn about the Obama administration's attacks on the Fox News Channel, a number of CNN contributors pointed out how this strategy is helping FNC's ratings while hurting Democrats.

Such was discussed on Thursday's "Situation Room" by a panel consisting of CNN's Gloria Berger, David Gergen, and John King, as well as Politico's Nia-Malika Henderson and Republican strategist Tony Blankley.

Makes you wonder why Kurtz on Sunday didn't ask Dunn about the following tremendously relevant conversation that happened on his own network a few days earlier (video embedded below the fold with partial transcript, h/t Mediaite):

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UPDATE: Fox officials agree that all this attention is helping ratings.
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Irony Alert: White House Praises 'Unbiased' CNN as Network Runs Promo Appealing to Democrats

Yesterday, Sheppard posted a story about White House communications director Anita Dunn whining at length on Howard Kurtz's "Reliable Sources" about how supposedly unfair Fox News is. Her appearance on that show was instigated by Dunn's complaints about White House coverage by Fox News in a Time magazine story by Michael Scherer.

Among her attacks upon Fox News was the assertion that it wasn't a real news network "the way CNN is." Well, Michael Scherer himself wrote a followup blog post and pointed out the supreme irony of attacking Fox News as biased while CNN was running "Anderson Cooper 360" promos pitching that show as appealing to liberals....

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PARTLY PERSONAL...

[I'm going to selfishly exercise some 'publisher's prerogative' by posting this up top today in the hope more of you will read it.

It's a topic I've attempted to convey myself {though not as well} a time or ten, and an aspect to our vastly expanded new-media 'information age' I've described as its Achilles heel - and which played no small part in my decision to destroy my private life by devoting an ever-increasing amount of it to the modest effort you're reading now.

I hope you'll give it a read and give it serious thought...]


Beware of Ideological Teamism

Many people don't realize it, but they are being exploited by a psychosocial phenomenon that is encouraging them to think irrationally. Everyone is susceptible, and it can lure you to betray your principles in order to support ideological causes.

"Ideological teamism" refers to people's desire to belong to a team representing that they want to believe, which corrupts their judgment in determining what to believe... "

[snip]

First, consider a sporting event where a referee makes an incredibly close call in the final championship game. The referee's call is made within a cloud of dust, and he is the only one with a clear view of the critical event. The fans from the losing team instantly become furious and hostile. Rumors of a bad call are believed without any factual basis. Fans from the winning team instantly accept the referee's call. Neither side has any objective basis for having a strong opinion, and any chance for reviewing available evidence is obliterated by the subsequent focus on name calling, ad-hominem attacks and 'demonization' of all contrary opinion - usually by linking to any distasteful aspect that can be found, no matter how irrelevant... [snip]

[OR; your typical TV news 'discussion' between political/ideological 'pundits' (if not "experts" {if not actors})]

While many manifestations of teamism can lead to a harmless, exciting, and productive competition in sports and business, its corrupting influence on our judgment can have a detrimental effect on society when it affects other areas, such as science, economics, politics, and history. Our tendency to become emotionally attached to issues and ideologies encourages a loss of rationality by making us want to believe conclusions which support our ideology.

People tend to rationalize what they want to believe by seeking out information that confirms what they want to believe and by ignoring contradictory information... [snip]

[Hence my oft-repeated mantra to read that which you're unlikely to agree with {most titles suffice to identify} and my as frequent admission, being a point of discipline to do so myself, of how much harder that is than reading that which I agree with.

The payoff for this 'pain', however, is that's where the majority of new learning for any of us lies {even if the chaff vastly outweighs the wheat - see prior 'pain' reference}.]

As with many hazards in life, recognizing the hazard is often the key to prevention. This can be useful in identifying ideological teamism in you, as well as in other people.

[Probably the most flattering complement I've received re: this blog is the number of times I've been told that reading it, regardless of their political leanings, taught/showed/exposed - the verbiage varied - TV news consumers to spot biases (and frequently glaring omissions) they previously weren't noticing.

Exactly my mission (and proof of point re: if TV's your only source and was lying, how would you know?) - now they've the opinion options with which to make up their own minds (and it's generally none to flattering to the MSM).

What to watch for:

1. Emotional Attachment: ...

2. Emphasis on beating the other side: ... [Listening TS?]

3. Ridicule and Insults: ... [Yeah yeah, but it would be good for you to avoid...]

4. Vilification: There is a moral superiority in being [or defending] a victim...

What's in it for me?

By recognizing and preventing an emotional attachment to your ideologies, you may be less defensive and more rational in your thought processes. You'll be better able to test your beliefs and be less defensive about them. For the issues which you are right about, you will be better able to test them and discuss them calmly. For issues which you are wrong about, you'll be better able to see and accept a correction.

There's nothing illogical [or {inherently} 'extremists'] about having strong opinions, but if our intent is to truly 'do good' we need avoid the comfortable auto-defense of what we [currently!] believe and instead brave the uncomfortable [possibility of abandoning that we've come to associate ourselves with] by constantly reevaluating the rationale that led us to why we hold them.

You'll find that, with new knowledge, they frequently change..

[Leading one to wisdom... {OK a little Zen - but it sounded like a proper ending.}

And for those of you thinking otherwise, I do indeed read and post pieces from the full spectrum available based on {my grading of} their merit - as my past postings from Kos, Huffington's and Media Matters {among others} attest. Their infrequency is a function of blind squirrels finding nuts rarely - not my lack of subjecting myself, excuse: referencing such sites regularly. {and besides, a blog's got to have its standards...}

Lastly, if you recall the charter of this blog {left side-bar}, I'm attempting to provide a sample of (mostly, but not only) center-right opinion to counter-balance the (mostly, to the point of damn-near-only) left-left opinion force fed watchers of TV news by virtue of their offering no consumer control of story-selection (the most pervasive spin tactic), which the internet thankfully rectifies - but...

with that power comes the responsibility
to avoid selection-spinning ourselves

- which brings us back to my promotion of this piece... not surprisingly, Highly Recommended > ]

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[And if this blog services as your primary news source {I've my suspicions}, it shouldn't - go watch a little {small, minuscule} amount of TV - or pick up a paper {from wood - really}.]

can't believe I just wrote that

We now resume our regularly scheduled programming...

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image toon - libs crpt mny fnn = Why aren't More's movie tickets free

The Nobel Prize: Europe's Bid to Re-Colonize America

Subject: txt intl owg -
Whether it was rewarding Jimmy Carter for criticizing the Iraq War or supporting Al Gore in his crusade against global warming, the Norwegian Parliament -- which chooses the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize -- has sought to use the award as a political tool to influence American politics.

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[This organization is nothing more than a one-world-government political advocacy cabal - it's credibility died in with it's 'award' of the 'peace prize' to the man who invented airline hijacking techniques and founded a terrorist organization, Yasser Arafat. Other notables recognized for their 'peace' accomplishments...

a few past 'peace' prize winners...

Woodrow Wilson ['progressive' tyrant and OWG hawk - the organization loved him]
United Nations [Children's Fund]
International Labour Organization
Amnesty International
United Nations [Commissioner for Refugees]
International Physicians for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons
United Nations [Peacekeeping Forces]
Mikhail Gorbachev**
Yasser Arafat
International Campaign to Ban Landmines [with no regard to the violence they prevent]
United Nations [Kofi Annan]
Jimmy Carter
International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei [Iran's perennial enabler]
United Nations [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Al Gore]
United Nations [ Special Envoy at the Kosovo status, Kalevi Ahtisaari]
Barack Obama

** Note Gorbachev's 'award' was in 1990 - But Ronald Reagan, generally credited with (at the time we believed - liberal democrats were sure quick to spend the 'peace dividends') ending the Cold War, which frightened generations and took billions to conclude -- never mentioned.

And with Obama, even the attempt at tenuous claims of 'accomplishments' has been replaced with reward for proper adherence to ideology .

Worse than worthless, it adds claimed (by liberal news orgs. quick to do so) legitimacy to an ultra-liberal organization who's primary target has become America's independent sovereignty form the global socialism they want ruled from the United Nations.]
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image toon = 1st owg intl = Nobel = cracker jack prize

The Politicization of Peace

Subject: txt 1st intl owg -
Few spectacles so clearly show the politicization of life than the surreally silly award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Obama.

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AP: 'Public Seems Skeptical of Obama's Nobel Win'

Subject: txt 1st owg intl msm - AP
The Associated Press took to the streets of Washington, D.C. and Chicago this morning for reaction from everyday citizens about President Obama's Nobel Prize win. All but one of the featured interviewees expressed at least some skepticism about the president's worthiness to receive the award. And no, it seems none of these men (and woman) on the street are rabid right-wingers [on DC streets?]

"Video: Public Seems Skeptical of Obama's Nobel Win."

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Shock at Obama's Nobel Angers Daily Kos: 'America Oblivious To Its Reign of Terror'

Subject: txt libs bdd -

If you must


[Meanwhile, in our professional media...]
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Newsweek: President Obama Deserves The Nobel Peace Prize

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ABC: Obama Nobel Win Is ‘Olympic Gold of International Diplomacy'

Subject: txt 1st owg intl msm -

[I agree; it says volumes about 'international diplomacy']

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CNN: Nobel Prize an 'A' for Effort, Could Help Pres. With Health Care

Subject: txt 1st hcare msm -

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ABC’: ‘Humble’ Obama Won Nobel Prize Because He ‘Inspires’

Subject: txt 1st msm bias owg intl -

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[And then there's our governments classy reaction...

{President Obama exempted, as his statements we ok if it was truly a surprise to him}...]
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White House: Scarborough 'A-Hole' For Mocking Nobel

Subject: txt 1st intl owg msm libs reps admin -

[But they're not attacking dissenting opinion - that's the other guys who do that...]

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State Department; classless

Subject: txt bbro intl -
This really is boorish and quite revealing of the bureaucratic mind. Our State Department's response to Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize showed some shocking disrespect for the office of the presidency - which shows you the contempt the permanent bureaucracy views elected officials:

In a clear dig at former President George W. Bush, a State Department spokesman compared President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize to the flying footwear his predecessor faced in Iraq.

"From our standpoint, you know, we think that this gives us a sense of momentum ... when the United States has accolades tossed its way, rather than shoes," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters on Friday.

Technically speaking, that shoe was also thrown at the State Department since George Bush was the head of government and State a part of his administration.

But it is typical that lifer-bureaucrats see themselves an a separate power center in Washington and not part of any administration - at least when they disagree with the president.

Then, they're doing all they can to obstruct the elected leader of the nation in carrying out his wishes; never mind that's what they're supposedly there for.

You State Department guys; stay classy.

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['MSM' was already off the chart.]
image toon - 1st intl owg = Dollar and Nobel prize values plummet