It Matters 101710

Face the Nation                                                 80.0%

Fox News Sunday                                             79.6%

Meet the Press                                                  78.33%

This Week with Christiane Amanpour           75.0%

The rankings are by the percent of the programs not containing commercials.

This has been a wild weekend for the Sunday talk shows. The bias of some of the hosts was on full display.

Face the Nation. Mr. Schieffer began the show by asking, “Are the two sides going to find a way to work together or will there be deeper gridlock?”  The interviews were Former Governor Howard Dean MD and South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham.  Nothing very dramatic or informative came out of this week’s show.  Mr. Dean did say that he considered President obama to be a centrist. The panel discussion was also rather uneventful with Liz Cheney offering that “fundamental values are not fringe.”  Mr. Schieffer ended the show with a fitting and well done reflection of the autumn season.

Fox News Sunday. A rather tame show today for folks who may have been expecting a bit more fireworks this close to election.  Mr. Wallace began the show with an interview of Republican Senator Cornyn of Texas and Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri. Senator Cornyn said he felt the election would be a referendum on the President.  Senator McCaskill concentrated her comments on how extreme the new Republicans appear to be. She felt that the Republican party is not welcoming to moderates.  When Chris Wallace asked her if she felt the Democrats would move to the center, she evaded the issue and changed the topic.  Chris Wallace then interviewed Carly Fiorina, the Republican candidate for senate from California.  Senator Boxer was also invited to appear on the program but she declined to come.  This ended up being a contentious interview.  Wallace asked Fiorina  that since she was in favor of extending the Bush tax cuts, that would cost $4 trillion dollars,  where was she going to get that money to pay for the cuts.  I was very disappointed with Mr. Wallace.  I don’t know where he got the $4 trillion dollar figure  and why he kept demanding to know where she would get $4 trillion to pay for the “tax cut.”  That entire argument is misguided since extending the Bush “tax cuts” are  actually only voting to keep taxes stable rather than allow taxes to increase after January 1.  Since it is safe to assume the $4 trillion figure is not for a one year period then spending cuts to match that  amount would not  be needed in one year.  Mr. Wallace played some gotcha interviewing here and I did not like it. Wallace went on to ask her what was one specific entitlement cut she would make and Ms. Fiorina outlined a process for evaluating many proposals and then determining which would be the best option for Medicare and Social Security.  The panel discussion said that obama might change his ways but  that it remains to be seen.  The publications referenced in this program were: The Washington Post, Reno Gazette Journal, New York Times Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle, and LA Times.

Meet the Press. Today’s program was one of the most flagrant examples of biased journalism that I have witnessed on television. David Gregory smirked and insulted his way to one of the most pathetically biased performances ever. I will provide an edited version of my post later in the week. During the “debate”  Mr. Gregory  asked Mr. Buck,  Do you think homosexuality is a choice? After Mr. Buck explained his position Gregory smirked and then asked Senator Bennett, “Is he out of the mainstream?”  That is shameful!!!!!! Publications referenced in this program included: The NY Times Magazine, Time,  and  The Denver Post.

This week with Christiane Amanpour.   Ms. Amanpour began the show with ” …and at the top of the News this week Tea Party Politics in Delaware.”  There was a low key round table discussion of the Delaware senatorial race.  The low light was when Meghan McCain proclaimed Christine O donnell is a “nut job.”  Ms. McCain went on to blast O donnell for her lack of experience and lack of accomplishments.  Note to Ms McCain: your accomplishments are not extensive yet either, and if you father were not the last Republican Presidential Nominee your opinion would not be sought.  (FYI: Ted Kennedy won his first term in the senate at the same age as Ms O donnell  and his only accomplishment at that time was he was the President’s younger brother.)  The second part of this program was a real tragedy. Maria Shriver came on attempting to make Alzheimer’s a political issue. Families who have a family member with this dreaded disease are effected greatly. However, Maria came on campaigning for more federal benefits for various leaves and hinted that this disease affects women more than men. This disease affects people.  Maria Shriver on this program spoke of how her four brothers help care for her father.  The topic was introduced by Laura Bush  as she recalled a bitter sweet memory of her dad when he was battling the disease.  It is not right to try to make this disease a gender issue.   People are affected by this tragic disease, not just women.  Ms. Amanpour on the Sunday funnies played a disgusting clip of Jimmy Fallon putting ,via computer enhancement, gay pride clothing on Mr. Paladino. Christiane thought that was funny. Ms Amanpour continues to flail away with her glasses.  She took her glasses off and on and waved them around at least 10 times. I do wish she would wear contacts.  Publications referenced were: The NY Times Magazine and Time Magazine.

It Matters 101510

Today is Friday so important announcements were made by the White House.  The federal government for FY10 will have a deficit of $1,290,000,000,000.  I am sure if the deficit was less than a trillion dollars it would not have been announced on a Friday. Yesterday, Thursday 10/14  the program The View Had Bill O’Reilly on the program as a guest. The discussion on the couch came to the “ground zero mosque.”  Mr. O’Reilly stated that Muslims killed the people on 911. Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar became so enraged they stomped off the stage. Show host and matron Barbara Walters chastised them for doing so and got the ladies back on the set.

The Joy Behar Show. Ms. Behar’s program today shows how radically vile she is. I usually do not watch her program on The Headline News Network, (and now I know why.) but I watched last night to see her reaction to the O’Reilly incident.  Behar began her show talking about the rescue of the miners in Chile. Ms. Behar would not allow herself to be happy about the rescue but  rather she felt compelled to crack an unfunny joke saying:” I had no idea Tiger Wood was in Chile”. Behar was alluding to the one miner whose mistress rather than his wife greeted him when he came to the surface. The program’s crawler had a show icon of Miners and Mistresses interchanging with the Joy Behar Show icon. Mistress or mistresses was spoken or in print 41 times in the programs first 433 seconds. That is almost one mention every 10 seconds. Behar was determined to make her point. I am just not sure what the point was.  Behar instead of celebrating the miracle of survival and rescue of these men choose to dwell on the personal situation on this one miner. Behar made no mention of the faith of the miners.  Behar probably felt the miners having faith was not good for a laugh.

Behar then proceeded to discuss Bill O’Reilly’s appearance on The View. Behar began by saying O’Reilly’s comments about Muslims was hate speech.  Jay Thomas, an alleged actor, was on the program  had the class to call O’Reilly a spineless puke. That would be a pretty good put down for a 12 year old boy. Behar went on to say when Christine O donnell referred to Marx she wondered if Christine O’donnell was referring to Groucho, Zeppo or Harpo. Behar then had Jesse Ventura come on to the program and Jesse mentioned that Muslims DID kill people on 911. Ventura also called O’Reilly a spineless puke, and then went on to call Beck, Hannity and O’Reilly the three stooges and that Beck has to be Curley’s son.  Ventura’s then enlightened us by saying that the Democrats and Republicans are like pro wrestling, they say they hate each other but afterwards they all go out and have dinner together. Wow, that would sure be terrible if our political leaders would try to get along. Is it any wonder Jesse couldn’t get much done while governor here in Minnesota? Behar is a very unpleasant, bigoted hateful woman who exemplifies why there is such a divide in this country.

Ann Coulter.. What’s up with her? Last Saturday(10/9) on the Huckabee Show Ann tried to defend why she called Huckabee a liberal Christian. I am sure she meant that is some sarcastic way, but she was not able to explain her logic on that topic. It did upset Huckabee and the rest of the remainder of the interview did not take place.

It Matters 101010

Face the Nation                                                     77.5%

This Week w/Christiane Amanpour                  76.25%

Meet The Press                                                     75.5%

Fox News Sunday                                                 79.3%

This week none of the major Sunday talk shows had 80% content ( the Percent of the show not  containing commercials.)

Fox News Sunday with fill in host Bret Baier was another fairly boring show. Congresswoman Schultz continued the Democratic mantra that Republicans want to privatize social security, (when President Bush merely suggested privatization it was never formally presented in legislation.) She  inferred that Republicans having tea party support is a bad thing. The Congresswoman had the standard talking points list of alleged Republican faults, but she did not promote the accomplishments of her party, such as obama care and finance reform.

Meet the Press Mr. Gregory hosted an in house debate between the two Illinois Senate candidates.  Mr. Gregory was as impartial as he has ever been on this program.  The debate was highlighted by questions of Mr. Giannoulias’ loans to organized crime figures and Congressman Kirk’s exaggerations of his military service.  The most telling part of the “debate” was when Gregory asked both candidates to name two things where you differ with your party. Mr. Giannoulias ignored the question and continued to attack Kirk. David Gregory ended the program with a short political forum/round table with Joe Klein from New York Times and Peggy Noonan from The Wall Street Journal.  While the program was one of the more even handed programs NBC has put forward in a long time, the advertising on the early morning rerun on MSNBC had two commercials for a company called on line booty call. NBC has had a policy of not running pro life advertising but they allow their primary weekend interview program to be sponsored by on line bootycall.com.  Online booty call ends their ad by saying marriage is the number one cause of divorce. That is what NBC allows to advertise on their primary news show.

This week with Christiane Amanpour. Christiane said she had to go to Connecticut to see why the state has become a key state in this years elections. Ms. Amanpour hosted ABC’s version of a debate for the Connecticut Senate seat. The debate was marked more by Ms. Amanpour’s bias and manipulation of the discussion rather than any moderating of what was said. Ms Amanpour asked Mrs. McMahon what she would do if elected, McMahon replied: I would freeze government hiring, stop raises for government employees and use unspent stimulus money to pay down the debt. Ms. Amanpour interrupted at that point and said: ” so you have no specifics.” Nowhere in the “debate” was Blumenthal’s mess of an answer(from a previous debate) to the question of how do you create a job ever mentioned.  Ms. Amanpour continued the show by debating rather than interviewing Christine LaGarde, The Minister of Economic Affairs, Industry and Employment of France. Ms. Amanpour was actually offended that any country would consider reducing spending rather than continue stimulus spending to recover economically. The highlight of the panel discussion was when Paul Krugman from the New York Times, mentioned “this basically centrist moderate President we have.”  Krugman was actually referring to President obama. Surprisingly, that statement was not challenged. George Will must have been either bored or figured objecting was a waste of time.  I do wish Ms. Amanpour could either wear her glasses, take them off or wear contacts. Nine times she waved her glasses around in the process of putting them on or taking them off.  There is little pretense of this program being anything but overtly leftist.  The three comedy snippets this week that Ms. Amanpour played were by Stephen Colbert, David Letterman and Bill Maher.  (It is amazing anyone still considers Bill Maher a comedian.) Ms. Amanpour did not mention last week or in this program the statement from Anjen Coudry that the flag of Islam will someday fly over the White House.  That sure makes the point there is nothing to fear from Islam. This one time decent show has become a left wing cheer leading exercise.

Face the Nation. This week was Mr. Schieffer’s most honest and least biased presentation in a long time. Mr. Schieffer asked David Axelrod for proof of the charges the Chamber of Commerce is using foreign funds in campaigns. Mr. Axelrod basically said that the Chamber needs to prove it hasn’t done so.  Neal Sheppard writes:

“The New York Times looked into the Chamber specifically and said the Chamber really isn’t putting foreign money into the campaign,” said the Face the Nation host.“This part about foreign money, that appears to be peanuts,” chided Schieffer. When Axelrod continued to press the issue, Schieffer said almost laughing, “If the only charge, three weeks into the election that the Democrats can make is that somehow this may or may not be foreign money coming into the campaign, is that the best you can do?”Mr. Schieffer concluded his interview by asking if obama and Boehner would jointly pledge to stop smoking do you think the President would join him in a campaign like that? Axelrod answered by saying we wagged a campaign to get the FDA to stop tobacco advertising to children. Schieffer then interviewed Ed Gillespie, and got Gillespie’s view point on the charges of undisclosed funds in the campaign. Gillespie was given the time to speak about the vast amounts of undisclosed fund obama received in the 2008 Presidential election. Mr. Schieffer gave both sides a shot a presenting their side of the issue. One of the better  CBS programs in a long time.

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Fox News Sunday                                            80.8%

Face The Nation                                               73.3%

This week w/ Christiane Amanpour             69.3%

Meet The Press took this week off so the other shows went their separate ways without the big  (smirk) competition from Mr. Gregory.

Fox came in first place with 80.8% content.  Chris was moderator between Rand Paul and Mr. Conway in their national “debate.”The debate from Louisville  was for the open Senate seat.  Neither candidate was overly impressive and I was actually bored waiting for something memorable to happen.  Fox’s well balanced (politically)  panel had no spark of controversy either.  Overall  a rather boring hour this week.

Face the Nation had 73.3% of its time with some content.  Bob Schieffer  toward the end of the show said: “ The last couple of weeks we have been focusing on the tea parties and some Republicans on this broadcast.  Today we will let the Democrats have their side. Two weeks ago Bob had former President Bill Clinton on for more than half of the show and he had Michael Gerson from the Washington Post and Bill Maher on the panel. Hardly a Republican line up. This week Bob did challenge Senator Bernie Sanders of VT when Sanders spouted off that the Republicans DO NOT want America to succeed. Sanders continued his rant by saying that (obama) he has taken on the major issues. He has restored our standing internationally. (Senator, having France tell us that the US is spending wildly is restoring our international standing?) Bob had Governors Rendell and Richardson on his democratic pep rally also. Bob then went to a panel discussion where  the one conservative person Bob announced as on the show Dan Bartlett was not given air time. Bob had Jamal Simmons a CBS Democratic Strategist on. Mr. Simmons described the Republican Pledge to America as” 20 pages of it are pictures and big words.”  I guess that is his effort to fairly analyze the political scene. I am sure CBS will benefit from his razor sharp insight.  That was a really sad comment on what used to pass for a major news network.

This Week with Christiane Amanpour was a special broadcast devoted to answering the question Should Americans fear Islam.  The yes side was represented by Rev. Franklin Graham, Robert Spencer, (founder of stop islamification of America) and Peter Gadiel, who lost his son on 911. The three no people were Donna Marsh O’Connor, who lost a daughter on 911, Daisy Kahn, the wife of the Iman behind the ground zero mosque and Azar Nafisis a author/activist according to ABC. During the program Ms. Amanpour brought into the conversation from remote locations Reza Alslan from the Daily Beast, Anjen Choudry, Ayan Hirsi Ali a former Muslim and Brad Garrett an ABC employee who was formerly a FBI agent.   The program had a lot of heated exchanges, but other than calling people who are opposed to the Muslim mosque/center or whatever it is, islamaphobes, nothing was settled.  The question put to Ms. Amanpour that just because Muslims have the right to build on that location does that make it the right thing to do.  Ms. Amanpour completely ignored that question.  No mention was made of the fact that Pope John Paul intervened in a situation is Poland where some nuns were building a convent close to the Auschwitz prison site. Local people were upset over this and the pope requested that the sisters consider building on a different site.  The sisters agreed. This program did show through the rhetoric of Anjen Choudry how extreme some members of Islam can be. Ms. Amanpour has her view point and through all the glasses waving  she did not and does not hear the pain and discomfort it is causing Americans. That fact does not fit Ms. Amanpour’s point of view. I am not sure if she cares.

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Face The Nation                                                20:55 content     68.5%

Meet The Press                                                 45.0   content     75.0%

Fox News Sunday                                             46:40 content     77.6%

This Week w/ Christiane Amanpour              47.0   content     78.3%

The Sunday shows had several “hosts” go beyond hosting again this week.  So what else is new?

This Week with Christiane Amanpour had the highest content time this week  78.3 (% of time not in commercials..unofficial stat) Ms. Amanpour makes no bones about the fact that she is a true liberal woman and holds conservative people, Republicans in particular, in utter contempt.  When the “Sunday funnies” portion of the program was on she laughed out loud at a Palin joke. (I have never noticed her laughing at  jokes about the current President.)  While speaking to her first guest Ms. Amanpour gushed:”People don’t appreciate some of the amazing legislative agenda he has accomplished.” Ms Amanpour while interviewing Senator McConnell asked concerning extending the “Bush tax cuts: ”  Are you REALLY going to do that?”  Ms. Amanpour had a very respectful interview with Queen Rania of Jordan.  The Queen is a very dignified, elegant and well spoken representative of her faith and nation.  Jordan is well represented by this thoughtful woman.  My question is why if the Queen, a Muslim woman, can dress in respectful and stylish garb without a burka or veil, why can’t muslim women who live in this country dress in a similar way?

Fox News Sunday had 77.6% content. It was a rather low key affair this week. Mr. Wallace had a rather mundane conversation with Congressmen Boehner and McCarthy of California. (McCarthy  is the principal author of the Pledge to America.) Mr. Wallace had an eleven minute interview with Majority leader Congressman Steny Hoyer. The Congressman admitted that Mr. Colbert testifying before Congress was inappropriate.  During his eleven minute interview Congressman Hoyer blamed President Bush for various things 4 times, talked about the deep hole we are in two times and said our record is better than what we inherited twice.  That was about all the time the Congressman had. The panel discussion was very bland.

Meet The Press was down to 75% content. David Gregory abandoned his attempts to stop smirking and openly chuckled and sneered at Congressman Pence. Gregory began the show saying;” Will the house FALL TO THE GOP.” When Congressman Pence was explaining Republican ideas on spending, Mr. Gregory interjected that the trillion dollars Congressman Pence claimed they would reduce the budget :”That really doesn’t tackle the deficit completely.” (personal note to Mr. Gregory.) a trillion dollars here a trillion dollars there and pretty soon we will be talking real money! NBC had a distinguished panel discussing K-12 education in this country. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Michelle Rhee Washington DC School Superintendent were included.  It was interesting to note in all the time NBC devoted to education no one on the panel mentioned the voucher program that was STOPPED in Washington DC. The program of giving public school children a chance to attend private schools was successful and people begged for the the program to be continued. No mention was made of Charter schools either.  Two topics that should have been mentioned in any honest discussion of public education.

Face The Nation is last in content  at 68.5% (due partially to its half hour format vs the other shows all being one hour.) Mr. Schieffer demonstrates either his lack or understanding or his contempt  of the Tea Party, when he begins the show saying: ” What’s the tea party all about?”  Schieffer asked candidate Marco Rubio: “ You preach fiscal responsibility, your opponent says you have been deeply in debt.”  Mr. Schieffer also accused Rubio of putting personal expenses on his Republican credit card. Rubio said those charges were false and he did purchase his homes with a mortgage and had student loans. Mr. Schieffer asked Sal Russo of tea party express fame: “ no rich person in the shadows?” Bob kind of overlooks Mr. Soros, when speaking of rich guys in the shadows.

NO MENTION WAS MADE OF TRISH DUGUAY’S DEATH THIS WEEKEND on any of the Sunday news shows. I guess starving and dehydrating a woman to death is no big deal.!

It Matters 91910

This week with Christian Amanpour        content  80.75

Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace      content  79%

Meet the Press                                            content  77.4%

Face The Nation                                          content  74.8%

This week with Christian Amanpour was an exercise in watching a television personality attempt to fill the role of Secretary of State. Ms. Amanpour feels she has a better understanding of foreign policy issues than Secretary Clinton or Iran’s President Ahmadinejad.  Ms. Amanpour tried to negotiate the Palestinian view point regarding West Bank settlements and pressed Mrs. Clinton to comment on specifics of the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Mrs. Clinton did not take the bait and handled herself as a seasoned statesperson.

Ms. Amanpour allowed  the world a glimpse into how unreasonable the Iranian President is.  President Ahmadinejad asked Ms. Amanpour if she wanted to continue to lecture him or did she want him to answer.The ABC panel spent about 15 minutes discussing the Delaware primary. Tom Ross the Delaware GOP leader said he is working to get his senate candidate elected. Ms. Amanpour, in a well intentioned move played an appeal from the other two “hikers” mothers for their release from Iran.  The question  Ms. Amanpour, nor anyone else in the media asks is: What were these kids doing taking a hike in Iraq anyway?  Iraq is not the most stable nation in the world.  There are plenty of places in the United States  available for hiking  with much better security and scenery than are present on the Iraq/Iran  frontier.

Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace had Christine O’Donnell as a scheduled guest, but just as with Face the Nation, Ms. O’Donnell canceled her appearance. Karl Rove repeated his analysis of her personal issues. Wallace also interviewed Joe Miller and asked him about Lisa Murkowsky’s write  in campaign. Mr. Miller was disappointed but managed to make his answers sound more like a stump speech than an interview.

Meet the Press was a very low key and boring presentation today. David Gregory has made a very deliberate effort to cut down on his smirks and it shows. Mr. Gregory spent 20 minutes having General Colin Powell explain why he still considers himself a Republican, even though he doesn’t agree with Republican philosophy on life issues and he did endorse obama for President.  President Clinton, wanting to appear statesman like, took his shot at President Bush and complained about Mr. Gingrich.  The replayed version of the show on MSNBC included a couple of advertisements for a company called Online Booty calls.com.  NBC , while turning down pro life ads is sinking to new lows with such advertising.

Face The Nation allowed Mr. Schieffer to demonstrate his bewilderment of the tea party movement. Mr. Schieffer in his opening remarks said: ”Not since Alice in Wonderland has the tea party gotten the attention its getting these days.” Then when introducing President Clinton Mr. Schieffer mentioned “this whole tea  party thing.”  Mr. Schieffer belabored the point that Christine O’Donnell had canceled her appearance on his show.  President Clinton during his segment did attack Republicans in general by saying “Inequity is increasing.. the revolt against bigness which in the case of the republicans is always directed at government rather than the private sector.” Mr. Schieffer ended the program by chiding Mr. Gibbs for releasing a snarky press release about Mr. Boehner’s comments the previous week. Schieffer indicated that the obama administration missed a chance to work with Republicans and get something done.

It Matters 91210

Sunday 9/12 talk shows

Meet the press          46:20/60   77.16%

This week                  47/60         78.33%

Face the Nation       24/30         80%

Fox                             48./60        80%

These statistics are the amount of programming time per hour or half hour the shows present.

Meet The Press with 77% content time. David Gregory is doing better personally as he only smirked 4 times during the entire show. David Gregory referred to the Holy Quran. I assume Mr. Gregory will refer to the Christian scripture as the Holy Bible next time.  Mr. Gregory gave David Axelrod  a minute longer than he gave Mayor Giuliani. Mr. Axelrod recited the administration line on how many jobs have been gained in the last 8 months. The thing is if the economy has gained so many jobs then why did the unemployment rate go up? Axelrod made the prerequisite blame Bush comment and even blamed Greece for the US stock market. Mayor Giuliani discussed the NY mosque with Mr. Gregory. The panel included Reza Aslan, who said:”We do not define our constitutional rights by how they disturb people’s sensibilities.”  Mr. Aslan went on to call people who are against the Mosque saying “You are a Bigot” A sure way to lessen tensions.

This week with Christane Amanpour had 78% content time. Ms. Amanpour continues to distract us by taking her glasses off and on so much. Sunday she was restrained, only 8 times, but it is annoying. Austan Grolsbee spent his 7 minutes complaining about how Republicans are attacking the President’s new economic proposals. Mr. Grolsbee wants a continuation of class warfare by keeping the obama January tax increase on top income earners in tact.  Ms. Amanpour coached Imam Rauf on identifying the people who oppose this building project of his. Ms. Amanpour specifically suggested that Governor Palin is leading the wave of anti Muslim sentiment and violence in the country. Ms. Amanpour makes her liberal philosophy and disdain of Republicans and the Tea party very evident.

Face The Nation had 80% of its show in program content. Bob Schieffer used the program to launch a personal attack on Congressman Boehner. Schieffer hounded Boehner about holding the middle class tax hostage to the tax cut for the wealthy. After Mr. Schieffer finished badgering Boehner, he attacked the congressman about his smoking and Boehner accepting campaign contributions from tobacco companies. He then interviewed Congressman Ellison from here in Minnesota. Schieffer asked Congressman Ellison why people thought our president is a Muslim. Congressman Ellison never answered the question, swerving to discuss anti Muslim feelings. Bob Schieffer had an agenda to pursue against those people who dared to object to the mosque in New York and to blast Congressman Boehner over the President’s class warfare tax policy. It was painful to watch such blatant partisanship.

Fox News Sunday also had 80% of its possible air time filled with program content.  Austan Grolsbee in his second Sunday interview continued to complain about the deep economic hole President obama began with and how Greece/Europe’s economy has contributed to our slow growth and lack of job growth this summer. Mr. Grolsbee was asked about former budget director Peter Orzag’s editorial encouraging that tax cuts should be extended for all classes. That was explained away as being merely a political discussion.

It is such a shame that everyone who dares to speak against this mosque project is called Islamaphobic or a bigot or both.

It matters

Pastor Terry Jones has the right to burn the quran, just as much as Iman Rauf has the right to insult Americans by building a mosque blocks from the site of the world trade center.

PRESS Coverage

The story about Pastor Jones burning the quran will go away if the media merely refuses to cover the idiotic actions of this man who is seeking to extend his 15 minutes of fame.  The media, esp. ABC,CBS, NBC, CNN and Fox have IGNORED the March for Life the past several years. That is a major political event even larger, and more profound than what Glenn Beck did. However, since the marchers are peaceful, prayerful, non violent profilers, the event is not only not covered it is IGNORED.

Why can’t the major news media simply agree not to cover this lunatic?  His book burning would not be seen outside of his Florida parking lot and the harm he could possibly cause would be negated.

It matters

It matters

Labor day weekend has come and gone. The news shows were revealing.

The talk shows had the following % of content vs commercial in their programs this past weekend:

This week w/ Christiane Amanpour      82.5%

Fox News Sunday                                     80.8%

Meet the Press                                          80%

Face the Nation                                         73.3%

Ms. Amanpour continued with her unabashed secular/liberal style interviewing former Prime Minister Tony Blair. Her 14 minute interview of Mr. Blair was more a debate over the correctness of the war in Iraq and Blair’s relationship with both President Clinton and Bush.  Ms. Amanpour was nearly aghast when Blair after having been extensively questioned about his alcohol consumption said he his wife had got him to give up drinking for lent.  Just the vague reference of religion made Ms. Amanpour very uncomfortable and she concluded the interview shortly after that. The heavily liberal panel basically agreed that the President has problems communicating what he is doing.

Fox News Sunday was a very bland show.  The show did give both Senator McCain and Former VA Governor Cane an equal amount of time.

Meet The Press gave Senator Lindsey Graham about 14 minutes and David Plouffe, (President obama’s campaign manager) 16 and a half minutes. Senator Graham emphasized that tax cuts are needed by the entire nation.  Plouffe said obama is the person  “who is trying to reach out to the other side and who is trying to bring the spirit of debate and bipartisanship to Washington. Obama does not view it through the prism of politics.”  David  Gregory continued to smirk throughout both interviews.  At the beginning of the interview with Plouffe Gregory had a piece with NBC reporter Richard Engel on the Today show giving his opinion that Sadam Hussein was becoming more moderate and we would have already been finished with Afghanistan is we had not been diverted to Iraq. (curious how NBC has reporters on news shows giving editorial opinion.)  Gregory even included CNBC anchor Erin Burnett as one of his panelists.  Erin did advocate redistributing the tax revenue from the top income people.

Harry Smith as a fill in on Face the Nation had a very prominent guests with Laura Tyson, Gretchen Morgenson and Mark Zandi.  Tyson advocated using the tax increase on the wealthy to fund the tax cuts for everyone else. Harry asked Nancy Cordes:  Do democrats in private say people are fickle or obama is a break through activist and gee look at all we did in the last two years?  Harry couldn’t help wearing his obama cheerleading clothes today.

It matters

President obama, in another Friday announcement, made a statement today shortly after the unemployment rate for August was announced to have increased to 9.6%.  The President, took his customary blame Bush for the bad economy shot.

This announcement by the president was very confusing.

Unemployment Stats:

The President said:

1. “July numbers have been revised upwards to 107,000.. Now that’s positive news .””
2. The economy has produced 67,000 new jobs in August.

The President did not mention that the unemployment rate for August is 9.6%

Jobs Bill

The President said “I am calling on Congress to make passing A small business jobs bill its first order of business when it gets back into session later this month.” This bill is good for the economy, yet the Republicans in the senate have blocked this bill. A needless delay that has led small business owners across this country to put off hiring, put off expanding, put off plans that will make out economy stronger. There are certain measures that we know will advance the economy. This small business jobs bill is one of them. The president then told a reporter that:” I will be addressing a broader package of ideas next week.”

The President wants the “jobs bill” passed immediately, yet he will be addressing a broader package of ideas next week. So does the President want the jobs bill, or will the “jobs bill” be just another in a series of bills proposed to allegedly  create jobs?

The President is calling for middle class tax cuts, which means he wants tax increases for top income earners/job creators on January 1. This policy continues class warfare/envy between the affluent and the rest of the country.

Politics

Senator Ron Wyden (D OR)  has requested from HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius a waiver exempting Oregon from the mandates of the obamacare bill.

A political ad was run in the Chicago TV market asking Hillary Clinton to consider running against obama. Hmmmmmm.