"Smart Power, indeed:"
Is Hillary the Teflon Dame? "The enduring and inexplicable popularity of Hillary Clinton."
Is Hillary the Teflon Dame? "The enduring and inexplicable popularity of Hillary Clinton."
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Dem Rep threatens TV stations showing anti-Obamacare ad
Thomas Lifson Democrat Rep. Gary Peters is running for the Senate in Michigan and he doesn't like a political ad from Americans for Prosperity being shown on TV stations there. His attorneys at Perkins Coie have sent a letter to local television stations implying their licenses could be in jeopardy if they continue playing the ad.
"For the sake of both FCC licensing requirements and the public interest, your station should immediately require AFP to provide the factual documentation for its claims if you are going to continue airing this advertising...."
The ad (below) highlights the story of Julie Boonstra, who lost her existing health insurance plan thanks to Obamacare, and who says in the ad that her situation has gotten much worse thanks to the legislation Rep. Peters voted for and is defending. Read more:
While some are quoted challenging the ad, the fact remains, as Lifson writes:
1. Peters and other Democrats are terrified of being held responsible for health insurance troubles, so much so that they seek to stifle free speech on the subject.
2. Boonstra and other sick people are far more sympathetic figures than politicians defending Obamacare.
3. Whatever the math turns out to be for Boonstra's case, she has suffered serious disruption and uncertainty thanks to Obamacare's passage...
America's ruling class has been experiencing more pushback than usual lately. It just might be a harbinger of things to come.
USA Today "On Friday, after more public outrage, the Federal Communications Commission withdrew a plan to "monitor" news coverage at not only broadcast stations, but also at print publications that the FCC has no authority to regulate. The "Multi-Market Study of Critical Information Needs," or CIN (pronounced "sin") involved the FCC sending people to question reporters and editors about why they chose to run particular stories. Many folks in and out of the media found it Orwellian.
"How this program appeared was, like the DHS program, a bit of a mystery: FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai said: "This has never been put to an FCC vote; it was just announced." But the blowback was sufficient to stop it for now."
Related:
Don't track me, bro! The perils of tax by GPS. "A GPS-based tracking system appeals to the authorities for obvious reasons: It knows exactly how much you’ve driven, and in which states... It knows exactly how much, and where, you’ve driven. One of the great things about driving a car is the freedom that it involves, and part of that freedom is the ability to go anywhere without buying tickets, checking in, or otherwise operating under someone else’s nose.
"That freedom would disappear with a GPS-based mileage tax. "
How Americans can kill Obamacare, legalize pot: Column "Nobody is signing up, and everybody -- in Colorado,at least -- is smoking." ...
One need not have an actual conspiracy to achieve the practical effects of a conspiracy. More regimes have been brought, piecemeal, to their knees by what was once called 'Irish Democracy,' the silent, dogged resistance, withdrawal, and truculence of millions of ordinary people, than by revolutionary vanguards or rioting mobs.
"The greatest chance to get rid of Obamacare without Republicans keeping the House and winning a filibuster-proof Senate majority and the White House is to highlight just how bad Obamacare actually is and to offer more and more off-ramps for people to stay outside the exchanges." ...
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Plan to split California into six states closer to vote
The Democrats will not like this at all, and count on the Obama Administration to resist it.
USA Today "A plan to divide California into six states is one step closer to a vote.
"Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tim Draper got the go-ahead this week to collect signatures for his "Six Californias" plan, according to the California Secretary of State's Office.
"Draper needs more than 807,000 signatures of registered voters by July 18 to get his proposal on the November ballot.
" With 38 million people, California is too big and diverse to properly represent all of its residents, according to Draper's plan.
" 'Vast parts of our state are poorly served by a representative government dominated by a large number of elected representatives from a small part of our state, both geographically and economically," the plan says.
With the current structure, California is "ungovernable," Draper told USA TODAY Network."
FCC backs away from First Amendment-trashing survey
Thomas Lifson "As public outrage has built over an FCC plan to put monitors (or as Greta Van Susteren calls them, "spies") into newsrooms and ask questions about philosophy, news judgments, and fulfillment of what the government thinks are "critical information needs," the FCC has backed away. In an official statement from FCC Spokesperson Shannon Gilson full of mealy-mouthed self-justification: ".... Read more:
....Commissioner Ajit Pai, the hero of the story who blew the whistle on the Constitution-shredding venture with a Wall Street Journal op-ed, issued this statement: I welcome today's announcement that the FCC has suspended its "Multi-Market Study of Critical Information Needs," or CIN study. This study would have thrust the federal
government into newsrooms across the country, somewhere it just doesn't belong. The Commission has now recognized that no study by the federal government, now or in the future, should involve asking questions to media owners, news directors, or reporters about their practices. This is an important victory for the First Amendment. And it would not have been possible without the American people making their voices heard. I will remain vigilant that any future initiatives not infringe on our constitutional freedoms.
Let’s Save California Now! / Just a handful of legislative acts might still save California. Here are 12 brief examples:
"If we were to pass these laws, California would change overnight."
Government newsroom police in America: Is George Soros behind it?
Joseph Farah "How rotten is the moral soul of journalism in America today?
"It is so decayed, putrefied and morbidly disordered that there has been less than a whisper of concern expressed by the entire establishment media over the Orwellian plot by the Federal Communications Commission to place “researchers” in U.S. newsrooms to learn how editorial decisions are made.
"No concern.
...
"Forgive me as a 35-year veteran of American newsrooms if I toss my cookies over this breach of the sanctity of the free press.
"The very idea of journalists welcoming government bureaucrats into their newsrooms to spy is so outrageous it leaves me speechless. No so the overwhelming number of reporters, editors, producers and news executives who remain a part of what is rapidly becoming, as Rush Limbaugh caricatures it, “the state-run media.' ”
... "The media's hands-off policy with Soros is nothing new. While outlets such as Politico and NBC News obsess over every move made by the libertarian Koch brothers, Soros and his spider-web of influential left-wing political operations (Media Matters, Center for American Progress) almost never receive any kind of media scrutiny. A recent media study found that the ratio of references between Kochs' organizations and Soros' organizations, in news outlets that pose as objective, are literally hundreds to one. Politico actually has Ken Vogel, a former Soros employee, constantly harassing covering the Koch brothers."
....
"What might explain the media's silence is the looming specter of George Soros. History already proves the media has been reluctant to cross him. Apparently, even the idea of Soviet-style monitors looking over their shoulder couldn’t change that. CNS News helps to explain why:" ....
"Like Obamacare? Then you're going to love Obamanews - the exciting new FCC initiative to make sure that decision-making in the nation's newsrooms gets (ahem) "fixed" to assure that voters will hear only what they are supposed to hear." ...
Charles Krauthammer Destroys Global Warming Myths in 89 Seconds
On Fox News Special Report Friday, "columnist Charles Krauthammer questioned the “settled science” of global warming — an issue that is currently driving the President’s agenda.
"In a clip discovered by The Daily Caller, Krauthammer rails against the notion of “settled science,” noting that Isaac Newton’s laws were settled for 200 years before Albert Einstein turned them over.
"Speaking about the economic effects of climate change, Krauthammer noted that “all of this is driven by this ideology, which in it of itself is a matter of almost theology.' ”
The Strange Effects Of The Health Insurance 'Annual Fee' Tax
Forbes "The ACA’s individual tax penalty for not having health insurance is widely known. What is less well-known is that the ACA also imposed a tax that will fall on those who do buy health insurance. Recently, I examined this tax with an eye toward estimating how much this tax would increase average premiums. (The full report is here; a summary by Philip Klein of the Washington Examiner is here.)
....
"However, people who get their health insurance through an employer that does not self-insure will face the full burden of the tax, as will people who get coverage through the exchanges but are not eligible for subsidies. This isn’t just people with incomes too high to qualify for subsidies – it also includes people whose employers offer coverage to employees but not their families."
‘Communists!’ Howard Stern vows never to vote Dem again, even ‘if God becomes a Democrat’
BizPac Review ... "He described a phone conversation he’d had with his agent earlier on his Friday show to sidekick Robin Quivers.
“ 'I go, ‘That’s it!’” Stern said. “[I] go, ‘You know what Don, I’ve voted Republican and I’ve voted Democrat. I have vowed I will never vote for a Democrat again. I don’t give a [expletive] – no matter who they are. I don’t care if God becomes a Democrat.’ I said, ‘I backed Hillary Clinton, I backed Al Gore, I backed John Kerry. I am done with them.’”
Friday, February 21, 2014
Bush Tax Cuts Caused the Recession?
Michael Porfido "The Bush Tax cuts had the same effect on the economy that the Reagan, Kennedy, and Harding/Coolidge tax cuts had. They created sustained economic growth and jobs. The facts are as follows…
Year GDP Growth Rate Unemployment Rate
2003 2.5% 6.0%
2004 3.9% 5.5%
2005 3.2% 5.1%
2006 2.8% 4.6%
2007 2.0% 4.6%
...
"It is bad enough that the Democrats are trying to gain political advantage by ignoring facts. It is, however, unacceptable that people in the media would propagate this falsehood when the facts are easily available. The housing crisis caused the recession. Unqualified people were able to get mortgages for little or no money down.
Michael has been an editor and contributor at the website www.freemarketsfreepeople.net for over 2 years. He has over 20+ years of diverse business experience, from running complex operations where he managed hundreds of people, to starting and running small businesses such as www.realinterestfund.com. -
Reading list: Obama administration lays down IRS, picks up FCC for it's next choice of weapons
The Disintegration of the First Amendment "The Federal Communications Commission, not to be outdone, is in the process of putting “researchers” into newsrooms and editorial offices of media outlets with an agenda of using their coercive power over the broadcasting licenses of radio and television stations to push them toward covering certain content in a way pleasing to the government. With this Administration’s obsession with Rush Limbaugh, and its proven willingness to use government against its political opponents, can there be any doubt that stations broadcasting Rush will be first in line for special “researcher” attention?" Emphasis added.
Rick Manning is vice president of public policy and communications for Americans for Limited Government.
Rush Limbaugh: Journalists Won't Put Up with Regime Monitors in Newsrooms? Don't Be So Sure... "All of this extreme outrageous stuff, like when known communists end up being hired in the Regime. "Does Obama know? How'd they sneak that guy by?' "
Wall Street Journal; Why is the agency studying 'perceived station bias' and asking about coverage choices? ...."Though the Fairness Doctrine ostensibly aimed to increase the diversity of thought on the airwaves, many stations simply chose to ignore controversial topics altogether, rather than air unwanted content that might cause listeners to change the channel."
Mr. Pai is a commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission
Krauthammer’s Take: FCC Newsroom Study Latest ‘Trample on What Rights are Remaining’ "Before it goes any further, Krauthammer called on the House of Representatives to immediately pass a bill denying any federal funding to the study."
New Obama initiative tramples First Amendment protections "The initiative, known around the agency as "the CIN Study" (pronounced "sin"), is a bit of a mystery even to insiders. "This has never been put to an FCC vote, it was just announced," says Ajit Pai, one of the FCC's five commissioners (and one of its two Republicans). "I've never had any input into the process," adds Pai, who brought the story to the public's attention in a Wall Street Journal column last week." (Posted above)
... "And what will these FCC monitors ask when they do get access? Here’s the list of questions to station owners, managers, or HR:
• What is the news philosophy of the station?
• Who is your target audience?
• How do you define critical information that the community needs?
• How do you ensure the community gets this critical information?
• How much does community input influence news coverage decisions?
• What are the demographics of the news management staff (HR)?
• What are the demographics of the on air staff (HR)?
• What are the demographics of the news production staff (HR)?
....
"The Obama governing philosophy combines the regulatory state with an intolerance of dissent. Taken together, this means an extreme level of government intrusion into private activity. Any entity whose business touches the federal government (and given the vast scope of the government, it touches and regulates virtually every entity) is deemed an open book for bureaucratic inquiry. The chilling effect is obvious and broadcasters decline to participate at their own risk."
"Like Obamacare? Then you're going to love Obamanews - the exciting new FCC initiative to make sure that decision-making in the nation's newsrooms gets (ahem) "fixed" to assure that voters will hear only what they are supposed to hear."
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