CNBC Joins Media Gutter with MSNBC over Bailout Bill

History was made tonight as the Senate voted 74-25 for the Wall Street bailout bill which was really a Main Street rescue effort passed with overwhelming bi-partisan support. Apparently CNBC got tired of being the only news unit in the NBC family not directly associated with the anti-Republican avalanche of distorted media coverage and took action to claim their rightful place in the media gutter. In the process they embarrassed whatever Democrat and Republican friends they may have had.

Tonight as the US Senate was in the process of voting CNBC decided to offer live coverage of the activity and promptly demonstrated that for all their claims of being the leading financial network, they are little more than a bunch of whining fools.

For two hours tonight the so called anchors of CNBC did nothing but ridicule the US Constitutional process and the Senate in particular with the most ridiculous comments and observations on the Senate procedures ever presented on television. Their total confusion over tax extensions versus pork barrel legislation was astounding and reflected their degree of total misunderstanding.

GE, the owner of CBNC, should be ashamed of the attacks by their staff on the deliberations, the content of the bill that will keep them all in business, and the procedures of the Congress displayed by their gang of children on the air.

Despite the goading by the maniacs clearly jealous of the leftist credentials of Keith Obermann and Chris Matthews on bedfellow MSNBC, at least a few of the anchors resist the urging to look like fools and kept a sense of dignity when discussing Congress and the money that will save their beloved Wall Street.

People like Becky Quick, Erin Burnett and Maria Bartiromo continue to offer objective news reporting and as a result they make the others seem like kids in a schoolyard brawl. What a pity. But those like Mark Haines, Charles Gasparino and Melissa Francis become blabbering fools in the heat of the television lights.




I wrote that the arrogance of Wall Street and the media is one of the biggest roadblocks to the federal government saving their elitist butts. Well Mark Haines demonstrated over and over again what happens when a network turns a disrespectful bellowing, blabbering idiot loose on the airways. Surely such anti-government antics and lack of understanding or appreciation of the American political process as that demonstrated by the CNBC crew should lead them to the cellar of the cable ratings along with their fellow MSNBC socialists.

Liberal Media's Code of Omertà Fails to Silence Sarah Palin

The seemingly secret pact between the liberal media and the Obama campaign to block all news coverage and reference to Sarah Palin is failing if we can believe our eyes. It is failing because MSNBC, ABC, The New York Times and the host of other left-leaning media just don't get it, the people of America are not going to let the media tell them who to support.

This past weekend Sarah Palin held a rally in Florida, one of the critical swing states, and there was a virtual media wall of silence about the event. MSNBC had the audacity to only report Palin said "Goodbye to thanks but no thanks," a direct reference to the Alaska bridge to nowhere. Of course MSNBC would have been a little more honest if they said in the end Palin refused to approve the project. They might have been more honest yet if they told you Obama and Biden both voted for the bridge to nowhere but that is the truth and we know the American people aren't ready for the truth.

Not a word was mentioned in the MSNBC report about the rally in Florida, a rally in which the largest crowd to ever witness a vice presidential candidate gathered to see Palin. According to the local Fire Chief Mike Tucker over 60,000 people attended. Only Obama's convention speech drew more and the Obama campaign spent over $8 million to stage that event. Sarah Palin didn't have top spend millions of dollars to draw a crowd. The media did nothing to help make people aware of the event or let the rest of the world know what did happen.

Did I mention that Obama is running for president? The 60,000 screaming, chanting fans of Sarah Palin know all about the liberal media's policy of Omertà and how it is intended to help the liberal Democratic ticket. The people responded by turning out in record numbers. Now that is hard news. The idiotic efforts of the media to dictate the results of the election and protect the leftist movement in America so they can bring about a more socialist government will backfire and their coveted policy of Omertà is going to be drowned in a chorus of chants, "Sarah, Sarah."

MSNBC Keith Olbermann Meltdown

One of the more interesting sideshows of the DNC and RNC Conventions has been the on air meltdown of MSNBC Anchor Keith Olbermann. Olberman is a reporter so caught up in the socialist platform that he wants the network to be known as the Obama network, he wants all Republicans banned from the network, and well, NBC better have a room reserved for him at the psycho ward because that will be the next stop on his notorious career.

MSNBC, the 24 hour a day flagship of NBC is rapidly distinguishing itself not for quality reporting but for rampant infighting, over-inflated egos and a new socialist agenda. The people know it as the network that has watched their Nielsen ratings disintegrate in just two weeks. Expecting to lead political coverage of the conventions, it took just two days for the floor to drop out from MSNBC as they finished dead last in convention ratings.

The on air meltdown was led by MSNBC host Keith Olbermann with more than a little help from analyst Chris Matthews. Olbermann and his open warfare tried to stop Republicans from being part of his news show and part of the panel of analysts, and even tried to stop Tom Brokaw, the last ray of objective hope for NBC network from appearing.

Olbermann complained constantly about his lack of security protection in Denver as if anyone had threatened the big mouth. When he got to St. Paul things deteriorated. His paranoia reached a peak when the first day of the convention was cancelled because of the hurricane in Louisiana and Keith fled back to NYC. He then refused to return to the convention saying he would stay in New York and cover hurricane Hanna which never hit NYC.

So there he was, hosting St. Paul convention coverage from NYC, presiding over the greatest collapse in ratings from week to week possibly in history. His ceaseless rantings about the Republicans and raging about Sarah Palin never let up and when he told his national audience that the film honoring the 9-11 victims at the GOP convention was in such poor taste that he had to apologize to the world that his network even allowed it to air, well that about did it.

Now that Sarah has powered the GOP into the lead Olbermann must be in a straight jacket and today NBC finally stopped trying to cover up for the idiot and announced Olbermann and Matthews would no longer be part of network political coverage during the 2008 election.

Good thing too as the network was in danger of being known as the Obama Network and slipping from liberal to socialist to NBC, the National Bureau of Communism? This is exactly what is meant by the elitist liberal media.

Whew!

Newest Olympic Heroes USA Style

So far the Olympics have been long on advertising and short on heroes but two genuine articles have emerged from the sports competition to capture the fancy of the world. Of course there is everyone's hero Michael Phelps closing in on a bevy of records from most gold ever to most gold in a year. This golden boy is about to knock the cash register off the wall as over $100 million in sponsorships will be collected if he wins the last three races.



Now for two reasons Phelps, the newest Greek God, has a Coltons Point connection as he is a native Marylander and his sports management firm, Octagon Athletes and Personalities from DC, NYC and the world has a Coltons Point resident doing all his graphic art work from logos to birthday cards, posters to movie covers. Guess who?

Our other hero, regardless of how she does in the individual competition, is Shawn Johnson from Iowa, which just happens to be my home state as well. We have Michael Phelps at 6 feet 4 inches and Shawn Johnson at 4 feet 9 inches which just goes to show you that heart has no relationship to physical size.

Here is what the national media is saying about the power packed pixie from Iowa.

Chicago Sun Times

Johnson is Little Miss Perfect
August 8, 2008

BY Greg Couch Sun Times Columnist

BEIJING — Shawn Johnson sat straight with her fingers clasped on the table directly in front of her, and her smile big, straight and never wavering.

"In the end," she said, "if I give everything I have, I’ll be happy."

In every Olympics, we look for some tiny sweetheart to fall in love with.
Johnson is it.

She is the American gymnast, who not only is favored to win the all-around competition, but also possibly take down China’s team in the most hotly contested U.S.-China team matchup in the Olympics.

That’s right, all 4-9 and 90 pounds of this 16-year-old, probably the toughest Olympian pound-for-pound, is set to take down the big bad guys. This is a Wheaties box cover waiting to happen.

"It’s such an honor to know that USA (gymnastics) picked me," she said.

But wait, you don’t know the half of it.

The truth about Johnson is — and remember I’m a critic for a living — she is perfect. Little Miss Perfect.

If that sounds like sarcasm, forget it.

No, I’ve been studying this, looking for the flaws to expose. If she has one at all, it’s only that perfection can be annoying. It can be fake or plastic. And Johnson does have that perfect smile.

But somehow, she makes it work.

Here’s the deal: Johnson is from West Des Moines, Iowa. She had far too much energy as a baby, and was doing pull-ups in her crib. I swear. So her mom put her in gymnastics when she was 6.

She’s a straight-A student, who, according to the Palm Beach Post, spends her free time walking dogs at a shelter and wiping off muddy footballs for her high school’s team. I swear.

Her parents? Junior high sweethearts who met at a roller rink.

She’s the one.

Now, I’ve always liked gymnastics during the Olympics, found it amazing and one of the most courageous sports. You get your moment and you have to nail it. It’s beautiful movements mixed with incredible power.

But I don’t like to see how its made. These little girls are constantly overtrained and hurt, with plenty developing eating disorders.

"I have been remarkably injury-free my whole career," she said. "Minor sprains, yes. But anything big? No."

Her parents have said over and over how important it was that Johnson have a "normal" life, which, with prodigies can mean they’re allowed to make one phone call a day while starving themselves in the sports academy they’ve moved to away from their parents.

Johnson stayed in Des Moines and goes to public school. A typical work schedule for these kids is 40-hours a week of training. Johnson does 25, which would seem to be plenty, and might explain her lack of injuries. She also says she’s on no particular diet.

That’s all the plan of her coach, Liang Qiao, who now goes by "Chow." See, when Johnson’s mother enrolled her in gymnastics as a 6-year old, it turned out that the guy running the place was Chow, a former Chinese champion gymnast.

Now, I’m not sure how many Chinese champions can accidentally be found in Des Moines, but that’s where he was. He came to the U.S. to go to the University of Iowa, and then staying nearby to open his gymnastics school.

The Washington Post

By Thomas Boswell
Wednesday, August 13, 2008

BEIJING
Women's gymnastics at the Olympics always lifts or breaks your heart. On Wednesday, it did both. Few athletes in the world can make you catch your breath in disbelief or define the line of human beauty more powerfully that Shawn Johnson on the balance beam, Nastia Liukin on the uneven bars or Chinese captain Fei Cheng on the vault. Give a bird its wings, a squirrel his tree or a chimp her vines and they can't touch what these dervishes can do.

But if it's tears you want, the kind you feel inside when you see a small girl in glitter makeup trying to pretend she's 16 -- and eligible for the Olympics -- when she may only be 14, then National Indoor Stadium was the place to come for that emotion, too.

Yet the bitterest tears of all belong to an undeserving victim, U.S. captain Alicia Sacramone, who bombed on the last two events -- falling off the balance beam, then tumbling on her rump in floor exercises, a discipline where she was world champion in 2005. Her scores demolished the United States' (slim) chances at a comeback.

Sacramone has lots of disadvantages. She's 20, grown, smart, goes to Brown and is old enough to know what's at stake. All are nightmares to a gymnast. Better to be young, limber, oblivious and fearless.

As she left the mat, the two-year battle between the U.S. and China -- with each winning a world title by a tiny fraction of a point -- was as good as decided.

Sacramone fled her teammates, buried her head in her hand and began to cry. For the next 20 minutes, she fought back tears, sometimes failing. After the verdict was final, Johnson sat next to Sacramone, looped her arm through the older girl's, then laid her head on Sacramore's shoulder in an instant of consolation.

Such talent and grace, such sadness and sympathy, such ethical complexity, all tangled up together. In the end, it may be too much to digest. Who's juicing, who's not? Whose age is fake or real? Which judges are biased or wise? Forget it, Jake, it's the Olympics.

Only Johnson, who did well in all four events and is favored in Friday's all-around, saw the day in focus, got it exactly right with a kid's clarity. Sometimes complexity's a bore. Hold tight to the strong and solid -- what there is of it.

"I honestly think our team did great today," she said, smiling at a massive news conference. "We are proud of each other no matter what we do. We are like a family. We respect China. We will wear our silver medals proudly."

Johnson is 16. Really. Though she'll have a hard time growing wiser.

Christian Science Moniter

Amid US gymnastics disappointment, Shawn Johnson’s grace

Perhaps nothing at these Games will be more precious than that one moment, when we caught a glimpse of a young woman whose gifts stretch well beyond sports.

Mark Sappenfield, August 13, 2008 edition

Beijing
When the women’s gymnastics team competition was all but over, save China’s last, perfunctory turn on the floor – when American team captain Alicia Sacramone no longer had anything to distract her from the mistakes that had made a gold medal impossible, Shawn Johnson sat beside her.

China would win. The US, who had promised so much, would be silver medalists.

Sacramone looked as though she was on the edge of a cliff, holding back that inevitable moment when the disappointment in her falls on floor and beam would overwhelm her and plunge her headlong into tears.

But Johnson smiled that smile that comes so easily for her, and took Sacramone’s arm in hers, almost as if they were an old married couple on a park bench. For a moment, however briefly, Sacramone smiled, too.

No matter what Johnson does in two days’ time on the women’s all-around competition, I hope the world will remember that image – of a 16-year-old girl who is not only an extraordinary athlete, but also something altogether more profound and worthy of celebration: an uncommon human being.

“She is a very loving person,” says her coach, Liang Chow. “That shows in her gymnastics.”

To imagine that Johnson could ever blame her captain for preventing her from being the Michael Phelps of women’s gymnastics is not to understand who she is. Before today, it was by no means inconceivable that Johnson could have won four golds: in the team event, the all-around, and the floor and beam individual events.

But she knows, as does the entire team, that without Sacramone, they would not have won the world championship last year. After a shaky rotation on beam then, Sacramone gathered the team together – in a huddle as gymnasts often do – but this time, very clearly under her wing. On that day, the floor event was flawless and America was world champions.

Today, the result was different. Johnson was not.

“We love her no matter what,” she says.

These sorts of things are said every day at the Olympic Games. Often they are honest, sometimes they are not. With Johnson, there is no doubting.

Much has been made of the age of the Chinese gymnasts. We know Shawn Johnson is 16. But she is so much older than that, too.

STAY TUNED TO THE LATEST RERUNS OF THE NEWS

Tell me I'm not the only person to notice that more and more television newscasts are rerunning stories from the day before and even two days earlier. It used to be they might try to update an earlier story for filler purposes on slow days but now it seems that over half the news stories on news programs are reruns from the previous broadcasts. I think they have cut the budgets so much that they might not have any reporters left to report fresh news.

Most network and cable news channels now run long blocks of paid advertising during the late evening, early morning and weekend hours. That never would have happened under Ted Turner at CNN who believed a news channel was supposed to report the news twenty-four hours a day. Guess it is kind of hard when most of the reporters have been eliminated.

The networks have found other ways to try and milk more money from the news divisions. CNN did a special on Black America, a two part special, and then proceeded to broadcast the entire thing about 5 times over a couple of days killing off about 10 hours of coverage. Remember, every rerun means that much less original production.

Most talk shows on CNN, Headline News and others, programs like the O'Rielly Report, Glenn Beck, blah, blah, blah are rebroadcast as many as three times in 24 hours as if once wasn't enough. When too many reporters are laid off they start broadcasting more and more entertainment and celebrity expose stories since the self-promotion of the stars is always available from the studios.

Most quasi-news shows like Today, Good Morning America and others often have guests introducing new movies, television shows or books and more often than not they work for another division of the owner of the network. Thus Miley Cyrus of Hanna Montana fame who is owned by Disney is being interviewed on Good Morning America, plays a concert on that show to introduce her newest song, and shows up on several other ABC related shows which is also owned by Disney.



Fox, NBC and CBS all do the same thing when they get the chance so you never really know if a morning show is featuring talent because of the merits of the talent or because that person is contributing to the profit margin of the network. If you watch the news footage closely you can also see the same footage being used over and over again although the story may change slightly.

Which leaves us with the big question. Is our news being pre-packaged as Hillbilly Joe and Dogman say and are we being spoon fed stories that keep our attention diverted away from the truth? If we are getting a daily dose of propaganda then is anyone getting the truth? And what sinister force is behind the disappearance of real news on American television?

Stay tuned for the rest of the story...

OIL ANALYSTS DRIVE OIL PRICE RECORDS HIGHER

Today, Tuesday, May 6 oil analysts again predicted more records for the oil prices and in response the market again set a new record reaching over $122 per barrel before settling at $121.84 a barrel. The analysts predicted prices could reach $150 and then $200 per barrel. Sure enough the market responded with a new record.

A team of analysts from Goldman Sachs made the prediction in the media and triggered the price increase and NBC News then had their own oil specialist, John Kilduf of Fimat USA confirm the numbers. So what do you think?

Well, Goldman Sachs is an investor and the lead broker for the IntercontinentalExchange, Inc., owner of the London Futures Exchange one of the two leading oil futures markets in the world. In the old days such action by Goldman might be construed as a conflict of interest and an effort to manipulate the price of oil.

Then there is the NBC news report. It seems their independent analyst works for Fimat whose name has been changed to NewEdge who just happens to be a wholly owned subsidiary of a wholly owned subsidiary of Societe Generale (SG), one of the largest banks in the world from Paris.

Surprise, Societe Generale was a founding partner of the IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) and benefits significantly every time the price of oil increases. So now both Goldman Sachs and NBC have offered experts whose companies directly benefit from the oil chaos and neither Goldman, NBC or Societe Generale disclosed the insider position they have in ICE and the oil prices.

Now where is Congress, the Justice Department, the Bush Administration, the presidential candidates, or even the news media in exposing this farce? How long do the American citizens and citizens of the world have to be victimized by such tactics before someone says “Stop” and investigates? Before you vote for any congressman or candidate for president ask them why they are not stopping these market manipulations.

If they continue to ignore them or you then vote them out of office. This is still the country of the people, by the people and for the people, we just have too many politicians who forgot.