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Rahm Emanuel, Obama's fiery tongued Chief of Staff, was recruited into the president's inner sanctum because of his Wall Street connections and his ruthless negotiating skills and in the first two years his success at extracting money from special interests was near legendary.
As a result the Obama administration became the most expensive money could buy shattering campaign spending records, nearly a billion dollar cost to get elected, and shaking down corporate and special interests after getting elected at a pace never seen in our nation's capitol before.
From the Wall Street bankers to health care industries the special interest money poured into campaign coffers after the election and most went to the Democrat majority controlling the business of our nation the Obama, Pelosi, Reid and Democratic party campaign committees. In fact, the federal lobbyists in 2009 spent the following money lobbying our government officials and feeding campaign funds.
Open Secrets.org - Center for Responsive Government
2009 Expenditures
Pharmaceutical/Health Care - $267,853,947
Business Associations - $183,498,730
Oil & Gas - $175,079,824
Insurance - $164,411,830
Electric Utilities - $145,691,753
Computers/Internet - $119,370,418
Misc Manufacturing & Distribution - $110,769,964
Hospitals/Nursing Homes - $107,892,681
TV/Movies/Music - $107,496,953
Education - $99,816,801
Securities & Investment - $94,135,458
Health Professionals - $84,284,513
Air Transport - $83,876,931
Civil Servants/Public Officials - $83,861,329
Health Services/HMOs - $74,234,045
Of course the two major legislative bills pushed by Obama were health care reform and financial reform, both of which were managed by Emanuel and passed this year. Deals were made between Rahm and the pharmaceutical boys with details yet to be disclosed. If we add the total health spending lobbying in 2009 to the spending in the first half of 2010 we see $1 billion was spent by the industry to get what they wanted.
A similar astounding spending spree went into financial reform by the business community as the total 2009 and 2010 spending totaled $472 million to get a watered down financial reform bill. Industry by industry the Obama administration, who pledged to get rid of special interest influence in Washington, set records in sucking money into the campaign coffers.
The payoff to the lobbyists can be equally staggering. The pharma companies were able to increase the cost of major drugs by over 8% last year while the inflation rate for America was under 1% yet there was no outcry on behalf of the people by the White House or Obama people. And as for Wall Street, the administration complained of the billions of dollars in executive bonuses yet did nothing to stop them.
Money controls our nation's capitol and the Obama administration played politics as usual better than anyone in history. This fall the people of America have the chance to rate the performance of the Obama and Democratic majority and the outcome will not be pretty.
Perhaps, the outsiders and new faces can get in office and start the road to recovery with meaningful campaign reform and limitations on the ability of special interests to buy our government.
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As Earl closes in on North Carolina sometime tonight (Thursday) the Maryland Chesapeake Tidal Basin will get the first impact as it moves up the east coast. So far the President has issued an emergency declaration and the Governor has issued an emergency declaration for our area. The National Weather Service has issued a coastal flood warning for the area.
Just before nightfall the sky filled with the advancing clouds of Earl, still a couple of hundred miles away. It is a foreboding sky but we should be just beyond the real danger area. Here at the Potomac basin the tides should be effected when the hurricane winds pass offshore later tonight.
Any flooding should hit by morning and the rains should be less severe than normal hurricanes on the east coast because the hurricane keeps speeding up. It was moving at a speed of 18 miles an hour earlier today and by morning is expected to accelerate to 35 miles per hour, much faster than storms already bigger than the entire state of Florida.
The pictures show the likely path, speed, and shape from various radar and satellite imaging. Just above you can see the two storms following Earl that will be the next threat. Note the comparison below between the satellite image of Katrina and Earl.
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Christian Science Monitor headline: Vanity Fair publishes 18-page attack on Sarah Palin
NEWSWEEK WONDERS: WHY DON’T THE HIT PIECES WORK ANYMORE?
ANSWER: MORE AMERICANS TRUST SARAH PALIN THAN TRUST NEWSWEEK
The latest Sarah Palin bashing is nothing new for the magazine Vanity Fair Editor in Chief Graydon Carter and writer Michael Joseph Gross but readers should be forewarned that neither could ever be described as an objective journalist.
In a story titled Defending Graydon Carter in 2004 Jack Shafer said the following:
"What's more, Carter hasn't pretended to be the sort of objective journalist who occupies a cubicle at the New York Times since the '70s and '80s when he worked at Life, TV Cable Week, and Time—assuming that he did then. He was a cheap-shot artist (accent on "artist") at Spy, which he co-founded in the late '80s. In his latest incarnation, he's a radical journalist who loves nothing more than to kick off each issue with a rabble-rousing denunciation of the war in Iraq and the Bush administration that's more Susan Sarandon than Leonard Downie Jr. "
Carter has hated Bush since 2002 and used all his resources since to capitalize on it in Hollywood and through the media. He has used scandal and celebrity access to generate circulation and journalistic standards have little to do with the stories.
The Canadian born Carter has identified himself as a libertarian: "I don't vote. I find both parties to be appalling and OK at the same time. I find it harder for anybody as they get older to feel 100 per cent strongly behind one party. There's lots more grey than when I was younger. I'm a libertarian."
It is only natural for a Bush hater to extend his attitude to those like John McCain and Sarah Palin who backed the war efforts of the previous president.
The Associated Press says of Carter and VANITY FAIR, "dishing on celebrity foibles and excesses is what Canadian journalist GRAYDON CARTER does best."
AP said Vanity Fair lives and dies by its celebrity covers - a fact Carter is perfectly brutal about. "It's a global magazine . . . Each place has their own sports stars, literary stars, statesmen or scientists. The only universal language is movies so you're stuck with the situation."
So an ego based editor of a fashion magazine turned exploiter of celebrity scandal would naturally seem to focus his extreme bias on pro-war Sarah Palin, the non-celebrity politician headliner from backwoods Alaska. His many articles trashing Palin have helped keep his magazine in business.
Then there is the author of the Vanity Fair article Michael Joseph Gross. Long short on journalistic standards and author of many Palin bashing articles, what is his problem with Palin? Could it have anything to do with the fact he has advocated on gay rights in the military and all walks of life for years in his stories while Palin has firmly opposed any extension of gay rights in the military or anywhere else?
Gross even won journalism awards for his reporting on gay issues.
The National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association today announced the recipients of its Excellence in Journalism Awards and the newest inductees to its LGBT Journalists Hall of Fame.
The organization will honor Journalist of the Year winner James Kirchick and Sarah Pettit Memorial Award for Excellence in LGBT Media winner Ryan Lee as part of plenary events at "Breaking Stories, Breaking Waves," NLGJA's 2007 National Convention & 4th Annual LGBT Media Summit. Winners in the competition's other categories will participate as panelists on breakout sessions designed to give convention attendees the chance to learn about the behind-the-scenes work that went into the award-winning stories, Web sites and photographs.
NLGJA Excellence in Feature Writing
Sponsored by Hearst Newspapers
First Place Presented to "Queens of the Desert," Michael Joseph Gross, Out Magazine
Second Place Presented to "When in Rome," Michael Joseph Gross, Out Magazine
Could a gay bias against Palin have been responsible for the brutal bashing he gave her in his latest Vanity Fair attack? Based on his portfolio it stands to reason. Other journalists have questioned his reporting credentials and motives.
What to make of it all? Politico's Ben Smith questioned many of the anecdotes used by Gross and concluded that "you can really write anything about Palin."
The Alaska Dispatch online magazine found the media bubble around Palin newsworthy itself: "A reporter (Gross) followed Palin around on a speaking tour through four Midwestern states with apparent back-stage access, wrote more than 10,500 words about his experience, and his story doesn't feature a single new comment from or interview with his subject ..... it's very unusual."
The Christian Science Monitor summed it up best: "If you are trying to sell books or magazines or get clicks for your website, Republican Party star Sarah Palin is the gift that keeps giving."
Newsweek has an article on its website on Sarah Palin titled Why No Amount of Reporting Can Hurt Sarah Palin by author Ravi Somaiya. He says:
"The headline is mostly correct even as the rest of the piece fails.
Michael Joseph Gross’s stories, headlined “Sarah Palin: the Sound and the Fury” and “Sarah Palin’s Shopping Spree: Yes, There’s More …” are filled with the kind of detail that sets the political press frothing (with outrage or glee, depending on the outlet). She’s a bad tipper, he reports; she abuses staff and throws things; she is vengeful, perhaps “unhinged”; her aides are amateurish and vindictive; she displays signs of paranoia. Gross found, he says, a “sad and moldering strangeness” as soon as he looked under the surface of her world."
Somaiya admits that “It is hard to know whether what Gross reports is true—many of his assertions are based on opinions, and anonymous ones at that.” But that doesn’t stop Somaiya from dutifully repeating what he doesn’t know to be true and expanding upon it."
Of course one must question Newsweek as an objective source of Palin stories as well. Newsweek fell on hard times, lost readers and was managed horribly, because it long ago squandered its credibility by producing Obama propaganda and attacking those it disagreed with ideologically, and Sarah Palin was one of it's favorite targets and she bolstered sales.
As reported about Gross and his efforts to bash Palin, “Vanity Fair's Michael Joseph Gross stood in the presence of greatness and knew it not. What a shame and a waste! Real people identify with Palin, liberal coastal elitists not so much.”
Perhaps we should let Michael Joseph Gross explain his opinions in his own words. In an online story August 7, 2008, he offered the following HomoQuotable quote:
"As a normative way of socializing for gay men, online cruising is a disaster. We need to recognize its effects -- including its tendency to isolate us, encourage objectification, and diminish our sense of life’s nonsexual possibilities -- as disasters. We need to recognize that too many of us, too much of the time, are cruising online because it is easier and feels safer than thinking about the love we are missing and the power we do not have. Too many of us, too much of the time, are cruising online because it’s easier and feels safer than mustering the courage, patience, discipline, and imagination required to help ourselves and each other become the men that, in our strongest moments, we want to be."
Now, give me one reason why anyone would believe that Vanity Fair's Graydon Carter or Michael Joseph Gross ever had any intention of telling the truth about Sarah Palin. Sometimes things just aren't what they seem. Sometimes it is the messenger whose bias colors the story we read.
I suspect, as Newsweek reported, no amount of unsubstantiated trashing of her, her life, her political views and her success will tarnish the image middle America has of Sarah because she is not the celebrity the media normally trash but a Main Street woman who is far stronger than those who hate her for being so strong.
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For those of you safely tucked away from the Atlantic Ocean Hurricane Earl is just another storm somewhere else but here in Coltons Point on the waterfront, just a few miles from the point where the Potomac River reaches the Chespeake Bay and about 100 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, we sit in the area covered by Emergency Hurricane warnings from the National and State of Maryland emergency offices.
Just 7 years ago Hurricane Isabel made a direct hit here with the eye of the hurricane passing right over Coltons Point. If Earl shifts just a few miles it could hit here again. If it takes the current projected path we could have hurricane force or tropical storm force winds as right now hurricane force winds reach out 90 miles from the eye of the storm and tropical force winds reach 200 miles.
That means winds of up to 145 miles per hour are already within reach. We sit just a few feet above sea level leaving us also subject to tidal surges which reached up to 8 feet during Isabel. In fact many old trees were uprooted and the streets along the river were literally ripped out of the ground.
Access to Coltons Point was limited to boats and amphibious vehicles during Isabel and that storm was much less severe than Earl. So we will be reporting live and in person from my front porch as the storm makes it's approach over the next 24-36 hours.
Stay tuned as we find out how accurate the Weather Service projected path might be. We will keep reporting live as long as Internet access allows but if the winds are as severe as projected there is a good chance the lines and electricity will be wiped out.
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In a rather strange 19 minute prime time address from the Oval Office President Obama talked about the end of combat in Iraq, the Afghanistan war, President Bush and the economy and never cracked a smile nor showed much of any emotion, not a good performance for one considered the great communicator.
It was a hodgepodge of subjects, all of which were important, but none of which got much discussion in his address. Clearly the talk of the economy at the end of the talk was a last minute addition to address the fact the entire nation is wondering if the President will ever get around to addressing the economy, unemployment and the national debt.
His mention of Bush was awkward at best and said nothing that everyone didn't already know. The only thing unusual about it was Obama did not blame Bush for everything but he also didn't mention that Bush signed the agreement to withdraw combat troops while president or that Bush implemented the troop surge strategy used by Obama in Iraq and Afghanistan but then when he uses the former president as a punching bag he really can't say too much good about him.
Obama did make reference to the terrible cost in lives and money of the war which we also know. However, as for the $700 billion cost over 7 years, Obama didn't mention he spent that much in one day with the stimulus program and over $4 trillion on his own legislative agenda the past 18 months. Some think that $4 trillion was wasted as well.
Again he gave our enemies in Iraq and Afghanistan a heads up by reinforcing his deadline for leaving the war zones which is something no president has ever done before through the news media. Many believe this is an indication of his inexperience.
As for the economy, it was the standard line of blaming the Republicans and the prior 8 years, though he didn't mention Bush by name, while offering nothing but a trivial bill pending in congress as a step toward healing the wounds. It will take a lot more than a small business incentive to fix the mess we are in.
Obama appeared tired, lacked the energy he has on a basketball court, and seemed almost distracted when giving the talk. Of course his foreign policy agenda was not what the people want to hear and his meetings on Mideast peace the rest of the week will keep him from addressing the economy for another week.
Since he just finished a ten day vacation at Cape Cod perhaps he needs a few days to rest up from his busy vacation schedule.
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One thing is clear in the latest Nielsen Ratings, the public is not being fooled by the news media and I use that term rather loosely when distinguishing between news and opinion shows since it is hard to tell the difference most days.
As we head into the fall television cycle and the upcoming Midterm elections it is hard to tell if the Democrats, incumbents, or media are suffering the most by misreading the mood of the public. Clearly the polls and primary election results demonstrate the Democrats and incumbents are lost in their ivory towers as they are in serious trouble and have no clue why.
This year will be one of lost opportunities for the Democrats and even more so for the progressive liberals. They have thrown away, wasted or blown one of the greatest majorities for an unknown and untested president and his party ever handed to politicians in our history.
Right now Obama and the Democratic majority are on the verge of showing one of the greatest falls from grace ever witnessed in politics. Look for the president's party to lose control and around 55 seats in the House, and maybe 9-10 seats and possibly control of the Senate, just two years after Obama's triumphant coronation as president.
Yet the impact on the progressive liberal media who helped power Obama into office could be even more devastating. For the media have ignored or failed to read the tea leaves to an even greater degree than the Obama, Pelosi and Reid people.
Just look at some of the numbers. In August only one network news anchor gained audience, Diane Sawyer at ABC according to the Nielsen numbers. Sawyer continued to close the gap against NBC while Katie Couric is buried in last place.
When it comes to cable news and/or opinion the stats are staggering. MSNBC is the clear bastion of progressive liberalism. Throughout the year they have continued to add progressive mouthpieces to their program mix while attempting to bolster the sagging numbers of their progressive philosophy. The result has been suicidal.
HNL's non-political Morning Express hosted by Robin Meade has buried the MSNBC far left leaning Morning Joe Show for 17 consecutive months as Robin has driven her ratings up 25%-28% in key demos and leads the Morning Joe show by a stunning 66% for the year to date.
As Joe Scarborough, the MSNBC token Republican on the Morning Joe Show, has drifted farther and farther from the GOP viewpoint the ratings of MSNBC have dropped. Just today Joe justified his MSNBC credentials by being about the only Republican on earth to say the GOP will not win control of the House in the elections. If he keeps it up he will beat out Howard Dean for the next leader of the Democratic National Committee.
Fox News is clobbering MSNBC in every single time slot, generally pulling three to four times higher ratings than MSNBC in daytime and prime time programming. For example, Glenn Beck beats Chris Matthews with over 2.1 million viewers to 464,000 for Matthews, O'Rielly beats Olbermann 2.5 million to 782,000, and Hannity beats Rachel Maddow 1.95 million to 610,000 in late August numbers. Note that Hannity often has Sarah Palin on his program.
Then there is CNN, who claims to be the last truly fair and balanced network. Yet they have Rick Sanchez and his progressive agenda on the Rick's List program and even added the liberal to their prime timeline up where his new show has lost 40% of the audience over the previous year. This past week his prime time show pulled just 92,000 viewers while a CNBC show (financial network) about McDonald's Big Mac pulled 143,000 viewers compared to a couple of million viewers on Fox.
CNN primetime average viewership hit a ten year low of just 486,000 in August while the Total Day viewership average of 381,000 was the fifth time this year it had one of the ten worst viewership months since August of 2000. Even Larry King lost 50% of his audience in just the last year.
So what is the lesson? If the media owners of MSNBC and CNN continue to push the progressive liberal agenda they will continue to alienate the Main Street viewers and may soon find themselves becoming an endangered species like many of the radical causes they advocate. Perhaps they should consider adding a little news content to their programming.
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On Saturday, August 28 in our nation's capitol Fox host Glenn Beck silenced his liberal critics who warned of unrest and violence from a gathering of Americans on the mall. In his rally to restore honor to America and to urge a return to Judeo Christian values, Beck and friends like the ever popular Sarah Palin drew many hundreds of thousands to a peaceful demonstration of love for America and hope for the future.
At the same time the Reverend Al Sharpton, members of the Obama Administration and the NAACP were holding another rally with a few thousand supporters where Sharpton denounced Beck for trying to steal the day of Martin Luther King's "I had a dream" speech 47 years earlier. It was a stupid charge from an old and tired civil rights advocate and one he spent the next two days trying to deny in television interviews.
What was important is Beck and Palin brought a huge crowd together with no discussion of politics or Obama or conspiracy theories but to honor God, country and the members of the Armed Forces who defend our freedom.
Beck is neither a Republican nor a conservative purist and has been demonized by Obama, the White House and the liberal media but the success of his event stunned them all and caused them to reconsider just how bad the Pelosi Democrats my lose this fall.
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