Comments on: Joining us now

By: michelle

michelle — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 07:13:50 +0000

OH NOES!

By: PdeV

PdeV — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:55:53 +0000

What about Keating?

By: bittervoter

bittervoter — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:41:47 +0000

I agree with Jellybeans’s points, and what others too have said about 24 hr news channels, they really do turn more into “infotainment” machines than anything else.
And, crazily enough, I do agree with ema that MSNBC shows bias towards obama, or at least some of the talking heads on it do, though I wouldn’t pick Matthews out as one of them. I really like Olbermann, but I certainly won’t deny that the guy is unabashedly liberal, I just think he’s also very smart and argues his points well, and is at times, hilarious.

By: froofrou

froofrou — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 04:32:09 +0000

The only support I have is the Yahoo News article I read that said 4 paragraphs in that she wasn’t found guilty of any ethics violations. The headline implied (said) that she was, and if you only read the first couple of paragraphs you would assume that the charges had stood. They did say that she ‘probably’ abused her power and allowed her personal relationships with the guy cloud her judgement, but that as far as the ethics violations go, there were none.

By: ema

ema — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 04:16:19 +0000

Both sides love to use sex scandals against each other, it’s stupid, I wish they would just get over it. Ok, I’m sorry I really have to ask, why do you use “ov” instead of “of”?

By: mAlise

mAlise — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 03:59:46 +0000

:bows: thank you, thank you. i’ll be here all week.

By: mAlise

mAlise — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 03:57:46 +0000

i realise it was an example, but i couldn’t resist.
and i actually agree that it’s none ov our business, but considering the big flaming deal republicans tend to make every time a democrat is caught anything ov which the bureau ov morality would not approve, i won’t exactly cry myself to sleep if more is made ov mccain cheating on and then leaving his wife.

By: Shepard

Shepard — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 01:34:44 +0000

This is true. Journalists and editors tend to have a higher level of education. People with higher levels of education tend to be democrats.

By: Maxwell Silverhammer

Maxwell Silverhammer — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 00:28:32 +0000

There was something that struck me just plain wrong. And its
the reason Ive moved away from the right this year. They’re scrambling.
Scrambling because no one wants their policies, and they’re stances.
So hence this election suddenly “Is not about the issues.”
Ayers warrants a little interest but in truth, he’s not the same
person anymore.
What really irritates me is the stretching. I saw an article, or blog rather
on hotair.com the other day, where someone, a conservative
fundamentalist was “exposing a scandal” Where a civil service grooup
that fights adult illiteracy asked for $75,000 in state grants. Obama
reviewed and granted said grant. Now here’s where it gets stupid.
Forget the fact that the application process was legal. Forget the
fact that this civil service group is trying to teach adults to read
and write. The issue here was the the Director/leader what have you
of this civil service group was Michelle Obama’s first cousin once removed.
HOLY HELL! That right there was when I said “Ok, forget the right
this election year.” I mean lets ignore all the good that $75K will
do in stopping illiteracy, and focus on how Obama gave a grant
to a non-blood relative.
The very least the Republicans could do this year for us moderates
was try to debate the issues, and bring us answers. Instead all
Ive seen are blindsided attacks and avoidance of the issues.
And that…. my friends…. is not what I want.

By: Jane St.Clair

Jane St.Clair — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 15:19:04 +0000

Without even a scrap of proof to validate that ridiculous paranoid delusion I would have to say no. Let’s deal with facts, not fantasy here. Even if they were, the issue isn’t with them, it’s with Palin doing nothing to stop it. Allowing threats to the life of an innocent human being and doing or saying nothing to stop it says a lot about what kind of person she is.

By: Ceefax

Ceefax — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 09:11:21 +0000

OMG LIBERAL CONSPIRACY!

Maybe people like Evil Pundit are actually leftist plants to make the GOP look bad too. They’re doing a cracking job if they are.

By: Senoralki

Senoralki — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 07:06:20 +0000

OMG FINALLY! I’m reading the posts on this blog of MY ‘lol’ and was disheartened to see that people didn’t “get it”. Sigh!

By: minerva146

minerva146 — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 05:18:44 +0000

Also, he dd not launch his presidential campaign with Ayers. The meet and greet was when he first became STATE senator.

By: PiMan

PiMan — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 04:23:40 +0000

They couldn’t *possibly* be honest rightists, could they.

By: minerva146

minerva146 — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 03:47:55 +0000

haha true, since everyone is guilty through casual association. BTW, the “at his house!!!11!!!!1!!” event was a candidate meet and greet coffee. They were never particularly close. Total campaign contributions were like a grand total of $200.

By: minerva146

minerva146 — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 03:45:48 +0000

Bill Ayers isn’t doing ANYTHING now. Sheesh, you guys can justify and twist anything into paranoid delusional, sheep like talking points. Even McCain is now admitting that calling Obama a terrorist is going too far. Don’t you even keep up on your own candidate?

By: ryszard

ryszard — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 03:37:35 +0000

They couldn’t *possibly* be leftist provocateurs, could they.

By: ryszard

ryszard — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 03:33:58 +0000

Minerva: “Obama and Ayers never palled around”: Obama launched his presidential campaign *in Ayers’ house*!

http: answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080828213533AAIC77U

“Ayers is not the same as McVeigh”: This is my opinion, but I think it worth something. McVeigh was a pro, a demolitions expert trained in the military. His bomb was an “air-fuel” explosive so powerful they considered charging him with using WMD.

Ayers was an amateur. He killed two or three of his own people when one of his bombs went off prematurely. He *did* kill an NYC cop and maim another. He was still learning, and said at least as recently as 2001 that he was unrepentant and wished he had done more. He lacked training, was all (thank God).

And knowing all this, Obie has consorted with the man on a continuing basis for many years. I don’t give a crap that he was eight when Ayers committed his confessed crimes, it’s what he (BHO) is doing NOW that concerns conservatives.

By: ryszard

ryszard — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 03:24:10 +0000

I’m hoping they cancel each other out. Olberman got fired for revealing his obvious bias. O’Reilly is someone who is technically on one’s side, but one wishes he wasn’t.

By: ryszard

ryszard — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 03:22:29 +0000

Please read my post above. In short, many times more journalists consider themselves liberals than as conservative. From two respected polling agencies.

By: ryszard

ryszard — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 03:20:45 +0000

Repost from above:

Ninety eight per cent of [journalists] consider themselves liberals.

“Four Times More Journalists Identify as Liberal Than Conservative”

http://www.mediaresearch.org/biasbasics/biasbasics.asp

(Page down to item #4.)

***

More polls on how journalists view themselves:

“Media Bias Basics”:

http://www.mediaresearch.org/biasbasics/biasbasics.asp

One quote: “Among the journalists working at prominent news organizations, just 6 percent would admit to being Republicans, compared to 43 percent who said they were Democrats.”

***

Read both links before bothering to respond, please.

By: ryszard

ryszard — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 03:13:39 +0000

Ninety eight per cent of whom consider themselves liberals.

“Four Times More Journalists Identify as Liberal Than Conservative”

http://www.mediaresearch.org/biasbasics/biasbasics.asp

(Page down to item #4.)

***

More polls on how journalists view themselves:

“Media Bias Basics”:

http://www.mediaresearch.org/biasbasics/biasbasics.asp

One quote: “Among the journalists working at prominent news organizations, just 6 percent would admit to being Republicans, compared to 43 percent who said they were Democrats.”

***

Read both links before bothering to respond, please.

By: Jane St.Clair

Jane St.Clair — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 01:07:06 +0000

I really feel that they (Paline more so than McCain because it happens more at her rallies and she doesn’t try to stop it like McCain did) are running very close to inciting a riot and if it should occur they should be charged for that.

By: enema

enema — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 00:03:36 +0000

“Palin, 44, has led the character attacks on Obama in the belief that McCain may be throwing away the election and her chance of becoming vice-president. Her supporters think that if the Republican ticket loses on November 4, she should run for president in 2012.
A leading Republican consultant said: “A lot of conservatives are grumbling about what a poor job McCain is doing. They are rolling their eyes and saying, ‘Yes, a miracle could happen, but at this rate it is all over’.”

By: jellybeans

jellybeans — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 23:52:16 +0000

Palin still has no apology for letting someone shout “KILL HIM” at one of her rallies.
I seriously get creeped out watching the crowd interviews of the lines for McCain Palin stuff.
I KNOW that the ones who talk for the camera are the lowest common denominator and not all republicans are walking around saying Obama is a terrorist “because he has the bloodline” but if you watch all of the hate and racism … so disturbing.
The normal folks tend to avoid the camera so you wind up with a slightly skewed ratio of nutball to normal but still.

By: Charlie Foxtrot

Charlie Foxtrot — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 23:46:44 +0000

I agree with you one hundred percent, the problem today is centered on the 24 hour “news” channels. I remember the agruements against CNN when it began… you can’t do a 24 hour news show because it will degenerate into entertainment to secure ratings… guess what… it did. i love print journalism because of exactly what you said.

By: jellybeans

jellybeans — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 23:46:36 +0000

Cindy still maintained her investments with Keating after the drama llama too … but all we hear about now is how Ayers’ wife worked at the same firm Michelle joined 3 years after Ayers’ wife did … SCANDAL!!!! We should all completely vet every other employee of a company that hires us in case any are related to terrorists I guess.

By: Evil Pundit

Evil Pundit — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 23:45:25 +0000

The vast majority of the MSM is left-leaning. Journalists and editors donate to Democrats over Republicans by a 10-to-1 margin. Most of the mainstream can be considered an arm of the Democratic Party publicity machine.

By: jellybeans

jellybeans — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 23:41:15 +0000

MSM also refused to show Gore’s ads during the debate on most channels. Not that it was partisan or anything, just a little girl playing with blocks and a call for wind and solar energy … weird that it was refused.
I think that the MSM is all over Palin because she is completely out of left field and we only had like 2 months to learn ANYTHING about her. If you look at all of the stuff already dug up on Obama and Biden and compare it with the questions asked of Palin it is probably about equal.
Of course then you have all the juicy scandal stuff that MSM tries not to show. I honestly think they cut her more slack than Obama gets. She just has more issues so it looks like they are slamming her.
Have you watched any of the rally tapes? Seen any of the supporterr video? Her crowds are getting really ugly. They call Obama a terrorist, shout racial slurs and scream about killing him. McCain let it go until the media picked it up and he had to condemn it. Palin still hasn’t condemned it. That looks bad.
Imagine an Obama rally where supporters screamed kill whitey. I am guessing there would be a LOT more outrage.

By: D'oh

D'oh — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 21:56:20 +0000

Not to mention that Rev Wright was heavely covered by the news, it bugged me a LOT on CNN, and Palin’s pastor only got a small remark.

By: D'oh

D'oh — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 21:49:35 +0000

Mind supporting your claims?

By: rick

rick — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 18:05:04 +0000

The RNC is about to pull the plug on its joint ads with the McCain campaign and devote its resources instead to trying to save a couple Republican senators. OMG PWND.

By: ck

ck — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 17:49:58 +0000

I’ve read that supporters at those rallies have been yelling “terrorist” and “Arab”. Guest speakers at the rallies have been calling him “Barak Hussein Obama”. And don’t forget about the absentee ballots that were “accidentally” labeled as Barak Osama instead of Barak Obama. Oh yeah, we had three checkers and the S and B keys are nowhere near each other, but zoinks what an accident!

By: ck

ck — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 17:43:11 +0000

If Ayers was such a big deal you’d have thought that McCain would have brought it up in the second debate…

By: JC

JC — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 17:35:21 +0000

typical McCain pandering to the Religious Right… having 2 wives to try to court the Fundamentalist LDS vote

By: ema

ema — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 16:22:32 +0000

I don’t know if that was true, it was just an example, there could be hundreds of other reasons it’s no more our business than Bill and Hillary’s marraige.

By: ema

ema — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 16:21:01 +0000

Deregulation in and of itself is not a bad thing, it’s the type of regulation/deregulation that matters and the purpose of it. McCain was for regulation of Fannie/Freddie which is a catalyst in this whole economy problem, Obama took donations from Fannie/Freddie.

By: ck

ck — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 15:48:54 +0000

Hello? McCain and G. Gordon Liddy?

By: herb

herb — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 14:50:05 +0000

ba-

(wait for it)

-zing.

By: Ceefax

Ceefax — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 09:30:01 +0000

Hahahaha, similar to his reaction to his supporters at speeches nowadays when they say stuff like “I can’t trust Obama, he’s an Arab!” and he has to quickly dig his way out of it. Sorry, that’s what you get when you have to resort to whipping your wingnuts into a hate-filled, frothing mob. It’s never gonna make you look good.

By: minerva146

minerva146 — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 06:03:10 +0000

“Although the bomb that rocked the Pentagon was itsy-bitsy – weighing close to two pounds – it caused ‘tens of thousands of dollars’ of damage. The operation cost under $500, and no one was killed or even hurt.”

Not the same. He wasn’t out to kill people. Still wrong, and I still don’t condone, but the comparison is ridiculous. Plus, you are suggesting people can’t ever be rehabilitated and that the name he has made for himself in more recent years is irrelevant. I’m not saying I admire the man even, just that there’s more to him than some stupid(albeit dangerously wrong) things he did 40 years ago.

McCain has ALWAYS been for deregulation. See the video I linked. And of course nobody is saying blanket increases in regulation will solve everything. Enforcing existing anti-trust laws would be a good start. Also, the regulations placed into the financial sector during the Great Depression worked very well for a long time. It’s when they started removing these during mainly the Reagan years that this latest collapse was set in motion.

By: Denim

Denim — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 05:54:55 +0000

The yellow journalism of Hearst and others is directly responsible for ethics standards being adopted by nearly all newspapers who fancy themselves to be credible. Most journalists look back on that era as a dark time.

But the truth of the matter is that since this countries inception, newspapers have been politically skewed. First there were the Federalist and Anti-Federalist papers. Then there were pro-Union and pro-Confederate papers. Then Hearst and Pulitzer and the pro-sensationalist bullshit papers.

Today, we’re doing better than ever before, whether you realize it or not. We journalists respect our profession and for the most part put its integrity above our own political beliefs. I hate how those screaming about MSM bias seem to forget that the media is made up of individuals. Thousands of them. We’re doing the best we can.

By: minerva146

minerva146 — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 05:44:10 +0000

fact check
voices.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/10/did_obama_lie_about_ayers.html

By: froofrou

froofrou — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 05:43:51 +0000

You have to throw in there that McCain was warning of this several years ago. If you have a bastard-type corporation that is partially public and partially private, it isn’t capitalism and can’t be used to further the notion that all industries should be regulated more.
As far as targeting only monuments, I believe Ayers bombed the Pentagon, giving him something in common with another terrorist from 9-11-01.

By: minerva146

minerva146 — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 05:29:34 +0000

Ayers is not the same as McVeigh. Ayers targets were generally objects, like monuments, etc. His object wasn’t to kill people, unlike McVeigh who tried to kill as many as possible in his bombing. People did accidentally get hurt though, and I would NEVER condone bombing anything as a form of civil disobedience. Nobody is defending Ayers actions of the past. He was not the same man as he was in his Weathermen days when Obama met him. He would not have risen to the prominence he had if he was still the extremely misguided hippie he was in the 60’s. Sheesh, people can change, and get second chances. That still doesn’t mean people are condoning what he did in the past.

Also, people are trying to tie Obama to him much more than he realy was associated. They never “palled around.” They were on a couple of organizations boards helping the community, and Ayers once hosted a meet and greet thing for someone else who he was ccloser friends with, that also happened to introduce Obama as state senate candidate. Know the facts before you make accusations.

And yes, most ecomonists say that deregulation is, in fact, the leading cause of this crisis, and that it has been coming for years (so no, it’s not al Bush) McCain has always been the deregulation champion. Of Course, as illing as most righties are to throw the debatable ayers card, they won’t even look at the keating economics info in my link.

By: froofrou

froofrou — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 05:14:09 +0000

So it would be cool if Timothy McVea had gotten off on a technicality and 30 years from now was teaching school and consorting around with the then Republican nominee for president?
Saying that deregulation is the reason for the financial crisis is a gross oversimplification. Blaming it on one party is as well. When you use government coffers as your own private piggy bank, things are bound to go south eventually.

By: minerva146

minerva146 — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 05:08:52 +0000

I know this is sort of beating a dead horse, but in all honesty, what else COULD she say? If she didn’t support him, they would have the media all over her vilifying her as the spiteful ex. If she’s still a Republican, well, he’s the only candidate, there’s no one else to support. She would say this no matter what just to stay out of the media, for some peace and quiet.

By: mAlise

mAlise — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 05:02:27 +0000

if he wasn’t strong enough to take his wife’s anger, is he strong enogh to lead the nation?

By: mAlise

mAlise — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 05:01:10 +0000

are all ov these the sort ov people who put random ‘e’s on the end ov words, or is that just you

[well aware that i'll eventually start catching flak for my spelling ov 'ov']

By: minerva146

minerva146 — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 04:46:18 +0000

Yes, all when Obama was 8-years old. He was rehabilitated and a distinguished professor by the time Obama met him, was Chicago citizen of the year or something like that. Ancient history. UNLIKE the deregulation business that directly impacts the economic crisis now.