Alternate Reality According To The Media

By Charles Boz

KingNewsMedia.com

The backlash against America’s ‘mainstream media’ (MSM) or ‘big media’ as it is also called today, has surprised observers of all sorts of political, social, business and cultural backgrounds in that it has continued to deepen and widen in scope. Clearly, MSM’s reputation, image and worth in America continues to descend into levels of historical disrespect. Across the board, media, particularly ‘news media’ is sinking fast. Ratings for traditional broadcast evening news shows (ABC, CBS and NBC) are a shadow of what they once were and continue to diminish into being programs nearly exclusively for the senior citizen demographic.  News magazines are folding or barely holding on as a perfect storm of a terrible recession (or is it a depression that Americans are too proud to admit?), plummeting advertising and deep circulation losses  have made many magazines thin and anemic versions of past issues. The same is true for newspapers which are closing at a faster rate and scrambling to come up with any ideas to survive.   Some of the biggest names in the business, The New York Times, CNN, The Los Angeles Times, Boston Herald, US News and World Report, Newsweek and San Francisco Chronicle are seriously hurting and diminished in the numbers of consumers using their material and even more diminished in stature.

Without question, one of the worst economic environments the nation has faced since the Great Depression has something to do with it as does the rise of digital/Web media which clearly has become the future for news and is rapidly gaining dominance as the method of delivery for people. Shifting demographics are also at play as more generations of Americans are Web and tech-centric than in the past and entire segments of the population find both all they have known.  This is all true and we have seen many MSM defenders use every one of these reasons to explain their fall but more, much more is going on here too.

Undoubtedly, the behavior and actions of the MSM from the last presidential campaign have hurt it big time and I do not believe there is any going back.  The bulk of the American media had been suspected and accused of being deeply prejudiced politically in favor of liberal ideology and the Democrat Party. American media itself  allowed itself to become  a haven for one-sided thinking on an institutional level and nothing more than a conceited and exclusive club for like-minded people.  Ultimately, the MSM grew disconnected from the masses by is very lack of diversity of opinion. The overwhelming majority of the MSM could no longer relate to anyone other than East Coast, New York and Boston, West Coast, Hollywood and San Francisco,  Washington, DC, Liberal Democrats who went to college, attained a Masters’ Degree and embraced political correctness and other tenets of a Democrat Party gone awry with one far-left way of thought.

It all culminated in the past election when the majority of the MSM threw away any last vestiges of independence and professionalism and became blatant public relations agents for the Democrats and its nominee, Barack Obama. The behavior of the MSM was so terribly atrocious, so blatantly biased, so painfully bigoted and over-the-top that much of the media literally became nothing but cheap whores for a candidate and party instead of practitioners and defenders of the Fourth Estate and its sacred American role as independent balance-checkers  of government.  Scores of millions were insulted. Just as many were angered and left seeking alternative media or leaving it up to themselves to get the news from different sources they trusted or respected.

A steady stream of polls, research, consumer behavior trends, studies and other work has continued to pour in without any loss of steam since Election Day last year and it all continues to reinforce some common themes: namely more Americans than ever before do not respect the MSM, they believe the MSM is biased politically and do not trust the MSM any longer so they do not patronize it.  The last presidential campaign and the MSM’s reckless embracement of one candidate was so severe that even many Americans who never really bothered to get involved in the debate about media bias were turned-off by the media. Worse yet, the fallout and backlash goes way beyond politics. What should trouble American media even more is that more Americans than ever before strongly feel that the MSM is not made for them.  Research and poll after poll indicates that a majority of Americans not only believe that the media is prejudiced but that its bias is so deep that what they produce is literally not mean for them to see or read—it is meant for only people who think and live like those in media—a true clique that took over media in the country.

But if you step back and take a wide look at the MSM today, you will see just how deeply exclusionary it really is beyond politics.  The overall result of the MSM becoming so segregated and prejudiced with liberals and Democrats is that it simplified everything because it lacked a diverse view. The media’s narrow thinking and uniform political persuasion drove it to believe nearly everyone believed, lived, acted and valued what it did and those that did not were merely uneducated imbeciles that were most likely racists, simpletons, Republicans (gasp!), religious fools, traditional values idiots and other labels only worthy of contempt. In truth, America’s MSM became so terribly insular, so isolated and elitist that it literally struggled to relate to anyone and any thinking that was not theirs.  As a result, the media routinely mocks, insults and ignores everything and everybody it cannot understand or does not support.  It has taken a nation of 300 million individuals and simplified everything to such juvenile standards and labels that it is meaningless as well as absurd.

The MSM has indeed created an alternate reality it attempts to peddle to the masses who have finally had enough. Let’s look at some of the things that, according to the MSM, it believes and reports as fact but are deeply mistaken:

If you are black, you must be a Democrat.  If you’re black and a Republican, you must have money or you are a traitor.

There are no black conservatives.  Nearly every black supports Al Sharpton as the national ‘voice’ of the community.

Anyone who does not support homosexual marriage must be bigots or homophobes.

All Republicans are either rich, uneducated, racist, religious loons or from ‘Middle America’.

Religion is not important to Americans.  Atheism is hip and true.  The Catholic Church should only be referenced to pedophilia or anything to do with a perceived insult to someone by the Pope who should also be insulted.

Americans are truly ‘blue state’ or ‘red state’, liberal or conservative. All 300 million. Anyone who is ‘independent’ is on the lunatic fringe or needs to get with the program.

There are no conservative homosexuals and certainly no Republican homosexuals. If there are, they are traitors too.

All Hispanics favor illegal immigrants getting amnesty. All Hispanics are liberal. All Hispanics vote primarily for anyone or anything that is pro-Spanish language, uses the language and pushes aside English.

All feminists are Democrats. All feminists are for abortion. All feminists are liberals. All feminists are for abortion whenever a woman wants it right up to birth. Feminists cannot be Republican. Feminists cannot be about family values. Feminists cannot be stay-at-home moms. Feminists cannot embrace traditional religion.

All white men are well-off. All white men are secure in society. Only white men are Republicans or conservative. White men cannot suffer discrimination, bigotry and prejudice. The National Rifle Association is made up only of white men. Only white men are angry about lax immigration and broken borders. Only white men want English to be the standard language in the nation. White men can always get work. There are no poor white men or white people.

Political correctness speech and behavior is accepted by most Americans’ they do not mind losing freedoms of speech, thought etc. in order to make others feel good and accepted.

Americans do not say ‘Merry Christmas’, ‘God bless you’, ‘God bless America’.

Most Americans really care about not torturing terror suspects and want it to stop. Most Americans really like closing Gitmo and finding a place to relocate terror suspects.

Most Americans really care about and respect what Hollywood, Al Gore, Al Sharpton, entertainers, the women on the View, Oprah, the Daily Show, The New York Times, homosexual activists, feminists, abortion activists, artists, higher education types, unions, global warming believers, Barney Frank, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Bono, Sean Penn, The Washington Post, White House Press Corps, England, Germany, France, the United Nations…..whew….have to say to us.

Not really.

When you look at just how many people and views the MSM has effectively shut-off from its world and does not recognize or respect, it is a wonder there is anyone left but liberals and Democrats to speak to…….oh wait, that IS all that is left.

Good for us. It is about time.

 

Charles Boz is a frequent contributor to KingNewsMedia.com

Patriotism & Two Party System

By Walter Krull

I heard during the Bush presidency that if I did not support the president’s military actions in Iraq then I was “unpatriotic” and I have heard during the Obama presidency that if I did not support him personally, well then I must be a racist as well as “unpatriotic”.  Now, I hear that if I do not support President Obama’s health care and stimulus plans along with his General Motors, AIG and Chrysler bailouts as well as his  ’cap and trade’ policy and closing of Gitmo, then I must be “unpatriotic” too.

Enough.  I am sick of it all. It is time Americans got off their lazy political asses, began to really think  and realize what truly is unpatriotic: supporting the two-party, Democrat-Republican political system. We are a nation of 300 million people representing every race, religion and way of thinking on earth and yet 300 million of us have been diminished to red-state or blue-state, liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican.  This is ridiculous.

I know schools in our nation today are terribly inefficient in actually teaching anything other than political and cultural bias that is typically in favor of creepy political correctness and mindless support of the Democrat Party (mainly because most of the so-called teachers in America’s public schools are nothing but unionized loafers who whore for the Democrat Party because the party shills for overpaid, under-performing union teachers) but I would love to know if the kids in school are actually learning that the United States of America was not founded on a two-party system and that the two major parties of today are not part of the government. Hell, I do not believe most Americans know that the parties are nothing but private organizations whose sole reason for existence is to gain political power so that it can reward members and supporters with financial and other gifts.

I believe more than ever that being a partisan in today’s America is the single most ignorant and destructive thing a citizen can do for his country. The two-party system is outdated. It is hopelessly broken. It cannot be fixed. It is about time more media pundits, so-called intellectuals in education and think-tanks as well as citizens begin to shout it. Our system of government as it is now comprised is nothing but an elite club of two. Two political organizations share all of the power, money and benefits of managing the government. It is corrupt to the very marrow of their bones.  The sheer magnitude of wasteful spending on both sides and the depth of greed, corruption and inefficiency is criminal.

Our government on all levels–since the two party system intrudes even on the state, county and local levels–has become the very thing General George Washington and the founders of our nation fought against. Look at the lavish spending of our politicians. Look at how members of Congress reap benefits that would make you sick with anger when you realize they live like aristocrats while millions of citizens are struggling to keep a roof over their heads, feed their children and pay bills.  Even the staffers of the members of Congress have more lavish surroundings than they ever should have at the expense of taxpayers. Nice cars. Fantastic health plans and pensions. Well furnished offices with expensive chairs, lamps, carpets and the works. Private restaurants and clubs. The list goes on and on.

No wonder politics in America became nothing more than another for-profit industry–the perks are too damn good to give up when you continually steal money from the public, waste it, pocket a lot of it and live like royalty while scores of millions of the very same public are too shiftless, ignorant, uneducated and careless to demand it stop. The era of the career-politician has destroyed this nation. We need to create, support and elect third parties to change it. It is truly the only solution to a problem so severe, nothing else will do.

I marvel at how Americans can get so angry at business–especially monopolies like cable companies–but do not see how their very own government mirrors the worst of big business. We complain when a handful of companies control the vast majority of an industry and detail how they kill us with overpriced services, lack of customer service, lack of respect and lack of accessibility to people who will listen and rectify problems. Yet, all of this can be said about the two parties and how they operate. Try going to any city hall, statehouse or even Congress today and see how little you feel as a taxpayer. Try to gain access to your elected representatives. Try testing them to see how fast they give you an ear and for how long and attentive. See if anything gets done. See if you do not feel like in some way or another you were made to feel as if you were intruding even though they are the servant and you are the person being served. 

Nothing is as blatant an example of the creation of old-world European aristocrats in our government as is Congress. The whole town of Washington, DC–in theory a place of service to the people and location of numerous ‘people’s houses’ is nothing more than American,  modern day equivalent of the old Soviet Union’s Kremlin. Hell, the only thing left for the aristocrats in DC to do is simply build a deep moat and large wall around the town because they already have invisible ones (and not so invisible ones: fences, gates, walls and security is everywhere) and do everything they can to keep away from voters and deepen inaccessibility. Last year, Congress unveiled a new “visitor’s center and entrance” to the Capitol Building. Besides being terribly overpriced it was a clear example of just how detached our servants have separated themselves from us. The entrance now affords politicians the ability to not mix and mingle with the peons.  It is another literal physical barrier between the representative and the represented.

When the new entrance and visitor’s center opened, it was one Harry Reid, that wonderful dirt bag Democrat who  caused a stir (only in the non-liberal Democrat media) when he was caught actually breathing a sigh of relief that the entrance would spare him and his fellow Congressmen from having to “smell” the citizens in the halls of Congress. Wow, is this France before the Revolution? “Let them eat cake,” revisited?

It may be hard (although I cannot see why) for many Americans to admit and accept that our government is beyond repair. It may be harder for others to see that the only way to restore real and healthy democracy to our system is to shake it up with competition from alternative parties. But I firmly believe this is the singular option left for us. Whether Democrat or Republican, I believe both parties have become nothing but bloated ticks that have gorged on us the people for far too long. They have become complacent, unresponsive, arrogant, dis-connected and extremely unproductive.  The current two party system is closer to representing the OPEC oil cartel than a democratic political body. Behind closed doors, they are more similar than not and both are committed to protecting the status-quo.

I suggest that whenever you hear, read or see media pundits, politicans, lobbyists and anyone else enthusiastically and blindly support either party, you call them out on it. Let’s starting calling partisanship un-American and un-patriotic for a change.

 

Walter Krull is a regular contributor to KingNewsMedia.com and is an official independent politically.

Sanford Must Go

By Walter Krull

The fact that Republican South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford was still in office 24 hours after his surreal press conference during which he admitted an extramarital affair with a woman in Argentina is simply not acceptable. Sanford should have resigned immediately.  While it may be natural to simply look at Sanford’s actions at face-value as another politician with personal marriage troubles, there is something far more serious and relevant to focus on. Sanford is yet another politician at the governor level who abdicated his duty, displayed severely reckless behavior and threw away all personal responsibility and authority he had over the state and citizens he governed for sex and romance.

The reasons why Sanford’s relationship with his wife, his adultery and family situation is none of the public’s business and I will not focus on it in this column. But, I will say that in Sanford’s case, there is a reason to look at his wife and their troubled marriage more than usual in a case like this only because Sanford’s wife was a key influence in the state capital. Mrs. Sanford was one of the governor’s closest advisers. She sat in on many meetings and often shaped discussion and policy inside the Governor’s Office.  I find that wrong also. Just at the people did not elect Michelle Obama to open her mouth and give her opinion on anything, Mrs. Sanford too was not elected. I find it completely disagreeable that a spouse should or would have any substantial role in shaping policy. 

But that aside, Governor Sanford displayed a totally reckless, even dangerous, character flaw in judgement so selfish and void of sound mind that his resignation should have come immediately. This is the head of a government who literally sneaked out of the country to fly hours away for a tryst with a woman in Argentina while back home in South Carolina, the state government was literally left leaderless.  As governor, Sanford misled his staff including security officials to his whereabouts. Sanford did not notify second-in-command to where he was going or how he could reached. The governor also ignored and broke state law since South Carolina law mandates that whenever the sitting governor leaves the state’s borders, a formal temporary (and technical) transfer of power must be given to the second-in-command. That was not done.   Sanford essentially junked all authority, responsibility and law for a honey in South America.  He has to go.

It’s completely absurd to think that an elected and sitting governor of a state would literally keep his staff, security, party and others in the dark as to where he was but yet that is what apparently took place. Think about it. A governor of a state was literally missing in the minds of many in the capital. The man lied like a junkie. He sneaked like a junkie too by slipping in and out of the state to take a flight to Argentina to get his fix. His office, the law, his responsibility–everything–meant nothing to him. Imagine the chaos and fallout that would have occurred if a natural disaster, large-scale crime or any other unfortunate or serious incident developed while he was missing.

Sanford’s actions are not unlike two other governors in recent times who abdicated the duty of the office for personal sexual satisfaction.  Eliot Spitzer of New York was a serious case too because the man’s actions were severely reckless and hypocritical. They also smacked of an arrogant abuse of power and inflated ego. Spitzer’s cavorting with paid escorts–a technicality to cover-up prostitution–was something he used to prosecute and some would say persecute others and put them in jail. He also held countless press conferences and delivered scores of speeches concerning his pursuit of punishing those in the private and public sectors who abused their positions and the public trust. He had to go.

Then, there is to me the worst one of them all in recent times: New Jersey Governor James McGreevey.  I still believe (and have from the moment he resigned) that this man should have served prison time for what he did. This man was so reckless with power and so void of responsible decision-making that he placed his lover in a critical state security position in the aftermath of the attacks of September 11, 2001 so that he could be physically close to him (his lover was another man). Yes, while Ground Zero was still smoking, while the bodies of residents of his state were being recovered and buried and while others went missing, McGreevey’s paramount concern was to place a lover in the state’s critical security position even though the man had no reason, accomplishments, skills, experience or knowledge to be in that office. 

Keep in mind that when McGreevey decided to make a newly-created office assigned the responsibility to protect and defend the Garden State from terrorist acts nothing more than a convenient place to put a lover so that he could see him faster and without needing to create reasons, tensions were high in the country. Military jets were still patrolling the skies of America. Police and National Guard officers were on the streets with machine guns and we were waiting for the next attack. But McGreevey was more concerned with getting his jollies off with a lover. Reckless. Irresponsible. Criminal.

The actions of these three men (and there are others of course) represent just one of the reasons Americans are fed up with politics and officeholders in general. Our elected officials are increasingly resembling the old European aristocracy that filled capitals–disconnected, uninterested, over-compensated and filled with contempt or lack of any duty to the masses they served.

Sanford is the latest disgrace that has turned our ‘leadership’ into nothing but folly. The incompetence of our elected officials is so bad that even Democrat strategists immediately went on the news networks to caution anyone from making ‘political hay’ out of Sanford’s situation. They know, as we know, there is so much dirt in Washington and the state capitals that nothing but a mud-bowl would develop from such endeavors. The public around the nation should take this latest example of political recklessness and use it to deliver messages to incumbents and leaders of both parties that enough is enough.

Honoring Reagan In The Land of The Lost

By Gene King

KingNewsMedia.com

The setting was most poignant but extremely ironic. There she was–Nancy Reagan–sitting in Statuary Hall of the Capitol Building, listening to various speakers wax poetic about her husband, the 40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan. As Mrs. Reagan glanced beyond the front rows of personal, family and political friends of her and her husband, she saw a packed rotunda filled with many members of Congress and among them, many of the Democrats that now hold an untouchable vise-grip on Washington, D.C.

Publicly gracious, Mrs. Reagan kept the smile on and offered brief remarks to the audience in attendance to see the unveiling of a seven-foot statue of her husband that will share the room with the likes of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. The former First Lady emphasized her appreciation to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s work in organizing the event and became teary, emotional and for passing moments silence as she struggled to compose herself once she shared the fact the last time she was in the room was for the state funeral of her husband.

I am sure there were many in the room who were also solemn but for an additional reason. In the midst of holding a ceremony to honor the 40th president, they looked at the statue, looked at Mrs. Reagan, set their eyes upon guests and speakers from President Reagan’s administration and realized that in some ways, the unveiling of a statue to honor their hero –and for many the primary influence for careers in politics or public service–was taking place during one of the darkest periods for Republicans and Conservatives is some time.

The irony of it all could not have been greater. Reagan, the Great Communicator– the champion of small government, less intrusive government, lower taxes, an embracer of Faith, individual rights (including speech and gun ownership), an aggressive foe of Liberalism, entitlements and foreign enemies of the nation–was being lauded with a gorgeous statue when the government he once led could not be farther away from what he once stood for and worked hard to achieve.

The Reagan Revolution was real and lasting. President Reagan took a battered Republican Party and reshaped it to his ideals. He took a giant listless population of Democrats unhappy with their party and won them over with economic, social, political and military policies that made sense for them to embrace. He took a nation down on itself and licking wounds from Watergate, inflation, unemployment and humiliation from Iran and excited it again. He made Americans believe in America again. He made the armed forces believe in itself again. He, in effect, breathed new life into the nation and woke it up by shaking it out from its depression, victimized attitude and self-doubt.

The irony of the ceremony could not possibly have been greater. Sworn into office in 1981, one can make a sound case that his ‘revolution’ lingers right into today by all those who champion his ideals and oppose what is going on in the White House and Congress today. But for all intents and purposes, President Reagan’s active legacy in Washington today is basically a withered candlestick with a small, faint flame flickering in a wind that threatens to snuff it out.

I am sure that the contradiction of it all weighed on the minds of many at the ceremony who looked around the room and saw Democrats today who would (and probably do) demonize Mr. Reagan whenever they can do it. Let us not forget that during his presidency, the Democrats aggressively attacked Mr. Reagan for policies, actions and even his thoughts that he shared which in many instances did not take long for him to be proven correct.

Be sure to remember that President Reagan was severely criticised by Democrats for one of his most glorious moments. When he stood at the Berlin Wall and demanded for it to be taken down, Democrats rushed to the media to bash him and call him reckless and warmonger. It was one of the defining moments for one of the greatest American anti-Communists this nation has ever had and the Democrats took that moment to trash him and display their very policy of accommodation, appeasement and weakness on the international stage and with military foes that sunk our standing around the world.

Be sure to remember that President Reagan was soundly attacked by Democrats for calling the Soviet Union “the evil empire” publicly and for clearly stating his intention of doing everything he could do to defeat it without firing a shot. So, he did all he could to fan the flames of democracy in Poland. He built up NATO. He built up the American military and he professed commitment to researching a space defense system that would protect us from incoming Soviet missiles. It became known as the “Star Wars Program” and Democrats mocked it. Soviets shook in their boots. In the end, Reagan won.

President Reagan was also unafraid to praise his country. He was a proud flag-waver and through his enthusiasm generated a country to follow him and exhibit pride again through flags, songs and even red-white-blue apparel. Democrats offered snide remarks. The people loved it. It made them feel good and have hope again. Once again, Reagan won.

The litany of things President Reagan believed in, fought for and accomplished is long and with nearly every single one of them I can counter it with the protests of a Democrat Party that was growing more and more radically liberal–and therefore more and more out-of-touch with Americans as Reagan’s presidency went on. The man was clear on many things including his resolve that he did not trust government. It was, according to him, literally the problem and not the solution. He was clear that he did not support taxes. To Mr. Reagan, the ever-increasing size of taxes served only to keep the government’s control over people and make them nothing more than needy wards of the state who were hooked on handouts. These are the reasons and many more too, that to this day Democrats cannot hide their anger, contempt and sheer disrespect for the man. President Reagan was not only one the most aggressive anti-Communists of the past century, he was also one of the most strident opposers to the Democrat Party too. The fact that he openly and repeatedly shared with Americans the story of why he left the Democrats was just salt in their eyes as well.

It is funny how historical happenings converge. In the shadow of the Reagan years the seeds for a far more liberal Democrat Party–ever bordering on Socialist or even Communist tendencies–were being planted. What we are experiencing today is the reaping. Looking back, Bill Clinton was in the end a moderate Democrat that, I believe connected withthe masses and still enjoys deep popularity because he was not the ultra-liberal ideologue that the current president is and has filled his key positions withtoo. Now, maybe some will say that the only reason why President Clinton was a moderate was because he had no choice and had to work with a Republican Congress. That may very well be true. But a sheer ideologue, like President Barack Obama, would not care about such things. At least President Clinton worked with the situation at hand after an American public became spooked over having an entire government under the control of the Democrat Party and voted in Republicans for balance.

The lack of balance today along with one of the most partisan and liberal governments the country has ever had is what disturbs and worries so many that were in the Statuary Hall for the Reagan dedication. President Obama truly is the anti-Reagan by nearly every conceivable measure. The president has radically increased the size of government–and its cost–to record breaking proportions in a matter of months. The president has given the government more power than ever before in meddling withbusiness and has rapidly moved this bloated and powerful government to more Socialist leanings than ever before as well with the “investment” (some would say taking over) of AIG, General Motors and Chrysler to name a few.

Our current president apologizes for our country so much or offers self-criticism so often to foreign nations that it is embarrassing. Instead of offering why America felt and acted the ways it did over the years, our current president would rather go on apologist tours and practice the same olive-branch and idealist policies from Democrats past that have almost always resulted in motivating our enemies to gain strength and courage to attack us. Can you even imagine President Reagan listening to that?

Many have labeled President nothing more than “Jimmy Carter Two” and they may be right. Normally, I would say several months into anyone presidency is too soon to cement labels and develop a finite decision but the sheer number of moves this president has made in such a short time to grow the size, cost and power of the government is frightening. There are numerous traits the current president and his administration share with the disastrous Carter government and that is frightening too. Both men embrace large government, costly government, entitlement programs, a naive world view of our enemies, a lack of focus and respect for the military and strong defense, a more intrusive government in people’s personal lives and the benefit of having a Congress in their hands to pass whatever they want to push.

We know that in the end, the Carter years had sunk the nation into a pit of economic, social and military molasses. We have, at the very least, nearly four years more of President Obama. One can only hope that that some of that Reagan magic is still around and that there are future leaders who embrace his form of government that will protect that withering flame and transfer it to large and tall candle and make the fire glow strong again. The nation needs it.

Conservative “Nutjobs” – Got Gitmo Right

By Jonathan Cousar

Conservatives Got it Right

“European Countries May Take Detainees”. That’s how the hopeful December, 2008 Washington Post article described the bright promise at the dawn of the Obama administration.  Liberals everywhere were elated at the prospect of genuine HOPE that things would finally CHANGE! On the eve of the inauguration of this charismatic and likable new president, liberals believed we would finally get some help and cooperation from our European allies.  (Of course all the while denying the ample help and cooperation they gave during the Bush years).

After Obama’s election, giddy men in high-level government positions on the European Left were promising to help us unload the “Guantanamo Concentration Camp” (as they call the prison) of “detainees” (as they call the terrorists).

But conservatives had always said that Obama’s charisma and attractiveness were not going to make countries suddenly go against their own interests.  Conservatives believed that Europe would never take a substantial number of the Gitmo prisoners.

For this belief, conservatives were ridiculed in the media as yutzes who wouldn’t know their heads from a hole in the wall.  It was said that conservatives just didn’t understand how touchy the rest of the world was.  We didn’t understand that their feelings could be so easily hurt that they would hold back vital help in a time of great need. We simply didn’t understand that having a pigheaded president who did what he thought was right, regardless of who agreed, was so offensive to the rest of the world that they would never again cooperate with us on anything.

We were told that if only we could elect a president who had empathy for other countries, then things could finally start to CHANGE .  We had to elect a president who understood the great offenses America has committed against all the nations of the world.  Someone who would even own up to and apologize for those offenses.  We were told if we could elect someone like that, then things would get better.  The world would begin to cooperate.

Well, we were told wrong. Not the first time either! It turns out that once again, conservatives got it right.  Conservatives showed a more accurate understanding of the real world.  The world has not become more cooperative – even in the face of genuine apologies and contrition on the part of our new president.  Obama has personally apologized to Europe for America’s alleged arrogance and derision.  Yet even in the face of that, France has decided to take just one Gitmo terrorist off our hands.  Germany which originally promised to take nine, now says Nein to Nine ! They are taking none.  And it’s not just the Europeans who aren’t helping – Obama, despite his charms can’t even get his own Democratic congress to help out!  Congress has voted NO to funding the closing of Gitmo!

In light of the fact that Europe, and specifically Germany, has decided not to help empty Guantanamo Bay of terrorists (sorry, we should say “detainees” – “terrorists” is so demeaning), it’s instructive to look back on what was said then.  Conservatives always knew that not only would Europeans not take Gitmo terrorists, neither would Americans! And that’s exactly what has happened.  Germany has said no, France has said no and the US CONGRESS has said NO! And that’s NO to a president everyone loves!

Don’t we now owe George Bush an apology for saying Europe didn’t help us because he was so unlikable ? It turns out they were using his low popularity ratings as the excuse for not taking terrorists.  The real reason was they had concerns about their own security.  Basically they are cowards who know it would antagonize Muslim fundamentalists in their own country and possibly prompt terror attacks against them. 

Here are some juicy excerpts from the Washington Post reporting that European leaders were giddy about helping the new president rid the world of this embarrassing problem. And below that is an article from Agence France Presse detailing the German No.  Read this in light of hindsight.  Read this knowing that France has agreed to take just one terrorists, Germany – NONE, and for all its big talk – Portugal still none.  And ask yourself… who got it right?  Conservatives who said Europe would provide no substantial help no matter who was president?  Or Liberals who said the only reason Europe wasn’t taking them was because they hated Bush so much.

WHO GOT IT RIGHT?

December 28, 2008
Washington Post
EUROPEAN COUNTRIES MAY TAKE DETAINEES

European nations have begun intensive discussions both within and among their governments on whether to resettle detainees from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as a significant overture to the incoming Obama administration, according to senior European officials and U.S. diplomats.

The willingness to consider accepting prisoners who cannot be returned to their home countries, because of fears they may be tortured there, represents a major change in attitude on the part of European governments. Repeated requests from the Bush administration that European allies accept some Guantanamo Bay detainees received only refusals.

(THIS is what we were told – that Europe would not take them as long as Bush was president.  This was what Conservatives knew would be proven to be a lie as soon as Obama took office) .

The Bush administration “produced the problem,” Karsten Voigt, coordinator of German-American cooperation at the German Foreign Ministry, said in a telephone interview. “With Obama, the difference is that he tries to solve it.”

(Voigt is saying that since Bush “produced the problem” Germany would not help.  He then indicated that Obama was different… Obama was trying to solve the problem and therefore Germany would help.  But Germany DID NOT HELP!  Germany took ZERO prisoners… just as conservatives predicted they would do).

The Portuguese government pushed what had been private discussions in Europe into the open this month when Foreign Minister Luís Amado brought up the issue in a letter to his counterparts in other countries. “The time has come for the European Union to step forward,” he wrote. “As a matter of principle and coherence, we should send a clear signal of our willingness to help the U.S. government in that regard, namely through the resettlement of detainees. As far as the Portuguese government is concerned, we will be available to participate.”

(So far, despite their big talk, the Portugese government has not yet taken any prisoners).

Amado said, “I believe the new administration will have the conditions to create a new dynamic of cooperation,” Amado said. He noted that when he first raised the issue of Guantanamo Bay at a meeting of E.U. foreign ministers about seven months ago, some countries resisted assisting the Bush administration.

(Remember, this article was published Dec. 23, 2008.  France has agreed to take ONE prisoner, Germany NONE and still Portugal – NONE!  Amado said it was because “some countries resisted assisting the Bush administration.”  Well now, they’re ALL resisting assisting the Obama administration)!

“I assume the new administration will have someone on a plane to Europe within minutes of Obama being sworn in,” said Sarah E. Mendelson, director of the Human Rights and Security Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the author of a report on closing Guantanamo Bay.

(WISHFUL THINKING)!

Now, here’s the article from May 12, 2009 showing what ACTUALLY happened:

May 12, 2009
Agence France Presse
GERMANY REJECTS GUANTANAMO INMATES

Citing security concerns, Germany has reversed a decision to take in nine Chinese detained at Guantanamo Bay. Officials in some German federal states also made U-turns and now oppose the inmates’ resettlement , AFP reported.

The interior minister of Bavaria, Joachim Herrmann, said “no” to the move as he told German media Bild that security intelligence showed seven of the nine Uygurs – Muslims from Northwest China’s Xinjiang autonomous region – had received training from the East Turkestan Islamic Movement and had contacts with militant Islamist organizations.

“We have no interest in exposing ourselves to additional risk,” Holger Hoevelmann, interior minister of Germany’s Saxony-Anhalt state, told the Frankfurter Rundschau daily newspaper.

In case you’re missing what happened here… Germany NEVER had any intention of taking Guantanamo prisoners, but while Bush was still president they could pretend and blame their decision on him.  They could tell the world “we won’t take them because George Bush caused this problem and we refuse to help him out of it.”  When the reality all the while was they wouldn’t take them because they understood the security risk they posed.

Conservatives knew this all along and liberals didn’t.  Conservatives had a much better grasp on reality here than liberals did.

Jonathan Cousar is an editor and writer for AmericanFreedomNow.com  You can find more of his writings at
AmericanFreedomNow

Hey Republicans: Get To Work!

By Walter Krull

Is the Republican Party self-destructive? Dysfunctional? Ignorant? Just plain stupid?

Unemployment continues to rise. Foreclosures keep rising too as does the contraction of business across all sectors in our economy as companies go out-of-business or severely scale back operations. Credit is still nearly impossible to get despite billions of tax money poured into banks. Anywhere between 48 and 60 million Americans have no health insurance at all or have limited access. In short, we’re a mess and I believe edging closer to an actual depression than recession.

Yet, the clueless and unimaginative Republicans either can’t see the golden opportunity that has presented itself to them or they are just too dumb and entrenched in their old party-line politics to do anything about it. As much as the current Democrat Party may be controlled by sick and pathological liberal leftists who are way out-of-touch with Americans with their endless sermons to us about atheism, the environment, political correctness and slaughtering babies nine months in the womb on-demand, the Republican Party is too influenced by big business and blinded by an extreme limited view on things as per business people and the high-income bracket.

Even the most anti-Democrat has a hard time today supporting a Republican Party that has done little since January to deliver good ideas to the public in answer to the daunting challenges we face economically. Yes, their call for tax cuts on personal income and for corporate tax reductions are sound and solid answers but both are cornerstones in their ideology. They would be important changes that would provide benefit and stimulus to the economy but they must go much farther than that. In addition, it’s time Republicans ended their laziness and assumptions too and get off their asses to explain to the people just why tax cuts for citizens and business are good ideas.  Give us tangible reasons for it. Give us detailed theories of expected results. You know, work.

Then, after doing that, how about shaking off the cobwebs, complacency and lack of creativity and do what politicians and political parties do: campaign with ideas direct to the people. But first get out the thinking caps and draw-up a comprehensive counter-plan to the president and the Democrats that control the government. 

You can start by stopping this self-destructive tunnel vision approach that leans too heavily on appeasing business and the wealthy because even if all of them came out to vote for you, they are in the minority.  Start expanding your reach. And here’s a thought: accept and embrace your moderate brethren in who victory will come if you allow them to lead. It’s time to face a universal truth: a majority of citizens may love traditional values and agree with Republicans on topics like abortion, marriage, gun ownership, less government and less taxes  but most if not all people are going to be more concerned about  food on the table and a roof over their heads first.

Since the Republican Party is so much more about individualism and personal prosperity merging with a favorable business climate how about actually doing something to really merge them together? The Republican Party is far more realistic and in touch with the realities of economic policies and how they relate to a pro-growth atmosphere and yet it has offered little to counter the president’s massive and all-too familar Democrat strategy of bloating government’s size and people’s dependency on it like a tick ready to pop.

The Republican Party was defeated because it didn’t connect with enough people economically. The Democrats have rarely won the White House since 1968 because they didn’t connect with the people socially.  But since we’re facing the first depression since the 1920’s, social concerns are mere trivialities when you’re jobless, sick, hungry, homeless and scared.

There’s nothing coming from the Republicans right now that encourages me to believe they will do any of this now.  What the pary needs is an influx of new young blood. It needs new strategies and a commitment to widen it base and ideology. Being merely the “opposition party” isn’t going to cut it. The party has had a long history of great thinkers who knew how important the delicate balance of free-market capitalism fused with enough social policies to generate prosperity was to the country.  It’s time for that to happen again because the party has forgotten it serves people. It needs people. It represents people.  Many of them are looking for reasons to vote for them. They should begin by actually working on it and working for it.

Walter Krull is a frequent writer for KingNewsMedia.com

Racism Is Good (for some)

By Charles Boz

“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”

“It (ethnicity and sex of a judge) may and will make a difference in our judging.”

These are only two of the numerous racially-tinged comments made by the apparently race-obsessed and deeply hypocritical and inconsistent United States Supreme Court Nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

This is the same woman who sided with a black nurse who filed a racial discrimination suit because she worked among a staff of Filipinos at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan who spoke in their native language around her but denied justice for 19 white firefighters in New Haven, Connecticut by dismissing their racial discrimination complaints that they were stopped from receiving promotions because none of the black applicants passed the test.

Sotomayor gained large applause from radical and separatist Hispanic organizations including the bigot-filled La Raza, Latino Movement USA and Mexicano Movement when she declared at loony leftist Berkeley in 2001 that it was correct and understandable for judges who were non-white to make decisions based on race alone: “……..our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging,” Sotomayor said.

Sotomayor seems to have a race problem and predictably has been embraced by an ever-out-of-control far left spiral of the Democrat Party and its growing number of sicko extremist creeps and hypocritical disciples who are clearly all for racism and double-standards…as long as it benefits them.

The fact Sotomayor was selected by President Obama is about as boringly predictable, racist and hypocritical as it gets. But, so was Obama’s campaign and behavior of an overwhelming majority of corrupt American media openly supporting him and pissing on the people it was supposed to serve with journalistic integrity.

Obama’s selected court nominee really just pushes along a newly installed racist ideology in the White House that blatantly practices bigotry but takes advantage of a nation’s capital currently monopolized by a Democrat Party controlled by African and Hispanic-American bigots and racists along with squeaky-wheel whining “minorities” that gained political and economic prosperity by Obama’s election. For them racism works. It’s good to divide the people. Point out differences and drive policy, law and behavior that benefits non-whites under the guise of double-speak words like diversity, multiculturalism and equality.

Hell, the biggest bigot in the White House is the First Lady herself who could never pass a litmus test for being a well-balanced and unprejudiced individual. Her anti-white bigotry and laughable but remedial “anger” worked with enough people that her stylish victimization–such the rage with liberals–passed her off as a sympathetic figure to them. That’s not to ignore the fact the president has done a good job to date of taking his unhinged and politically dangerous spouse off the speaking circuit so that her racist tendencies don’t show too often.

But it must be questioned why all of this has been permitted anyway. And, for sake of discussion, let’s eliminate one of the obvious and major answers which is that a complicit and criminal media is nothing more than a propaganda arm of the president and his party today so most of the ugliness coming from Obama and his administration, the Democrats, the First Lady and the putrid records of Congressional leaders like Pelosi, Reid and Franks are simply not offered to the people.

Truth is that Sotomayor should not be nominated due to her clear pattern of infusing race into her thinking. Imagine a white judge, male or not, publicly admit his heritage and ethnicity (let’s say Italian or Irish for instance) was a major influence on his decisions so like or it not…tough. But Sotomayor has far more many other things that should be used as legitimate reasons for her denial to the Supreme Court including a open pattern of being an activist judge, literal laziness on the bench where she also has a pattern of taking long, intricate and complicated cases that fill hundreds of pages and skimming on the reading to come up with curiously quick and short-answered judgments that do little to resolve anything at all.

Truth is that if a white spouse of a presidential candidate spoke like Mrs. Obama did during the campaign: invoking racially-toned “us and them” speeches for instance and penned a university paper at an exclusive institution of higher education that painfully offered judgmental views on students of different skin-color, her husband would have been severely hurt by an orgasmic slanted media yelling and screaming.

Truth is that if a white presidential candidate belonged to a church whose pastor repeatedly pissed on America, welcomed an endless string of white supremacists and bigots to insult and stereotype blacks and befriended as well as financially supported a preacher sick with racist and separatist tendencies, he would never, ever have been elected because he would’ve never been nominated in the first place.

President Obama typifies and represents many things. Legitimate racial transparency and neutrality is not one of them. After all, this was a man who marketed himself as a black man instead of a bi-racial man–a man literally half-white–but all black in messaging, image and perception by design. Get ready for more of the same. You have a president in office whose own racist tendencies and those around him, I believe, will eventually seriously hurt him because his decisions, like choosing Sotomayor, are really based in skin-color politics that would never be accepted for a white president.

Instead of the presidential seal following Obama, a picture of the Roman God Janus would be more appropriate as the two-face analogy perfectly fits.

Charles Boz is a frequent columnist for KingNewsMedia.com

A Stimulating Snow Job

KingNewsMedia.com Editors Op/Ed

May 20, 2009

As we approach the mid-point of the year, it is becoming increasingly and more painfully clear every day that the “stimulus package” and all its related bills and budgets that were frantically passed in the early days of the new Obama Administration and Democrat-controlled Congress was a monumental example of bad government. I cannot label it a “mistake” or an “error” because it was not at all. The bill that was passed so hurriedly was intentionally approved and signed the way it was. There were no mistakes here. Just what I believe will be proven to become a federal failure of historical proportions.

 

Do you recall how in the euphoria of Obama’s first weeks before and after his inauguration there was a mad dash to write, pass and sign a “stimulus” bill? Do you recall how Obama held press conferences every other day while he was the president-elect and aggressively pushed the outgoing-Congress and inc0ming-Congress to get the job done as quickly as possible? Do you recall the new president’s gloomy, fatalistic and all-too daunting comments in January about how bad things looked and how the nation was on the edge of a cliff ready to drop? Do you recall how a complicit media–overwhelmingly in the pocket of the new president–fawned over him and gave a free pass to practically everything he said and did? Do you recall how the media paid more attention to what the new First Lady wore and if the president’s children were going to get a playground on the White House grounds instead of paying attention and dissecting the economic bill being written and passed on Capitol Hill?

 

 Well, here is what we got for it all: a terribly and hastily written bill that contained many pieces of political “pork” (wasteful spending) and extremely short-sighted and amateurish language that provided so many loopholes and vague instructions that it could not possibly have been passed with any real thought. But, of course no real thought was given to it since the bill, several hundred pages long, was not even READ in Congress. To be clear, there were a few members in Congress on both sides who called for calm in passing this package and requested more time to review it. But those folks, in my opinion true heroes in government, were simply shouting in the wilderness.

 

Now, as the summer approaches, we can plainly see this mother-of-all-economic-bills will be a failure simply because of the way it was drafted and passed. The problem is this bill was not a routine bill. Its importance in the history of our nation could not be elevated more. The influence it should have had was enormous. It was to be a solution-provider. It was to be literally a stimulus to get us back on track and moving forward with confidence, focus and motivation. It was to generate jobs, investment, lending and all those great and fundamental things that make an economy work. Instead, we have glaringly bad bill that may, ironically, hurt us more than help us. But, that should not be surprising today since it becomes clearer everyday that our government may be the worst impediment to prosperity in the nation.

 

All the folks who have complained that our government is seriously over-bloated, out-of-touch, ineffective, corrupt and irresponsible are correct. We are in serious trouble when a new president with such power in Congress along with a party in such control of Washington, D.C. with such backing of a partisan media and approval of the public cannot even pass a meaningful, intellectual, honest and effective bill that we desperately needed. As if we ever needed another example of how power corrupts, we have it here at the worst possible moment. The sheer power and ego that came into play with Congress and the White House experiencing near untouchable control led each to recklessly act without the thought and meaning they promised and so many Americans believed would occur.

 

Among the most glaring failures of the economic stimulus were the minimizing of two critical features that should have actually been two of the most dominating features of the bill. First and foremost, this bill did practically nothing, zero, I mean nothing for one of the most fundamental components of our economy—small business. How this segment could be so terribly omitted is coming back to haunt the administration and Congress as each day passes because you cannot have a recovery without it. Data and testimony coming in from across the country is showing that small businesses are failing, close-to-failing or doing whatever they can do to survive and ride the storm–including eliminating jobs.

The other monumental failures of our government recently–the tons of money given to the largest banks, insurance companies and automakers–have done little if anything for small business. Besides not receiving anything substantial in the stimulus package, small businesses are also dealing with the fact that the “credit crunch” is practically as bad as June nears as it was at the start of the year. The very banks that received obscene amounts of tax money have yet to provide attainable credit to business. Smaller banks that customarily loan to small and mid-sized companies cannot provide loans simply because these banks themselves cannot get the large mega-banks to give them money either. It is natural to give the large public companies all the attention when it comes to layoffs and they certainly have cut thousands of jobs. But this is a bad habit. What does not get attention is the thousands of jobs lost by smaller companies too. And as this segment continues to falter, more jobs will be cut, offices will close and other businesss relying on those companies will hurt too and do the same and there you have an unending cycle.

 

In addition, the truth is that most of the “work” that will come from the stimulus package will not be for the bulk of small business. Those that will benefit will be those in a select few segments including, surprise, government-related agencies or programs and construction. And that brings us to the second terrible omission: infrastructure. There may indeed be some jobs and projects generated in construction or related fields but they will not number anything like they should because the stimulus package allocated less than 25 percent of its massive cost to infrastructure.

 

Again, here is another example of how terribly ineffective and hideously clueless our government actually is today. You would think that in this highly-partisan era, one thing that most Americans and politicians could agree on is that our nation’s infrastructure was in need of repair and that there is more than enough work to do and it would be public money well spent to benefit……well, you know the public.

Nope.

 

There would be more tangible and faster ecomomic results from assigning more money to infrastructure projects than what the bill as written could ever do. Build a bridge, repair a highway, install sound barriers, medians or lights etc. etc. and many more businesses (and therefore people) would benefit. Instead, we have a bill that truly is for the few it seems. In fact, since June is approaching and the stimulus has been passed for months now, it is legitimate and fair to question just where is all this money now.

 

The early “returns” of the bill are coming in and I predict we are just going to see more of the same–a few jobs here and there mainly reserved for agencies, companies and people comfortably entrenched in the system.

 

As I write this column today, I point to several things today that really represent what this false stimulus bill is all about:

1. The Federal Reserve issued a far-darker economic forecast for the nation than it did in the wake of the passing of the stimulus package. Now, it says the national unemployment rate could hit 9.6 percent. But the Fed has been underestimating the jobless rate for a while now. So, if you take its past predictions, unemployment could hit double-digits. So, again where are the jobs that a stimulus is supposed to generate if we are now facing year without job growth?
2. The Fed also issued a far-gloomier outlook on Gross Domestic Product (GDP)–essentially all the goods and services we produce. Now, the forecast is that the GDP could decrease two percent. It previously predicted a maximum decrease of 1.3 percent. So, let us ask one more time where is the stimulus package’s influence and effect in our nation? We not only have less jobs but less being produced by exisiting business.
3. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner freely admitted today all the government’s manuevers did nothing to free up credit for small business and provide direct aid. Yet, the largest banks that received aid are making profits and want to return the money back so they indeed have money to lend. Hell, it is ourmoney. Furthermore, the tons of tax funds given to General Motors increasingly seems for naught as more observers belive every day the company will go into bankruptcy–which many called for it to do from the beginning.
4. New Jersey issued some employment data today. New Jersey is important to note because despite being in one of the hardest hit regions in this economy, it retains prominence as one of the wealthiest states in the nation. It is also one of the smallest states in the nation too and best educated so what happens there is a good barometer of where we are and where we are headed. Well, the exodus of jobs continues. The state lost more than 14,000 private sector jobs in April across multiple industries. There was one sector of growth. Yep, it was government. More than 1200 jobs were added to the government ranks and many of those were officially attributed to the stimulus package. Keep in mind New Jersey, one of the smallest states in the country landwise and in population, has one of the most bloated governments in the union and is currently seeking a $2 billion loan.

 

To me, all of this smacks of history repeating. Many people believe former president Bush wasted a historical chance to do immense good for the country in the aftermath of the brutal attacks of September 11th, 2001. An opportunity to induce change in government for the better and elevate the presidency to more meaning and effectiveness was wasted.

I believe President Obama has done the same exact thing.

 

People typically forget President Bush, like Obama, came into office labeling himself an outsider and someone who wanted to topple the status quo in Washington, D.C. and enact change in the beltway to better serve the people. Many believe President Bush failed at that. I believe President Obama, like his predecessor just did the same thing. He had an enormous historical and political opportunity in the wake of a terrible economy to force the change he proclaimed. Instead, it seems to me the economic stimulus package could be his Iraq War. As time passes, the cost and failure of this bill will become more apparent and the president may have no choice but to go and attempt to throw more money and legislation at the problem much like President Bush had to throw more money and troops in the Middle East. In both cases, similarities abound.

 

Both seemed rushed actions with little attention to details. Both seemed haphazzardly created without much thought to actual functionality, cost and exit strategy. Both seemed more influenced by those around the president than the president himself. Both actions seemed to benefit people and concerns already profiting from the system. In the end, it seems the people, for whom each man and each Congress serve, failed to take care of basics–the people.

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