Showing posts with label Clinton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Clinton. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Ebony & Ivory - Obama Deficits & Bush Deficits Together

In back-to-back press conferences (held Nov. 24, 2008) by Bush (first) and Obama (second), the men either stated or implied that they were sort of working together to muscle the nation through this tough economic period. Bush said, “I talked to Obama about the decision we made. I told the American people, and I told the president-elect when I first met him, that anytime we were to make a big decision during this transition, he will be informed, as will his team.” The plans discussed are still in play to this day during the Obama Administration. Image Credit: St. Louis Post-Dispatch (2008)

Ebony & Ivory - Obama Deficits & Bush Deficits Together

These figures do not live together in perfect harmony here in Carter's Second Term.

Question:

Did you know that the Barack Obama Administration inherited deficits from the previous Bush Administration? Really?!

How can the Obama Administration continue to float the tired old saw that they just happen to inherit large deficits so it will take more just to dig ourselves out?

After sixty short days, the Congress that the Obama Administration actually DID INHERIT, and Barack Obama himself, increased the commitments to spend taxpayer money on social programs alone from the 3% of GDP to 20% of GDP ... or an increase in social spending programs of an eerie 6.66 times greater level.

It is called Deficit Spending (socialism) - and now foreign countries (China and Russia) are suggesting that the world economy adopt a new currency on which to peg/judge the value of other currencies other than the United States dollar - the formally most stable currency in the world.

Graphic showing the Bush Administration and the committed and projected Obama Administration deficits side-by-side. Graphic Credit: The Washington Post via the Heritage Foundation (2009)

This excerpted and edited from the Heritage Foundation -

Bush Deficit vs. Obama Deficit in Pictures

The Heritage Foundation - Posted March 24th, 2009 at 10.20am

President Barack Obama has repeatedly claimed that his budget would cut the deficit by half by the end of his term. But as Heritage analyst Brian Riedl has pointed out, given that Obama has already helped quadruple the deficit with his stimulus package, pledging to halve it by 2013 is hardly ambitious. The Washington Post has a great graphic which helps put President Obama’s budget deficits in context of President Bush’s.

What’s driving Obama’s unprecedented massive deficits? Spending. Riedl details:

* President Bush expanded the federal budget by a historic $700 billion through 2008. President Obama would add another $1 trillion.

* President Bush began a string of expensive financial bailouts. President Obama is accelerating that course.

* President Bush created a Medicare drug entitlement that will cost an estimated $800 billion in its first decade. President Obama has proposed a $634 billion down payment on a new government health care fund.

* President Bush increased federal education spending 58 percent faster than inflation. President Obama would double it.
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* President Bush tilted the income tax burden more toward upper-income taxpayers. President Obama would continue that trend.

* President Bush presided over a $2.5 trillion increase in the public debt through 2008. Setting aside 2009 (for which Presidents Bush and Obama share responsibility for an additional $2.6 trillion in public debt), President Obama’s budget would add $4.9 trillion in public debt from the beginning of 2010 through 2016.
Reference Here>>

What the American people inherited with the Clinton and Bush Administrations (and thrust forward with the Obama Administration) were the building blocks of economic slavery and communism.

First, the Government took the position that every person that lived in America (citizen or non-citizen) deserved to be able to participate in home ownership. The Clinton Administration formed the quasi Governmental financial institutions backed by taxpayer money of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to insure low interest loans with reduced qualification requirements. Bonus programs were implemented and paid to the political (Democrat) management of these organizations.

Banks did not want to lend money with this level of low proof, so the management of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae had community development organizations (ACORN) prod them to loan money through lawsuits. In order to fuel demand for these weak mortgages (purchase commitments without the ability or intention to pay), the Government regulating agencies allowed them to be bundled and packaged as grouped financial instruments and sold to the highest bidder through insurance companies and financial institutions (AIG, WAMU, Wachovia, banks in France, Finland, Germany, and etc.).

What triggered this collapse is the increased payment demanded the mortgage companies when the initial period of artificially low inducement interest ran out and the actual value of the house became greater than the mortgage value of the home. People who originally had no real means to afford the home they committed to purchase in the first place, simply walked away with no real damage to their lives leaving all of the intuitions holding the mortgages without an income stream. The asset value of the bundled "Junk Mortgages" dropped and the economic crisis begins.

The sick logic in all of this is that the two-party Bush Government got our economy into this position and now the one-party Obama Government (of Obama/Pelosi/Reid) is smart enough to get us out … with heavier intervention and greater spending commitments - all on the American Taxpayer.

Does anyone in Government realize that this deficit spending of our collective money will all implode eventually?

We, at MAXINE, believe this strategy will turn our currency into the value of the bundled "Junk Mortgages" that helped to put us into this place to start with - all on the back of the Government move toward social engineering!

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

It's Official - Obama Is The Democrat Party Candidate

Can you spell F-I-A-S-C-O (with Obama for President logo), I knew you could. Graphic Credit: Edmund Jenks (MAXINE) 2008

It's Official - Obama Is The Democrat Party Candidate

A month ago, Barack Obama held a 15 point lead in the national polls while he was the "presumptive nominee" for the Democrat Political Party to be their candidate for President of the United States.

This afternoon, with Barack Obama and running-mate Joseph Biden holding down a 2 point deficit (that is a 17 point downturn) in the national polls made history while they became the official nominees for the Democrat Political Party to be their candidates for President, and Vice-President of the United States.

Hillary Clinton put an end to the roll-call vote procedure by having the process move to make the junior Senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, be made the nominee by Acclamation!

This from NowPublic -

Obama is NOMINATED! By Acclamation!
by politisite August 27, 2008 at 03:24 pm

Obama is NOMINATED! By Acclamation! Obama will accept publicly Thursday.

Video -
Barack Obama Nominated by Acclamation

This is History, Many folks are being interviewed who suffered as people of color are in tears and never thought a moment like this would occur in their lifetime. An African-American has been nominated to a major Democratic party. I must note here that Cynthia McKinney, an African-American woman was nominated to the Green party earlier. 2008 will be remembered as a historical date in the history books.

Update: 5:30 pm ET - Hillary Clinton has just been put into nomination and seconded. They then went on to Nominate Barack Obama by using a Iraq War Veteran Republican Medic who said that he wants a President that will consult with his enemies.

Update: 5:35 pm ET - Ken Salazar of Colorado has risen to Second the motion to nominate Barack Obama for President, says that Bush has truned his back on America and McCain will do the same.

Update 5:39 pm ET - Congresswoman Rep. Wasserman-Schultz of FL seconds the second. Says not to believe McCains ads. He will continue the failed policies of Bush. She reminds delegates that McCain wants to overturn Row v. Wade and who voted against the Equal Pay for woman (note he votes against any bill that has earmarks)

Update 5:44 pm ET- US Rep. Artur Davis of Alabama seconds, the seconds, second tp place Obama nomination.

Update 5:48 pm ET - Pelosi: "We will now proceed to the roll call of the states." Roll call will continue untill they have a nominee.

Update 5:50 o ET Alabama - 48 Obama 5 Clinton

Alaska 3 Clinton 15 Obama

American Somoa - 9 votes Obama

Arizona - 40 Obama, 27 Clinton

Arkansas - 47 Obama

California- Passes

Colorado - 55 Obama, 15 Clinton

CT - 38 Obama, 21 Clinton

DE-23 votes Obama

Abroad 2/12 votes for Clinton, 8 1/2 Obama

Note: the reason that California passed is that it did not want Clinton to lead Obama at any time and thus they passed so that would not occur

DC - Wants equal representation, 33 Obama, 7 Clinton

FL - 136 Obama, Clinton 51, 1 abstain

Barack Obama has currently a total of 452.5 votes (Clinton has 131.5). A total of 2,210 are needed for the nomination.

GA- 18 Clinton, 82 Obama

GUAM 4 Obama, 3 Clinton

HI - 26 Obama, 1 Clinton

ID - 3 Clinton, 20 Obama

IL- Passes - probably to be the last to push Obama over the needed delegates

IN- 75 Obama, Clinton 6

IA - 48 Obama, 9 Clinton

KS - 6 Clinton, 34 Obama

KY- 24 Clinton, 36 Obama

LA- 43 Obama, 7 Clinton

ME- 24 Obama, 7 Clinton

Barack Obama has currently a total of 844.5 votes (Clinton has 216.5). A total of 2,210 are needed for the nomination.

MD- 94 Obama, 6 Clinton

MA- 52 Clinton, 65 Obama

MI- 27 Clinton, 125 Obama

MN - 8 Clinton, 78 Obama

MS- 8 Clinton, 33 Obama

MO- 6 Clinton, 82 Obama

Barack Obama has currently a total of 1,321.5 votes (Clinton has 323.5). A total of 2,210 are needed for the nomination

MT- 7 Clinton, 18 Obama

NB- 31 votes 3 Clinton 28

NV - 8 Clinton, 25 Obama

NH- 30 Obama

NJ-127 Obama

NM- Yelded to IL

IL- Yelded to NY

NY- Clinton is on the floor will motion to end the vote, there needs to be a second, and an I vote, Obama is nomintated! by Acclimation.

Obama has accepted the nomination and will give his acceptance speech Thursday.
Hillary really moved the audience to tears and cheers. She concluded this in such a classy manner. It appears that it will bring the party together as they concluded in a great way.

The first African American EVER nominated by a Major party.
Reference Here>>

This all happened on a day that news about the connection of Barack Obama to the American Terrorist William Ayers was beginning to come out.

This on a day when pictures of the stage that Barack Obama plans to make his acception speech tomorrow at Invesco Field in front of an estimated 70,000 people. The backdrop features a larger than life Greek Architecture Acropolis type of structure and it causes a pause to many who see it ... is it over the top?

"The Barapolis" - Obama Stage Setup At Invesco To Resemble An Ancient Greek Temple - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s big speech on Thursday night will be delivered from an elaborate columned stage resembling a miniature Greek temple. /// The stage, similar to structures used for rock concerts, has been set up at the 50-yard-line, the midpoint of Invesco Field, the stadium where the Denver Broncos’ National Football League team plays. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (MAXINE) 2008

Will this type of event have Obama and Biden connect with the middle America fly-over conservative Democrats or will this venue have the same effect as Barack Obama's trip to Europe which caused much of the decline of his popularity in the polls?

Here, at Mr. Obama's neighborhood in the Democrat Party ... Can you spell F-I-A-S-C-O?

... we knew you could!

Friday, August 15, 2008

Obama’s Folly - A Triple Play For The Clinton Democrats In Denver

The Democratic National Convention Committee 2008 Logo - Image Credit: DNCC

Obama’s Folly - A Triple Play For The Clinton Democrats In Denver

The political convention for the Democrat Party is to be held in Denver starting August 25-28, 2008. Given recent concessions by Barack Obama in the negotiations for scheduled speakers and events, appears to be an exercise in Clinton political power.

This convention is supposed to be constructed to place the best face on the Democrat Party and highlight the characteristics of their nominee for President of the United States in order to build momentum with the voters across the nation to win the election.

If these negotiations were a pitch in baseball and the presumptive nominee Barack Obama were the batter … Obama just WHIFFED!

The way the schedule is set (for now), Barack Obama has allowed the Clinton’s to be an instrumental part of the main three days that the four day convention will be held with primetime speaking and presentation opportunities. The participation will end on Thursday when Hillary Clinton’s name will be placed into nomination so that delegates pledged to her can stand up and raise their voice.

This gesture is intended to be symbolic as the Democrats officially make Barack Obama their nominee at the Denver gathering … but we, at MAXINE, wonder how strong of a showing will this represent when the Democrat faithful on the convention floor will have been treated in each preceding day with a potential stirring speech by former president Bill Clinton, a Hollywood produced review presentation of the Clinton years as president and Hillary’s historic run for the nomination and to have Hillary be introduced in a speech to be delivered by Bill and Hillary’s daughter, Chelsea.

The way the schedule is set on Tuesday night Senator Hillary Clinton, who is a champion for working families and one of the most effective and empathetic voices in the country today, will be the headline prime-time speaker on Tuesday August 26th. Chelsea Clinton is expected to introduce her with a small speech after a video production put together by the Hollywood producers Linda Bloodworth-Thomason and Harry Thomason. Then on Wednesday, the leadoff primtime slot on the third night, Former President Bill Clinton, "will speak on Barack Obama’s commitment to a stronger and safer America, as well as the history of Democrats making positive change in the lives of all Americans." Lastly, on the fourth night, Hillary Clinton will be mentioned over and over again during the roll-call delegate vote before the assumed outcome of Barack Obama being nominated.

Who thinks this is a great way to introduce a candidate that has NO RECORD of accomplishment that would qualify him to become President of the United States?

Not Dick Morris!



This excerpted from the New York Post -

HILLARY PUSHES WAY ONTO STAGE
NAME TO BE PUT INTO NOMINATION AT CONVENTION
By MAGGIE HABERMAN - Last updated: 6:12 am - August 15, 2008 - Posted: 4:02 am - August 15, 2008

Hillary Rodham Clinton has muscled her way into formal recognition at the Democratic National Convention by successfully pressing
Barack Obama to allow her name to be placed into nomination, officials said yesterday.
----
The announcement came after weeks of wrangling between the two sides over Clinton's role at the four-day event beginning Aug. 25.

The deal was finalized after several furious Clinton boosters pushed for formal recognition of her campaign, in which she came closer than any woman has to becoming a major party nominee.

"I am convinced that honoring Senator Clinton's historic campaign in this way will help us celebrate this defining moment in our history and bring the party together in a strong, united fashion," Obama said in a joint statement with Clinton.

"With every voice heard and the party strongly united, we will elect Senator Obama president of the United States and put our nation on the path to peace and prosperity once again."
----
Several of those Clinton supporters had said they planned to use the convention to make their case while hordes of media were on hand.

Democrats hoped yesterday's agreement would help avert that.

"I think it allows
Hillary Clinton's supporters" to feel she's being honored, said Democratic pollster Doug Schoen, predicting, "We end up with a more unified party."
----
But some Democrats privately expressed surprise that Clinton had agreed to have her name entered into nomination, and said she and husband Bill risk overshadowing Obama.

"
John McCain's got to be loving this," said one longtime Democratic operative, noting that Clinton and Obama have done a slow and somewhat pained dance toward unity.

"This is a mistake," said another party operative who backs Obama, arguing that a roll-call vote would highlight the fault lines between the two campaigns.
The method for the roll call is still being negotiated.
----
Both Bill and
Hillary Clinton now have prime-time speaking slots during the convention, meaning that the former first couple will be a major fixture at a gala that Obama boosters had considered to be the end of the Clinton era.

Obama held a 364-delegate lead over Clinton when the primaries ended, according to an Associated Press count. A candidate needs 2,118 to win the nomination, and Obama had 2,254 after the last votes on June 3. With Post Wire Services

Reference Here>>

Wake us here at MAXINE when its over and tell us that Senator Hillary Clinton actually received more roll call votes than socialist and Junior Senator Barack Obama … then we will all know that GOD really likes the Clintons.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

A Secretary Of State For Carter's Second Term

Richard Danzig gives keynote speech at Red Herring conference, October 2000. Image Credit: PHC DOLORES L. PARLATO, USN

A Secretary Of State For Carter's Second Term

The more the things in our political landscape change ... they remain the same.

Barack Obama preaches change but many in his organization are high position retreads from the Bill Clinton Administration.

Take, for example, one Richard Danzig, foreign affairs consultant and aide to the Obama campaign for President nominated by the Democrat Party. Danzig served as Secretary of the Navy under Bill Clinton and may be tapped as National Security Advisor or even Secretary of State in a Barack Obama Administration.

In a speech delivered to the Centre for New American Security, Richard Danzig saw fit to evoke images from the book "The Complete Tales Of Winnie-The-Pooh" to illustrate a point he was trying to make – the point is irrelevant but the fact that he wants people to take him seriously through the references he sites – Is Relevant!

"The Complete Tales Of Winnie-The-Pooh" book cover - Image Credit: Amazon

It gets worse - this excerpted from the Telegraph (UK) -

Barack Obama aide: Why Winnie the Pooh should shape US foreign policy
Winnie the Pooh, Luke Skywalker and British football hooligans could shape the foreign policy of Barack Obama if he becomes US President, according to a key adviser.

By Tim Shipman in Washington - Last Updated: 2:04AM BST 17/06/2008

Richard Danzig, who served as Navy Secretary under President Clinton and is tipped to become National Security Adviser in an Obama White House, told a major foreign policy conference in Washington that the future of US strategy in the war on terrorism should follow a lesson from the pages of Winnie the Pooh, which can be shortened to: if it is causing you too much pain, try something else.

Mr Danzig told the Centre for New American Security: “Winnie the Pooh seems to me to be a fundamental text on national security.”

He spelt out how American troops, spies and anti-terrorist officials could learn key lessons by understanding the desire of terrorists to emulate superheroes like Luke Skywalker, and the lust for violence of violent football fans.
----
Mr Danzig spelt out the need to change by reading a paragraph from chapter one of the children’s classic, which says: “Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump on the back of his head behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming down stairs. But sometimes he thinks there really is another way if only he could stop bumping a minute and think about it.”
----
In a briefing which will inform Mr Obama’s understanding of terrorists, Mr Danzig said he learnt much from recent interviews with jailed Aum Shinrikyo terrorists who released sarin nerve gas on the Tokyo underground in 1995.

He said that even people who are relatively well off and successful can feel like failures and become alientated from their societies. He said one terrorist told him: “We have been raised on a theory of superheroes. We all want to be like Luke Skywalker.

"When we’re doing mundane things, we lose track of our ambition but when someone comes along, like Asahara, the head of the cult, and presents himself as a messiah and gives us a picture of progress that is ordained by heaven and that we are carrying out a saintly mission on earth that is for us extraordinarily evocative.”
----
He said that another lesson about terrorists can be learnt from studying violent football fans. “One of the best books I’ve read on terrorism in recent years was not about terrorism at all,” he said. “It’s Bill Buford’s book Among the Thugs, which is a description of soccer violence in Britain.

“Buford became absorbed by soccer violence. He describes the most appalling examples of soccer violence by fans against fans. But he describes with relentless honesty how he finds sickening things attractive. He says violence lets the adrenaline flow; it’s like sex, you live in the moment.”
Reference Here>>

This is, pretty much, how serious a Barack Obama foreign policy would look after he assumes office. If one thinks the United States might be looking weak in the view of the rest of the world ... NOW ... just think how we would look under an Obama Administration with Richard Danzig as, say, Secretary of State (this would not be Jimmy Carter's second Secretary of State, Edmund Muskie ... but the first Secretary of State in the second coming of a Carter Administration which given policies and outcomes of the philosophies of Barack Obama, if implemented, we would certainly suffer)!

Whatever happened to being informed from books and materials that are delivered to us from the world's of NON-FICTION!

Again, this is the guy who advises Barack Obama, no wonder Barack is gaffe ridden, he’s nothing without a teleprompter and he is even less with the type advice he gets.

We, at MAXINE, can not believe that the Soros Left sold this puppet to the Democrat Party and they all BOUGHT IT!

Barack Obama does not know what he Doesn't Know and that makes him very dangerous.

Folks, we are just flyin' down the highway toward "Carter's Second Term"!

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

From Shades Of Grey To B&W – Obama Comes Into Focus

Comparison of warm and cool shades of grey. Image Credit: Knulclunk, vectorized by Fvasconcellos

From Shades Of Grey To B&W – Obama Comes Into Focus

This rocket ship ground swell of support for Barack Obama is pretty amazing when one just stands and watches what is actually going on. The press is in the tank for Obama, he never gets questioned on any subject that requires meat to be on the bone to answer … and when he gives only a bare bones response to a difficult question, no follow-up question that would flesh out a real answer is forthcoming.

“Yes We Can”, “Change You Can Believe In”, “Moving Forward Into The Future”, “The Audacity Of Hope”, is all we are fed on the way to the Democrat Party political convention to be held this summer. No real pushback on the issues of Gay Marriage, Abortion, the tensions developing in South America, Israel and the rocket attacks of 2008, the reality of a stronger, more Communist Russia, and the changing world economic landscape.

But now, we do not have to wait on the Mainstream Media (MSM) to do this work of definition for us anymore. Barack Obama, in an unguarded yet genuine moment, captured and reported on by a “citizen journalist” posting in the Huffington Post, Barack Obama has provided us with a glimpse of the core values embedded in his belief system.

By stating to a group of Democrat Party faithful at a fundraiser in San Francisco April 6, 2008, that the way to understand a large group of voters in small town America is to first explain why they “cling” on to religious faith and principles, personal freedom and gun ownership, the dislike toward open-borders immigration, and caution in the acceptance of people different than themselves is a bitterness built as a result of a 25 year shifting economic landscape.

This opinion by Jonah Goldberg excerpted from The Los Angeles Times -

Barack Obama, the yuppie candidate

By Jonah Goldberg - April 15, 2008

Barack Obama is finally coming into focus.

For a while now, the Obamaphiles have insisted that their candidate represents a profound break with the past. No more culture wars. No more "re-litigating the 1960s," in Obama's own words.

But what about re-litigating the 1980s?

There's always been a certain cultural lag time to Barack and Michelle Obama, a kitschiness that's been hard to pinpoint. But I think I've got it: They're self-hating yuppies straight out of the 1980s, which was to the Obamas what the 1960s were to the Clintons.

For those too young to remember, "yuppie" was shorthand for young urban professionals
----
Ironically, the biggest complaints about yuppie materialism came from self-loathing liberal yuppies -- like the Obamas.

The Obamas still seem stuck in that time warp, clinging to '80s-style resentments and political assumptions. Michelle Obama is never so eloquent as when she's complaining about the burden of student loans for her two Ivy League law degrees and covering the high cost of summer camp and piano lessons for her kids on her family's half-million-dollars-a-year income.
----
It's Ronald Reagan -- the president of the 1980s -- who seems to loom so large in Obama's world. (Recall how last year, Obama caught some flak suggesting he might be a new Ronald Reagan.) Reagan famously restored confidence in the nation while reducing confidence in government as the solution to our problems.
----
The Reagan Revolution moved the country durably to the right -- so much so that even Democrats saw the writing on the wall.
----
Bill Clinton's 1992 victory stemmed from the fact that he was a "different kind of Democrat" -- that is, one who understood the lessons of Reaganism, or at least claimed to, and rejected the "brain dead policies" of the old Democratic Party. He was a pro-death-penalty free-trader who oversaw the triumph of the Reaganite critique of welfare.

It's as if Barack Obama spent the 1990s in some kind of Democratic Brigadoon -- and I guess Cambridge, Mass., and the South Side of Chicago might qualify -- and didn't keep up with his party, let alone the nation. Barack Obama, the man of the future, in fact stands athwart that history yelling "Stop."

This is the best way to understand his recent comments at a San Francisco fundraiser as he explained his challenge of connecting with rural and small town voters.

"You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania," he said, "and ... the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. ... It's not surprising, then, that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

Later, when his comments sparked a controversy, he dismissed it as a "little typical sort of political flare-up because I said something that everybody knows is true."

But everybody doesn't know anything of the sort. Not in this decade anyway. Obama's merely recycling the liberal cliches of the 1980s, namely that Pennsylvania's "bitter" voters have been duped by "wedge issues" like guns, religion and racial resentment. New Democrats recognized that wedge issues are legitimate concerns. Old Democrats remain in denial.
----
Slate columnist Mickey Kaus has been waiting for Obama to "pivot" to the center as Clinton did in 1992. But it may be that America's most reliably liberal senator doesn't think he has to. He isn't a unifier. He's a counter-revolutionary. And waiting for him to pivot is like waiting for Godot.
Reference Here>>

These observations by Jonah Goldberg, we at MAXINE believe, are the best gauge on the what, why, where, when, and how a Senator Barack Obama’s presidency would look like and the shape it would take.

A counter-revolutionary Marxist willing to place socialism over personal freedom in order to bring proper definition to a group of people HE doesn’t understand or relate to ... Americans!


Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Fairness Doctrine vs Citizen Journalism

Recognizing the threat of China's growing online community, Chinese President Hu Jintao called in January for the Internet to be "purified", and the government has since launched a number of online crackdowns. Image Credit: AFP

Fairness Doctrine vs Citizen Journalism

Here in the good ol’ USA, we have members of our congress walking the halls complaining about the success of “Talk Radio” and how it needs to be regulated. A recent account observed that senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Hillary Clinton (D-CA) were conversing about how the “Fairness Doctrine” needs to re-implemented in order to curb the free market influences that rule the popularity of this broadcast and communications medium.

This doctrine grew out of concern back in 1949 because of the large number of applications for radio station being submitted and the limited number of frequencies available. Broadcasters had to make sure they did not use their stations simply as advocates with a singular perspective. Rather, they had to allow all points of view. That requirement was to be enforced by FCC mandate. With the deregulation sweep of the Reagan Administration during the 1980s, the Federal Communications Commission dissolved the fairness doctrine.

It is funny how our currently elected leadership waxes philosophical regarding the limitation of free speech in the face of the communications landscape that exists today. The focus on the success of Talk Radio and the Fairness Doctrine leaves behind the rest of the singularly liberal forces that exist with mainstream broadcast television, newspaper print media, and the educator class that run our universities.

Oh!, And let us not forget the freedom of speech and communication that has become the “Wild West” landscape of the internet. How will our elected leaders like Boxer and Clinton address the internet in light of this concept of the “Fairness Doctrine”? … Maybe they can draw on the experience the political leaders in China.

Excerpts from Agence France-Presse via Breitbart -

'Citizen journalism' battles the Chinese censors
AFP - Jun 24 11:44 PM US/Eastern

In the strictly controlled media world of communist China, "citizen journalism" is beating a way through censorship, breaking taboos and offering a pressure valve for social tensions.

In one striking example this month, the Internet was largely responsible for breaking open a slave scandal in two Chinese provinces that some local authorities had been complicit in.

A letter posted on the Internet by 400 parents of children working as slaves in brickyards was the trigger for the national press to finally report on the scandal that some rights groups say had been going on for years.

The parents' Internet posting was part of a growing phenomenon for marginalised people in China who can not otherwise have their complaints addressed by the traditional, government-controlled press.

"The phenomenon of 'citizen journalism' suddenly arrived several years ago," said Beijing-based dissident Liu Xiaobo, who was one of the student leaders of the 1989 Tiananmen democracy protests.

"Since the appearance of blogs in particular, every blog is a new platform for the spread of information."

He cited the example of a couple in the southwestern city of Chongqing who became known as the "Stubborn Nails" in April because they refused to leave their home until they received adequate compensation from the property developer who wanted them out.
----
"That case was first revealed through blogs," Liu said.

Also in Chongqing, parts of the city were this month set on fire following the beating of flower sellers by the "chengguan", city police charged with "cleaning up" the city's roads.

Witnesses to the beatings had appealed to local television journalists, but nothing was broadcast.

The incident only became known outside the city thanks to photos and stories published on the Internet, sparking anger among China's netizens.

"It's fascism," said one, while another mocked: "The inhabitants of Chongqing are truly naive, the Chinese media is all controlled by the Communist Party, they decide what people know."
----
Recognising the threat of China's growing online community, Chinese President Hu Jintao called in January for the Internet to be "purified", and the government has since launched a number of online crackdowns.

"The department of propaganda has sent out regulations to try and control the opinions being spread on the Internet, but every citizen has the right to criticise or to take part in public affairs on the Internet," said Zhu Dake, a professor at Shanghai Tongji University.

"The government has to accept the criticisms of the people, it can no longer react crudely like in the past."

Julien Pain, who monitors Internet freedom issues for Reporters Without Borders, is less optimistic.

"One cannot truly say that the Internet in China is becoming more and more free, because at the same time as the development of citizen journalists, the government finds ways of blocking or censoring content," Pain said.

Reporters Without Borders, which labels the Chinese government an "enemy of the Internet," says about 50 cyber dissidents are currently behind bars in China.

Reference Here>>

At least here in America, we have the First Amendment in our Constitution.

Even Senators John Kerry, Dick Durbin, and Diane Feinstein and their wishes to stop the "hyperbole" coming from a free and open media with a fairness doctrine ... will not be able to "purify" the American communications landscape.
(ht: The Museum of Broadcast Communications and Fox News)

Sunday, February 25, 2007

The Quest For Hollywood Cash & Caché

Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) speaks to supporters at a rally in Austin, Texas February 23, 2007. Image Credit: REUTERS/Peter A. Silva

The Quest For Hollywood Cash & Caché

It’s a small pond with a lot of very big and influential fish. Hollywood political money, for some on both sides of the process, is more about position and stature than the value of the money and the power it brings.

Rob Reiner, through his political appointment and failed attempts to direct how Californians live and pursue their lives, is only one example of the abuses that may take place when Hollywood money and influence meet up with the potential of placing someone with real political power into office … any office.

All one needs to do is review the events of the past week after a major fund raising event to see how important it is for liberals to court and carry the majority of the “Hollywood Cash & Caché”.

Excerpts from the World Socialist Web Site (a liberal insider’s POV) -

The “scramble for Hollywood:” the Democratic Party and entertainment industry liberals
By David Walsh - 24 February 2007

The squabble that erupted this week between the camps of Democratic Party senators and presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois might best be described as a skirmish in the “scramble for Hollywood.”

The dispute brought to the foreground a sordid reality of contemporary American politics: the general hustling for cash from corporate contributors and wealthy donors that dominates US election campaigns, and the role, in particular, of studio executives and other major figures in Hollywood in funneling tens of millions of dollars to the Democratic Party.

Two Democratic heavyweights for the 2008 presidential nomination - Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Senator Barack Obama - decided to bring their arsenals into the open. And the first salvo has been fired by Clinton in response to remarks made by Obama fundraiser, David Geffen. Image Credit: EARTHTIMES

Clinton and Obama, along with the other Democrats, are presently battling over Hollywood’s treasure trove of campaign funds.

As everyone in America knows and the media brazenly acknowledges, winning the presidential nomination of one of the two major parties depends in large measure on collecting more money than any of your rivals. Success in fund-raising is the principal indication that you are a “serious” candidate. It both confirms that you have the backing of powerful corporate and financial figures, the people who count, and encourages further support from these circles.
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During the Presidents’ Day recess of Congress this week, many politicians found themselves fund-raising in southern California. Democratic House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland, Senator Barbara Boxer of California, Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois and Senator Joseph Biden, another presidential hopeful, were among those who held one or more events in the Los Angeles area.

Obama’s campaign grabbed the spotlight by organizing a $2,300-per-ticket Beverly Hills reception Tuesday evening, the most significant event this month, attended by film stars, studio executives and others. The affair raised some $1.3 million.

Jennifer Aniston, Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Morgan Freeman, George Clooney, Barbra Streisand, Ron Howard and Dixie Chicks’ lead singer Natalie Maines were reportedly among those who attended. Obama, according to press reports, told the mostly film industry crowd, “Don’t sell yourself short. You are the storytellers of our age.”

The Hillary Clinton-Obama dispute broke out the following day after remarks made by the host of the event, film and recording mogul David Geffen (along with Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg, one of the founders of DreamWorks SKG), appeared in Maureen Dowd’s column in the New York Times. Geffen, who raised $18 million for Bill Clinton during his presidency, has thrown his support and considerable influence behind the Illinois junior senator and rival of Hillary Clinton. Geffen asserted that Hillary Clinton was “overproduced and overscripted,” according to Dowd. He criticized her for not apologizing for her 2002 vote in support of the Iraq war.

Dowd wrote that relations between Geffen and the Clintons ruptured in 2001, when the president, during his last hours in office, pardoned international commodities trader Marc Rich while refusing to free political prisoner Leonard Peltier, the American Indian Movement leader who was framed up for the deaths of two FBI agents in 1977.

Geffen commented, “Yet another time when the Clintons were unwilling to stand for the things that they genuinely believe in. Everybody in politics lies, but they do it with such ease, it’s troubling.”

The Clinton camp quickly shot back and the battle of press releases was on.
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The stakes are high for the Democratic candidates. According to Eric Alterman in the September 2004 edition of the Atlantic Monthly, “During the 2000 election cycle, zip-code areas on average yielded slightly more than $35,000 in political contributions, while residents of Beverly Hills, 90210, ponied up slightly more than $6.2 million. In the same year Pacific Palisades, Bel Air, and Brentwood were each good for $1.7 million to $3.3 million.

“In 2002 entertainment ranked first among all industries funding Democratic Party committees, and roughly 80 percent of the industry’s party contributions went to Democratic candidates and committees; just 20 percent went to the Republican Party. From 1989 up to the start of the current election cycle Hollywood had given the party nearly $100 million for federal elections alone—close to the $114 million Republicans received from their friends in the oil and gas industries. Together with organized labor and the trial bar, Hollywood is now one of the three pillars of the Democrats’ financial structure.”
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The Hollywood elite is not a monolith. Film studio and entertainment industry executives, leaders of the handful of enormous conglomerates that largely determine what Americans and much of the world see on cinema and television screens and listen to on CD and radio, belong to the same financial-corporate oligarchy that has a stranglehold over every aspect of American life. These are multi-millionaires and billionaires who have a very large say in determining who should hold political office and protect their interests.

The Center for Responsive Politics notes that the film industry has specific issues which it pursues with the politicians it helps bankroll, including “trade, copyright protection and free speech concerns.” The CRP continues, “While many of the big-name stars give mainly for ideological reasons, the corporate executives who run the industry take a more pragmatic view in dispensing their campaign dollars.
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“A perennial concern of the industry is copyright protection, particularly as it concerns the practice of sharing music and video files via the Internet.
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The film industry executives lean toward the Democrats for cultural and political reasons. The success of their business in this day and age depends on a certain “permissiveness” in the social atmosphere. The dominance of the Christian Right, for example, would not be helpful to those often attempting to market violence and sexual suggestiveness, nor would it accord with the temperaments and lifestyles of writers, directors, actors and musicians by and large.
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The economic concerns of studio chiefs and their general political inclinations merge and overlap with the outlook of the extremely well-heeled layers who make up the upper echelons of the film and music industry in Hollywood and organize support for the Democratic Party — figures like Geffen, Spielberg, Streisand, Rob Reiner, Laurie David (producer-comic Larry David’s wife) and others.

No doubt, in many cases, a sincere desire to see social reform and improve the general conditions of life motivates such people in supporting liberal politicians, as well as environmental and charitable causes.
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However, this is a privileged layer that sees the world and the political process in the US through a thick haze. Its particular brand of liberalism is shaped by a terrible distance from the working population and its concerns, the degree to which it is shielded from everyday life in general by managers, assistants and intermediaries of every sort, and its essential satisfaction with its own lot.
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The continued flow of Hollywood cash to the Democrats, whatever the motives or intentions of its organizers, is a deeply reactionary fact of American political life.
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At Maxine, we wonder why all of this Hollywood Cash & Caché can't be directed toward issues of self-reliance and the kind of social reform that leads toward self-determination in the pursuit of happiness here in America … what is so really wrong with that?

I was reminded this morning in a presentation at the church I am prone to attend … with all of the liberal bashing that George Bush gets for being “dumb”, one assumes that the point these people seem to be making is that they posses greater knowledge than others … any others, save themselves.

1 Corinthians 8:1 states that “knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” - I am beginning to think with the more I listen and watch to what is being said this last week in Los Angeles, that people from the upper echelons of the film and music industry in Hollywood like those who organize support for the Democratic Party - figures like Geffen, Spielberg, Streisand, Rob Reiner, Laurie David (producer-comic Larry David’s wife) and others feel they have great knowledge … but lack love.

The Oscars are on tonight so here at MAXINE we plan on tuning in to "feel the love".

NOTE: After watching last nights Oscar presentations ... the key to get Hollywood Democrat CASH a flowin'? ... one word - CRISIS!

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Senator H.R. Clinton - NOT Presidential Material

A new Time Magazine national poll has New York Senator Hillary Clinton leading the democratic pack with 40-percent, 19-points ahead of Illinois Senator Barack Obama. Now all eyes are on Clinton as she heads to Iowa this weekend and her trip could tell us a lot about how she plans to run her primary campaign. Image Credit: KCRG News

Senator H.R. Clinton - NOT Presidential Material

In an "Off-With-Their-Heads" proclamation combined with whiney "If President ... I don’t want the responsibility" attitude, now Senator, Hillary Rodham Clinton proves SHE is NOT up to the task of Presidential leadership.

If she had her way, the heavy lifting and responsibility of being leader of the most powerful free nation on earth would be removed so that she would be able to concentrate on what she really wants to do … create a liberal, popularity-loving, and socialist America.

Excerpts from The Associated Press via the International Herald Tribune -

Clinton wants all U.S. troops out of Iraq when Bush leaves office
The Associated Press - Published: January 28, 2007

DAVENPORT, Iowa: U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday that U.S. President George W. Bush should withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq before he leaves office, saying it would be "the height of irresponsibility" to pass the war along to the next commander in chief.

"This was his decision to go to war with an ill-conceived plan and an incompetently executed strategy," the Democratic senator said her in first presidential campaign tour through the early-voting state of Iowa.

"We expect him to extricate our country from this before he leaves office" in January 2009, the former first lady said.

The White House condemned Clinton's comments as a partisan attack that undermines U.S. soldiers.
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Pressed during a forum to defend her vote to authorize force in Iraq before the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, Clinton responded by increasing her criticism of Bush.

"I am going to level with you, the president has said this is going to be left to his successor," Clinton said. "I think it is the height of irresponsibility and I really resent it."

Bush describes Iraq as the central front in the global fight against terrorism that began after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. "The war on terror will be a problem for the next president. Presidents after me will be confronting ... an enemy that would like to strike the United States again," he recently told USA Today newspaper.

One questioner asked Clinton if her track record showed she could stand up to "evil men" around the world.

"The question is, we face a lot of dangers in the world and, in the gentleman's words, we face a lot of evil men and what in my background equips me to deal with evil and bad men," Clinton said. She paused to gaze while the audience interrupted with about 30 seconds of laughter and applause.
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During the town hall meeting, she tried to make clear that she thinks she would be a chief executive with enough fortitude to confront any danger facing the country.

"I believe that a lot in my background and a lot in my public life shows the character and toughness that is required to be president," Clinton said. "It also shows that I want to get back to bringing the world around to support us again."
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U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York speaks during town hall meeting in Davenport, Iowa. Image Credit: AP Image

Hillary ought not limit her demands to a single item (that the United States leave Iraq and its potential representative spread of Islamo-fascism throughout the world) ...

... Hillary ought to insist that Bush also complete ALL of the following, so as not to "irresponsibly" pass-on these additional items to the next President ... so that SHE may focus on more important items during her tenure:

1) Rebuild all of New Orleans to better than original. This will allow her to focus on more creative, village-supported initiatives.

2) Eradicate the H5N1 flu virus from all sectors throughout the world (don’t forget to include a plan for free vaccination to all if his administration is not successful by the end of 2008).

3) Revamp the entire automobile infrastructure so that our country is not dependent on foreign oil before the next President takes office. This includes market availability of automobiles and hundreds of thousands of ethanol stations for fuel. The will allow her (or any next President) to not have to deal with the issues of ANWAR, Mideast oil, and the other sticky issues surrounding petroleum-based economies.

4) Why not insist that Bush rebuild all of Mexico along with its failed economy and culture so that the border problem just goes away. After all, terrorist security will be a thing of the past because He will have already pulled our troops out of Iraq.

5) Oh yes, make the Social Security solvency problem just go away!

6) Sign the Kyoto Protocol -- so that Global Warming will be just a thing of the past.

7)

8)

9)

AND ETC. - Please feel free to add your own wishes of problems to be eliminated due to the fact that if the problem still exists ... it must be irresponsible that the problem remains for the next President to deal with.

At MAXINE, our reaction to Hillary's apparent fear of the challenge of leadership this stance shows -- assuming that She is elected President.

"WE REALLY RESENT IT!"

The statements made by New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton are just NOT Presidential and this episode proves she is NOT Presidential material.


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