Right Minded Online

When I saw the headline below, I thought that maybe an honest story lay on the other side, you know, blaming liberal social programs and irresponsible growth of government for the budget deficit facing the California government. But no. This is the mainstream press. Even thought taxpayers spend untold fortunes paying the heavy price of fiscal recklessness engaged by the imbeciles they elect, the fault, you see, is squarely on the shoulders of the taxpayers for the sin of wanting to keep their own money.

They begin with the 1978 property tax revolt and the victory of Proposition 13. As California experienced a dramatic escalation in home values, property tax assessments skyrocketed. Especially vulnerable were seniors on fixed incomes. When then Gov. Jerry Brown and the legislature dithered, conservative activists led by Howard Jarvis put a seductively simple sounding proposition on the ballot. Under Proposition 13, the annual real estate tax on a parcel of property would be limited to 1% of its assessed value and this assessed value would only increase by a maximum of 2% per year, until a change in ownership. Voters responded and Proposition 13 scored a dramatic victory with 65% of the vote. Property tax rates dropped an average of 57%.

While homeowners celebrated, city, county and school district officials sat in stunned disbelief. There were predictions of drastic cuts to education and social services. But the ax did not fall as Sacramento, flush with a multibillion-dollar surplus, bailed out local governments and the schools. But the state rescue was accompanied by a loss of local control. As a result of Proposition 13, school districts, county governments and cities were forced to compete with state priorities for a slice of the state budget.

How California’s Fiscal Woes Began: A Crisis 30 Years in the Making – Yahoo! News.

Last evening, the state-run American Barack Channel made an all-out pitch for ObamaCare, and their ratings hit rock-bottom.

The one-hour ABC News special “Primetime: Questions for the President: Prescription for America” (4.7 million viewers, 1.1 preliminary adults 18-49 rating) had the fewest viewers in the 10 p.m. hour (against NBC’s “The Philanthropist” debut and a repeat of “CSI: NY” on CBS). The special tied some 8 p.m. comedy repeats as the lowest-rated program on a major broadcast network.

The special was shot at the White House and featured the president answering questions about his health care plan. The president’s primary message was that those who like their current insurance will be able to keep it and that taking no action will result in higher health care costs.

The special drew fire from Republican leadership after refusing to allow an official opposition response, or even a paid ad. ABC also interviewed Obama on “Good Morning America” to help promote the special.

I guess even the pretense of objective journalism is now out the window.

Two weeks ago, an 88-year-old man named James von Brunn shot and killed a security guard at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. He was critically wounded himself, thwarting his ability to make further attacks.

We have learned a great deal about James von Brunn in the days following his attack. He embodied an extreme hatred of Jews, blaming them for a host of devious conspiracies, and also believed the Holocaust was a hoax.

It didn’t take long for the mainstream press to write von Brunn off as a right-wing extremist in the same mold as Timothy McVeigh. But a closer look at von Brunn’s beliefs and attitudes shows that he shared many views that are held by members of the far left.

For example, the FBI believes that the offices of the Weekly Standard, a conservative publication, were next on von Brunn’s hit list. Mr. von Brunn’s published rants included attacks on neo-conservatives, Bill O’Reilly, and both Presidents Bush. He also believed President Bush was in on the 9/11 terrorist attacks — a view that is held by many on the fringe left.

In no way can von Brunn be categorized as a right-winger. He also can’t be categorized exclusively as a left-winger. Simply stated, he’s just plain nuts.

But that didn’t stop the mainstream press from labeling von Brunn as a right-wing extremist. Here’s a smattering of comments regarding von Brunn made by mainstream journalists and media talkers:

Deborah Lauter (NBC): ”Clearly Obama’s election has fueled the right-wing extremist movement.”

Chris Matthews (MSNBC): “This is a political action by a far-right extremist.”

Anderson Cooper (CNN): “The rise of hate groups in the United States of right-wing extremists.”

Keith Olbermann (MSNBC): “Right-wing religious-based domestic terrorism.”

Campbell Brown (CNN): ”Right-wing extremism.”

Joan Walsh (Salon.com): ”There is a rising climate of right-wing hate, a lot of it directed at Obama.”

Indeed, the truth did not preclude the mainstream press from casting James von Brunn as a right-wing extremist. It fit the template the media have for angry, racist right-wingers.

Just before the shooting at the Holocaust Museum, a famous liberal made an anti-Semitic statement of his own. The Reverend Jeremiah Wright, who pastored Barack Obama for 20 years in Chicago, complained during an interview that “Them Jews ain’t going to let [Obama] talk to me. I told my baby daughter that he’ll talk to me in five years when he’s a lame duck, or in eight years when he’s out of office.”

You didn’t hear much about this from the mainstream press, though. You didn’t hear the media types castigate Reverend Wright as a left-wing extremist. You didn’t hear them blame the far left for fostering a climate of hate. Granted, Reverend Wright didn’t shoot anyone, but he does clearly embody anti-Semitic views, the same as James von Brunn.

Indeed, most of the anti-Semitism, anti-Israeli attitudes that exist today are embodied by leftists. Jimmy Carter is a frequent critic of Israel, for example. And last year, Jesse Jackson warned that “Zionists who have controlled American policy for decades remain strong, but they’re going to lose a great deal of their clout when Barack Obama enters the White House.”

On the other hand, conservatives and Republicans are frequent supporters of Israel, which may illustrate why von Brunn ripped neo-conservatives and both Presidents Bush.

Remember that back in April, a report on right-wing extremism was leaked by the Department of Homeland Security. In that report, the DHS defined right-wing extremism in the United States as ”those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.”

James von Brunn fits some of those descriptions, but, again, in no way can he be classified as a right-wing extremist. He is simply an evil individual who is motivated primarily by his hatred of Jews. Unfortunately, the mainstream press is so politicized that many journalists have become nothing more than left-wing activists. And so they cherry-picked what they wanted from James von Brunn, molded his extreme views into their template of the racist Republican, and attempted to hold him up as an example of right-wing extremism.

It’s a classic example of journalistic malpractice.

Truer words have rarely been spoken:

At the 65th Annual Radio and Television Correspondents Association Dinner last night, President Barack Obama openly acknowledged that mainstream journalists are to be credited with making him a celebrity and even joked that an NBC news anchor is in bed with him.

“Why bother hanging out with celebrities when I can spend time with the people who made me one?” Obama asked the crowd of black tie journalists and media personalities gathered at the Washington Convention Center. “I know where my bread is buttered.”

Obama’s dinner joke: Press in bed with me.

Last week’s shooting at the Holocaust Museum in Washington gave the media the opportunity to bash right-wing extremists. After all, anytime there’s a shoot-em-up, it’s a gun-loving right-winger, right? Wrong. Last week’s culprit was a flaming leftist. But you didn’t hear that from the mainstream press. That’s because the facts didn’t fit the media template.

Below are Rush Limbaugh’s remarks from Thursday’s show, followed by a few snippets from snippy left-wingers:

RUSH: Very predictably, ladies and gentlemen, the media, the American left is trying to score some political points as a result of this tragedy at the Holocaust Museum in Washington yesterday, and as predictable, they are trying to blame this on me, other conservatives and right-wingers. It’s the traditional approach taken by the American left. The facts of the case, however, are such that if we want start assigning blame for this beyond this nutcase Jew hater, and notice that very few people actually want to do that. They want to claim this guy didn’t have the ability to act on his own. He only could act if he was inspired by somebody. Well, who did he hate? He hated both Bushes. He hated neocons. He hated John McCain. He hated Republicans. He hated Jews as well. He believes in an inside job conspiracy of 9/11. This guy is a leftist, if anything. This guy’s beliefs, this guy’s hate stems from influence that you find on the left, not on the right. But let’s listen to some of the audio sound bites from the Drive-By and the State-Run Media from yesterday afternoon through last night. Here’s the first. This is a montage of cable stations talking about the incident last night.

LAUER: Clearly Obama’s election has fueled the right-wing extremist movement.

MATTHEWS: This is a political action by a far right extremist

COOPER: The rise of hate groups in the United States of right-wing extremists.

OLBERMANN: Right-wing religious based domestic terrorism.

BROWN: Right-wing extremism.

WALSH: There is a rising climate of right-wing hate, a lot of it directed at Obama.

RUSH: See how this is being set up and it’s all very predictable, but the truth is just the opposite of this, which I’ll get to in just a moment. Here now is Hillary Clinton this morning at the State Department.

HILLARY: It’s a terrible tragedy. The kind of hatred that the killer evidenced over many years toward different groups within our society is deplorable, and I hope that we will be able to send out a clear unmistakable message that hateful rhetoric, violence based on any kind of discriminatory attitude towards any group in The United States is not acceptable.

Hate-Promoting Left Seizes Chance to Falsely Blame Right for Violence.

The headline says it all. The press sees hope in the current recession. Trouble is, unemployment is 9.4%, which is a lot higher than it was under George W. Bush. Back then, unemployment ran 5-6%, the economy was growing, and the federal budget deficit was shrinking. Yet the media consistently reported how bad and hopeless the economy was. Now, unemployment is approaching double-digits, the economy is shrinking, and the federal budget deficit is exploding beyond anything we’ve ever seen, and the media find hope. Unbelievably biased.

Employers throttled back on layoffs in May and cut the fewest jobs in any month since the financial crisis erupted last fall — raising the brightest hope yet that an economic recovery will take hold later this year.

But with companies still reluctant to hire, the nation’s jobless rate rose to a quarter-century high of 9.4 percent, and it likely will keep rising into 2010, possibly within striking distance of its post-World War II peak of 10.8 percent.

The economy shed 345,000 jobs in May, the Labor Department said Friday — half what it was losing in a month at the start of the year. But the report also underscored how hard it has been for America’s 14.5 million unemployed to find new jobs.

US loses just 345,000 jobs in May, raising hopes – Yahoo! News.

The sports media are obsessed over the fact the LeBron James of the Cleveland LeBrons walked off the court Saturday night after losing to the Orlando Magic in the NBA Eastern Finals without shaking hands and without talking to the media. (Believe me, the sports media were a lot more ticked off over the latter than the former.)

So what? The Magic won. LeBron hates losing and preferred to scuttle back to the dressing room and get the heck out of Dodge. I hate losing, too. I’d have probably done the same thing. Why is this even an issue? Was LeBron supposed to stick around and bow down to the Magic or something?

I almost wish Brett Favre would send a text message to somebody to give the sports media something else to obsess over.

King James left the playoffs as a loser – NBA – Yahoo! Sports.

The left spent 8 years making all sorts of derrogatory insults about George W. Bush, and the mainstream press was fine with it. But now the GOP has turned the heat up on Speaker of State Nancy Pelosi, and suddenly the media have discovered a sense of decorum.

Cry me a river.

RNC’s below-the-belt shot at Pelosi – Yahoo! News.

This is an odd story to come out of the AP. Usually, the media are loathe to run stories that might be harmful to Democrats. So I wonder what the motivation is here. This is the kind of story the AP typically writes about Republicans.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid became the latest Democrat to stray into rhetorical trouble Tuesday, botching statements on three subjects in one news conference — including the fragile health of the chamber’s most senior members. The Nevada Democrat reported that one of them, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., was absent because he was receiving a new round of treatment for his brain cancer. Asked if the cancer was in remission, Reid replied, “As far as I know, it is, yes.”

Sen. Reid botches 3 subjects at news conference.

When the media began to breathless report the swine flue as the next medieval bubonic plague, I immediately recognized it as simply the next mad cow disease and bird flu — diseases that affect only a handful of people, but send half the world’s population into a panic because of media overplay. Well, Foreign Policy reports that “Swine flu has infected 1,500 people worldwide and killed around 30, almost all in Mexico. But it is far from the world’s most serious disease outbreak.”

The five most serious outbreaks are: cholera, spinal meningitis, AIDS, ebola, and dengue fever.

Foreign Policy: The List: Five Disease Outbreaks That Are Worse Than Swine Flu.

Blue Collar Muse had a terrific post back on April 22 on CNN’s Susan Roesgen’s snotty effort to besmirch Chicago tea baggers. I had already heard an audio clip of Roesgen’s confrontation. Like so many in the old media, she’s simply a liberal activist masquerading as a journalist. And she has been schooled by people who are actually interested in facts.

And then last Wednesday rolled around. Neck deep in Tea Party stuff here in town, I didn’t even see the video for a day or more. But so many were asking if I had that I finally made it a point to track it down and watch. CNN reporter Susan Roesgen badgering Chicago Tea Party attendees; Roesgen shilling for the Obama “Stimulus” plan; Roesgen selectively interviewing and highlighting attendees to create the story she wants broadcast. It was as bad as all that and worse. Still, CNN thought it newsworthy and broadcast the segment. They wanted it seen. This was the news of the day out of Chicago. Here was the picture CNN wanted America and the world to see of the Tea Parties.

Except that another upstart journalistic endeavor happened on the scene after CNN cameras stopped rolling, Founding Bloggers, a citizen journalist group, filmed Roesgen’s interaction with Tea Party-ers. They dismantled her arguments and not so gently pointed out either her ignorance or her bias. Founding Bloggers took the footage CNN wanted the world to see and added their footage from afterwards and put up a 4:48 segment on YouTube that CNN would rather no one in the world see.

Susan Roesgen’s Success in Marginalizing CNN | Blue Collar Muse.

CNN, just like the rest of the mainstream press, is so predictable that we know what their coverage is going to say even before they say it.

So, the Tea Party protests are “not fit for family viewing” according to one very unhappy CNN reporter, Susan Roesgen, who also fumes over what she calls an “offensive” anti-Obama sign that compares Obama to a fascist. (And yes, I told you this was going to happen.)

But guess what? Newsbusters caught the same indignantly indignant Susan Roesgen covering an anti-Bush rally in New Orleans in which she blithely refers to a huge Bush puppet with horns and a Hitler mustache as a “lookalike.”

Michelle Malkin » CNN beclowns itself.

Memphis Commercial Appeal

Nashville Tennessean

Nashville City Paper

Knoxville News Sentinel

Jackson Sun

The Left, apparently jealous of the attention that the April 15 Tea Parties are getting, has decided to stage its own rallies, scheduled for April 11. Michelle Malkin is already making a prediction:

You can already guess how the national media will treat the two competing demonstrations. Tens of thousands of tax revolters = radio silence. A few dozen ACORN/ANSWER stragglers in front of any given bank = front page news.

No matter.

Get out there. Mobilize. Put your local and state officials and your members of Congress on notice.

They’re your true audience. Not the MSM.

She’s absolutely right. The press will largely ignore the hoards of pro-capitalists, but you get two liberals together on the same street corner, and you end up getting more journalists covering the event than there are protesters.

Michelle Malkin » Left wants in on Tea Party action.

The mainstream press has just figured out what the rest of us knew all along. The porkulus behemoth passed by Congress last month, well, may not be what it’s cracked up to be.

State officials overseeing the federal economic stimulus program in Massachusetts say they have no idea how the White House came up with one key pledge—the promise to save or create 79,000 jobs in the state.

They say they’re not even sure how to measure saved jobs—and fear the jobs figure sets an unrealistic yardstick against which the success or failure of the program will be measured.

“The federal estimate of 79,000, we really don’t know what’s behind that, we just plain don’t,” Jeffrey Simon, Director of Infrastructure Investment in Massachusetts, told The Associated Press. “I’m not saying it’s not 79,000, but I just don’t have any way of knowing that,” he said.

Michelle Malkin » Now, they tell us – Pt II: AP really catching on to Obama math!.

The AP led off a news story about the recent Montana plane crash with the completely irrelevant observation that: “Three California families headed to a retreat for the ultrarich were among the 14 victims of a plane crash in Montana.”

Why does it matter that they were rubbing elbows with the ultrarich? Liberals rub elbows with the ultrarich all the time, but you don’t see that printed.

Michelle Malkin » AP can’t keep class warfare out of tragic airplane story.

You know we’re in it deep when the New York Times questions whether President Obama is a socialist.

President Obama was so concerned that he had appeared to dismiss a question from New York Times reporters about whether he was a socialist that he called the newspaper from the Oval Office to clarify his policies.

“It was hard for me to believe that you were entirely serious about that socialist question,” he told reporters, who had interviewed the president aboard Air Force One on Friday.

Obama makes Oval Office call to reporters – Curl – Presidential Election Commentary – Washington Times.

Jim Calhoun, head coach of the UConn men’s basketball team, has just earned my respect.

Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun got into a heated exchange at a postgame news conference Saturday with a freelance journalist and political activist who questioned why the coach of a public university was making $1.6 million in tough economic times.

“Not a dime back,” Calhoun joked as Ken Krayeske asked about Calhoun’s salary and the state’s budget deficit, which is estimated at $944 million for the current fiscal year and up to $8 billion over the next two years.

When Krayeske continued the line of questioning, Calhoun got angry.

“My best advice to you is, shut up,” said Calhoun, who offered to talk to Krayeske after the news conference that followed the top-ranked Huskies’ 64-50 victory over South Florida.

“If these guys covered this stuff, I wouldn’t have to do it,” said Krayeske, who had been granted a photo pass to attend the news conference.

Now visibly angry, Calhoun responded.

“Quite frankly, we bring in $12 million to the university, nothing to do with state funds,” Calhoun shouted back. “We make $12 million a year for this university. Get some facts and come back and see me. … Don’t throw out salaries and other things.”

Calhoun gets into heated spat over salary – College Basketball – Rivals.com.

Rush Limbaugh Says Barack Obama Should Not Impose the Fairness Doctrine on Talk Radio – WSJ.com.

White House: Obama Opposes ‘Fairness Doctrine’ Revival – First 100 Days of Presidency – Politics FOXNews.com.