Couric Crows: Reagan Unlikely To Replace Grant On $50 Bill
"The old general might still have it in him ... 145 years after Appomattox, Grant won't have to surrender this one either." -- Katie Couric, Notebook, 8-25-10What does it take to get Katie Couric to root for a military man? Put him in a fight against the MSM's great bogeyman, Ronald Reagan.The CBS Evening News anchor devoted her Notebook yesterday to the battle to replace Ulysses S. Grant on…
CBO's Rosy Stimulus Numbers Have Little Basis in Reality, But Media Ag
In the media's continued effort to sell the stimulus to the American public, reality is simply a nuisance. It's much easier to use rosy economic projections with little to no grounding in the real world, and to refrain from informing readers just how disconnected from reality those models are.That is exactly what many in the media have done since the Congressional Budget Office released numbers…
Explaining 'Lives Touched' to the Mainstream Media
In late July, a Government Accountability Office report circulated which analyzed stimulus funding being spent by the Department of Energy. The main gist of that report involved the cost of each job being generated by the stimulus bill - a staggering $194,000. Tucked away in that report was a phrase that was new to most of us, a way to calculate jobs through a term called ‘lives touched'. Last…
July New Home Sales: Wire Reports Dour, But Still Understated; Reuters
July's bad news in new home sales is even worse than it first appears. The seasonally adjusted annual rate of 276,000 units is bad enough. That is an all-time low since records have been kept and 12% lower than June's annual rate. It's also lower than what analysts predicted by about the same percentage. The lazy business press is running with those figures. But, as has been the case so many…
CNN's Velshi Gushes Over Obama Administration's Green Energy Push
CNN's Ali Velshi enthusiastically touted the Obama administration's promotion of "alternative energy" on Tuesday's Newsroom, and advanced the idea that the field would become a major economic force: "This may be the driver of the economy for the next 15 years....And I will give this administration credit. It is such a dramatic increase over the last administration's commitment to alternative…
Shirley Sherrod Rejects Return to USDA; Media Rejects Reporting Releva
The theater of the Sherrods continues. Earlier today, Shirley Sherrod, who, according to the current version of ruling class wisdom, was prematurely evacuated from the USDA by Director Tom Vilsack, decided not to accept an offer to return to the agency. Instead, according to Politico's Matt Negrin, "she hasn’t accepted the department’s offer to work there again, but that she wants 'some type of…
Media Nearly Silent as ObamaCare Proponents Drop Deficit, Cost Savings
It has now been five days since Politico's Ben Smith published a powerpoint presentation created by an amalgamation of powerful left wing interest groups, conceding that two of the central arguments for passing ObamaCare - that it will lower the deficit and will reduce health care costs - have failed. For a group of organizations integral to the passage of the law, that was a stunning admission. …
Amidst Obama's Falling Poll Numbers, MSNBC Tries to Suggest He Could R
During the 3 p.m. MSNBC news hour Monday, anchor Chris Jansing asked the question and hosted an expert who supplied the seemingly desired answer. The question: Could President Obama make a mid-term comeback similar to President Reagan in 1982? The answer: Absolutely.The two discussed the similarities of the situations faced by the presidents, and seemed to conclude that if the economy turns…
NYT: 'More Americans - Not Just the Rich - Will Have to Pay More Taxes
The New York Times on Tuesday declared what most conservatives knew would happen if Democrats took control of both Congress and the White House: "more Americans - and not just the rich - are going to have to pay more taxes."In its editorial comically titled "A Real Debate on Taxes," the Times predictably argued for a total elimination of the Bush tax cuts, although it favored some partial delay…
On Letterman, Brian Williams Cheers ‘Fruits’ of ‘Clinton Economy
Appearing on the Late Show on Monday night to plug his Friday night Dateline on the 5th anniversary of Katrina, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams bizarrely asserted “we're still enjoying the fruits really of the Clinton economy,” claimed Tea Party activists who say “we want our country back” want it back “from the Trilateral Commission” and ridiculed their presumed hypocrisy as he insisted “…
ABC Hides Identity of Liberal Activist Advocating for More Government
Good Morning America's Bianna Golodryga on Sunday featured a liberal activist arguing for more government intervention in the form of paid time off laws and "affordable" child care. The ABC host never identified Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner's ideology or the fact that she's a Huffington Post contributor. Instead, Golodryga fretted about "bias" against women who have children. The Rowe-Finkbeiner…
In July, LA School Officials Defended RFK Taj Mahal K-12 Complex as 'M
Well, it didn't take to much digging to find people who think that the $578 million cost of the new Taj Mahal complex known as the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools in Los Angeles (pictured at right; noted last night at NewsBusters and BizzyBlog) isn't that big of a deal. What I found makes me wonder why it took so long for waste of this magnitude to become a national story. On July 9, at LA'…
O, M, G -- Price Tag for One New LA K-12 Complex: $578 Mil
Call it "No Contractor Left Behind." The Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools in Los Angeles, apparently opening soon, will serve roughly 4,200 students in grades K-12. Its cost is coming in at $578 million, or almost $140,000 per student ($2.75 million per 20-student classroom). This is the LA Unified District's most flagrant example of its Taj Mahal obsession, and it is far from the only one.…
Meet the Press: Dick Armey Slams Alan Greenspan's View of Bush Tax Cut
David Gregory on Sunday finally got an answer to his question about extending the Bush tax cuts, but it certainly wasn't what he was expecting.For those that have been watching "Meet the Press" this month, the host has been grilling his conservative guests about this issue ever since former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told him on August 1 that tax cuts don't pay for themselves.Having…