AP, CBS upset that 59-39 majority vote isn't enough to stifle free speech bill

Headline:

• 9/23, AP, "GOP blocks bill to disclose campaign ad donors," via CBSnews.com

Democrats outnumber Republicans in the House and Senate but apparently that's not good enough. Today a vote in the Senate to revive the McCain campaign finance bill lost by one vote, 59-39. The law is now known as the 'Disclose' Act, and many feel it infringes on free speech. Fine.

• 2 Republicans abstained from voting.

The headline informs America the measly party in Siberia (Republicans) caused all the trouble:

• "GOP blocks bill to disclose campaign ad donors," AP

The sub-headline reinforces :

• "Republicans United in Opposition to DISCLOSE Act Making Interest Groups Identify Who is Funding Campaign Ads"

Not true, as stated within the article, 2 Republicans abstained from voting, so they were not united.

• AP's opening paragraph hits it a third time:

"Senate Republicans on Thursday stood fast in blocking legislation requiring special interest groups running campaign ads to identify their donors. "...

• AP, CBS News, making America safe for plutocrats. Soros doesn't want a level playing field. He liked the McCain bill.
  
• ####

10/30/08, Obama defends anonymity of funds provided to his own campaign, ABC News, Charlie Gibson interviews Barack Obama, 10/30/08, Obama says donor records "pretty hard to process."

• ####

Fellow traveler NY Times' Tom Friedman has fretted, if only we could be like Communist China for little while to "authorize the right solutions"....

• 5/23/10, Meet the Press, David Gregory: "Where is the center that actually does something, that actually achieves things in Washington...?

MR. FRIEDMAN: Well, David, it's been decimated. ...So I don't--I, I--I'm worried about this, it's why I have fantasized--don't get me wrong--but that

• what if we could just be China for a day? I mean, just, just, just one day. You know, I mean, where we could actually, you know,
• authorize the right solutions, and I do think there is a sense of that, on, on everything from the economy to environment.
  

I don't want to be China for a second, OK, I want my democracy to work with the same authority, focus and stick-to-itiveness. But right now we have a system that can only produce suboptimal solutions.

MS. MITCHELL: And, in fact, Tom, you're absolutely right."...
More Tom Friedman, 9/8/09 from the NY Times, Autocratic China is better than the US:

• "Our one-Party Democracy"

"There is only one thing worse than one-party autocracy, and that is one-party democracy, which is what we have in America today.

• One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks. But when it is led by a

• reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today,

it can also have great advantages. That one party can just impose the politically difficult but

• critically important policies needed to

• move a society forward in the 21st century."...

via Free Republic

• It helps to know these things. ed.

.
.

Chart showing federal spending vs Median Household Income, 1967-2009

.


via Powerline via RedState

.

Obama tells UN men without money can feel despair that can fuel 'violent extremism'

.
9/22, BBC, "Obama pledges revamp of foreign aid policy" in address to UN

"He said it was in America's, and other rich nations', interests to help the world's poorer countries, despite the economic downturn....

• He said: "When millions of fathers cannot provide for their families, it feeds the despair that can fuel instability
  

• and violent extremism."...

BBC diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus says this was a restrained,

• even humble speech,

suggesting an America that wants to listen to others

• whilst still willing to lead on the global stage."...

(I recall reports that 'violently extreme' attackers of the United States in recent years have come from plenty of money, even an excess of money, more than the average American). ed.

.

NY Times apparently shy about key aspects of Obama Health Plan

• 9/22, "A Tale of Two Stories," American Thinker, by R. N. Weltz

"The New York Times once again proves itself to be a propaganda organ today, in its coverage of ObamaCare. Compare and contrast the treatment of the same story in its principal national competitor. As reported in this morning's (September 22) Wall Street Journal:

• "Rate increases denied to some private medicare plans"
  

WASHINGTON-The Obama administration said Tuesday it denied rate increases and benefit cuts sought by some privately run Medicare plans.

• The move is a sign of the toughening regulatory climate for health insurers that could prompt some of them to leave the Medicare market in coming years.

The majority of people 65 and over get their Medicare benefits directly from the government. But some 11 million people are in Medicare Advantage, where a private insurer provides coverage. Medicare Advantage plans may supply additional benefits, such as gym club memberships, while giving people a narrower choice of doctors.

• In June, federal officials received 2,100 bids from private insurers hoping to offer Medicare Advantage plans next year. Officials said Tuesday they denied rate increases and benefit cuts in 298 cases.
  
• As a result, they said, Medicare Advantage premiums will be 1% lower on average in 2011.

As people familiar with the Medicare program know, Medicare Advantage subscribers receive some additional benefits, such as gym membership, beyond those provided by ordinary Medicare. In return, the insurance companies who administer the Medicare Advantage plans are reimbursed at somewhat higher rates than are paid through traditional Medicare;

• and the subscribers have a narrower choice of doctors and hospitals.

The WSJ report explains that several of the participating insurance companies requested -- and were denied by HHS -- small increases in their payment rates and permission to make slight cutbacks in services provided. It goes on to explain that

• this denial is forcing some insurers to drop the business for 2011, and probably even more will for 2012 -- thus forcing some participants to change insurers and doctors, whether they want to or not.

Now, over at the New York Times, the same facts were reported with quite a different slant:

"Medicare Advantage premiums to fall in 2011" *

By ROBERT PEAR

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration announced Tuesday that average premiums paid by individuals for private Medicare Advantage plans, which insure about one-fourth of all beneficiaries, would decline slightly next year, even as insurers provide additional benefits required by the new health care law.

*Note: The headline in this morning's printed edition reads: "Premiums Set to Drop For Some Medicare Plans."

The Times goes on to explain that, essentially, Secretary Sebelius and her team demanded expanded services and frozen 2010 rates, with the result that, Ultimately, seven Medicare plans offered by three insurance companies decided not to change their bids, and "we denied those bids." Other insurers caved in to the blackmail, which HHS described as simply more forceful "negotiations,"

• and they will have to swallow the extra costs involved.

It's not surprising, but it is illustrative of today's journalistic practice. To the editors of the comparatively objective Wall Street Journal,

• the real news is that ObamaCare policies are already infringing on the options available to seniors using Medicare --

and give further evidence that the promise of not having to change a doctor or a plan one likes

• is an outright lie.

The Times, in contrast, places all the emphasis on the minuscule "savings" that their bullying of the insurers may provide for Medicare Advantage subscribers -- a bald-faced attempt to make their cherished ObamaCare look good."
####

• (They kept saying Obamacare wouldn't start for 4 years, and that wasn't true either. It has already generated enormous financial consequences. Obama is part of it, congress has no excuse. ed.)

'Mosque Mike' Bloomberg endorses Cuomo as Paladino closes in

.
9/22, "Bloomberg endorses Cuomo. Wait, Why?," NY Observer, by D. Freedlander

• Michael Savage notes on his radio show today, 'Mosque Mike' endorsed Cuomo.

9/22, "Carl Paladino closing in on Andrew Cuomo in NY governor race," AP

"A poll released today finds long-shot tea party Republican Carl Paladino is closing in on front-running Democrat Andrew Cuomo in the race for New York governor.

• The Quinnipiac University polls showed Cuomo with a 49 percent to 43 percent lead among likely New York voters. Seven percent were undecided.

"The question was whether Carl Paladino would get a bounce from his big Republican primary victory. The answer is yes," said Quinnipiac polling director Maurice Carroll. "He's within shouting distance and -- you can count on it -- he will be shouting."

The poll found the straight-talking Buffalo developer, the upset winner in last week's GOP primary, had

• 54 percent of the support of women voters to Cuomo's 34 percent. Men supported Cuomo, the one-term attorney general, 49 percent to 46 percent.

Paladino has sought to ride a wave of voter anger at Albany's high taxes, high spending and string of corruption cases in state government, all of which is controlled by Democrats....

• Quinnipiac finds that the largest share of those polled -- 41 percent -- said the most important quality in a candidate is the
  
• ability to bring change.
  

Just two in 10 felt a candidate needs to share their values and about the same felt honesty was a top quality.

• Paladino is a tea party-supported Republican who shocked the GOP a week ago in winning the primary over the party's designee, former U.S. Rep. Rick Lazio.

Carroll said Paladino's support is boosted by conservative voters and those who are motivated to vote in November.

In previous polls of registered voters, rather than today's poll of likely voters, Cuomo has held a better than 2-to-1 edge. Cuomo also has more than $20 million in his campaign account as of the latest filings last summer, although Paladino -- a millionaire -- is now starting to raise cash in addition to the more than $10 million of his own money he has pledged to spend.

The poll questioned 751 likely voters from last Thursday 16 to Monday. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points."

Millionaire Obama allowed his Aunt to rot in homeless shelter for 2 years, but lectures us to sacrifice and be our brothers' and sisters' keepers

.
Aunt Zeituni's story is about aloof millionaire Obama who tells the ever shameful American middle class they must give more, allows them to support his Aunt, declines to do so himself.

• 9/21/10, "Aunt Zeituni: 'The System took advantage of me,'" WBZtv.com, by J. Elias

"If I come as an immigrant, you have the obligation to make me a citizen." Those are the words from 58-year-old Zeituni Onyango of Kenya in a recent exclusive interview with WBZ-TV.

• Onyango is the aunt of President Barack Obama. She lived in the United States illegally for years,

receiving public assistance in Boston.



'I KNEW I OVERSTAYED'

Aunt Zeituni, as she has come to be known, first surfaced in the public light in 2008, in the final days of the Presidential election. Then-candidate Obama said that he was not against the possible deportation of his aunt. "If she has violated laws, then those laws have to be obeyed," he told CBS's Katie Couric. "We are a nation of laws."

Onyango had violated the law, and she knew it.

"I knew I had overstayed" she told WBZ-TV's Jonathan Elias when the two sat down one-on-one.

ASSIGNED PUBLIC HOUSING

Zeituni Onyango said she came to the United States in 2000 and had every intention of leaving. Then, however, she says she got deathly ill and was hospitalized. When she recovered, she said

• she was broke and couldn't afford to leave.

For two years Onyango said she lived in a homeless shelter, before she was assigned public housing

• despite thousands of legal residents also awaiting assistance.

"I didn't take any advantage of the system. The system took advantage of me."

• "I didn't ask for it; they gave it to me.

Ask your system. I didn't create it or vote for it. Go and ask your system," she said unapologetically.

And she's right. The system provided her assistance

• despite her status as an illegal immigrant.

ORDERED TO LEAVE THE COUNTRY

In 2004 a judge ordered Zeituni Onyango out of the country, but she never left. She stayed, hiding in plain sight.

• In 2005 she attended her nephew's swearing in as the junior Senator of Illinois.

• In 2008 she was invited to, and traveled to D.C. for President Obama's inauguration.

However her nephew, she says, never pulled any strings for her.

"Listen. Obama did not know my whereabouts."

'HEAVEN' PAYS HER BILLS

Onyango hired a top immigration lawyer from Cleveland to help fight her case. We asked

• how she afforded that lawyer, when she claimed poverty.

"When you believe in Jesus Christ and almighty God, my help comes from heaven," she responded.

'PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE'

When asked about cutting in line ahead of those who have paid into the system she answered plainly, "I don't mind. You can take that house. I will be on the street with the homeless."

• "To me America's dream became America's worst nightmare," she said adamantly. "I have been treated like public enemy number one."

GRANTED ASYLUM

She is still living in South Boston public housing, unemployed, and

• collecting about $700 a month in disability, she says.

And now, Zeituni Onlyango is in this country legally.

In May 2010, Onyango's case went back before the same judge who ordered her out of the country in 2004. This time she was granted asylum in the United States. The ruling said

• a return to Kenya might put Onyango in danger.

Did her nephew, the President of the United States influence that immigration judge? "No influence at all, from nobody, from nowhere," Onyango said."

• Above photo of Obama in his 20's with his Aunt, via RushLimbaugh.com

2/4/10, "At the White House, press secretary Robert Gibbs said that the first family is not helping pay Onyango's legal fees and that the president has not spoken to her since he learned of her immigration status just days before the November 2008 elections."...2/4/10, USA Today, from AP, "Obama aunt testifies at her second asylum hearing,"

• Aunt Zeituni holding a photograph of herself with Obama when he was a state senator,AP, from USA Today article, 2/4/10
• She is anguished over the estrangement between herself and Obama.
  

..

.

The Arab Street thinks Cordoba House mosque at World Trade Center a bad idea, Islamophobia, race card debunked

• 9.20.10,"Debunking the Islamophobia card," Legal Insurrection by W. Jacobson
  

"Fouad Ajami reports on an opinion survey taken by a leading Arab electronic daily newspaper, regarding the Cordoba mosque and Islamic center to be located at or near (depending on your perspective) Ground Zero.

• Keep in mind that domestic public opinion against the location is widely denigrated in the mainstream media, left-wing blogosphere, and academia, as necessarily reflecting Islamophobia.

But the survey of Arab opinion cited by Ajami shows that many, if not most, people in the Arab world agree that the location selection was unwise. As reported in The Wall Street Journal (h/t HotAir)(emphasis mine):

The truth is that the trajectory of Islam in America (and Europe for that matter) is at variance with the play of things in Islam's main habitat. A survey by Elaph, the most respected electronic daily in the Arab world, gave a decided edge to those who objected to the building of this mosque—58% saw it as a project of folly.

Elaph was at it again in the aftermath of Pastor Terry Jones's threat to burn copies of the Quran: It queried its readers as to whether America was a "tolerant" or a "bigoted" society.
The split was 63% to 37% in favor of those who accepted the good faith and pluralism of this country.

So does that make 58% of the Arab world "Islamophobic"?

Something is going on here which was obvious even before this survey. The constant agitation over Islamophobia, like the constant use of the race card, is just another

• political tool to demonize people who happen to disagree.

There certainly are some people opposed to the mosque who hate Islam, just like there undoubtedly are some people in favor of it who hate Jews and Christians, but in each instance that is a minority opinion.

So the next time someone screams "Islamophobia" once the topic of the Corboda mosque comes up,

• tell them to tell it to the Arab world."

via American Thinker

• 
  
• This doesn't even touch on the many financial and legal problems
  
• that normally terminate real estate deals and
  
• should have stopped this one before it began. ed.

..
.

Organizing for America (BarackObama.com) hate group bussed in to Right Nation rally, hurl 'gay' epithet at Andrew Breitbart

.


Organizing for America members carry 'hate' signs (OFA logo visible) and call Breitbart 'gay' after being bussed in to Saturday September 18th's RightNation rally near Chicago. Near the end of the video a woman admits to Breitbart she was there because of Organizing for America, which is also BarackObama.com.

• Breitbart asks some of those holding 'hate' signs what in particular they object to. None of them could answer the question, and the group eventually walked away.

via BigGovernment.com, via RedState.com

..

.