Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Investigative Reporting



Written : Sep. 21 and 23, 2009




Remember Watergate? Investigative reporters were hailed for bringing down a U.S. president. A movie, “All the President’s Men”, was made to celebrate their persistent and diligent search for the truth. Remember the TV show “60 Minutes”, and how their reporters grilled rip-off artists and corrupt politicians in an attempt to be an American watchdog? I recall a “Saturday Night Live” spoof starring Martin Short portraying a nervous, cigarette-smoking target. He stated/asked while visibly shaking, “It’s not me, it’s them, right?” Hilarious, great stuff.



Things are different today. Have you heard of ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now)? ACORN is an organization on schedule to receive 8.5 billion dollars of stimulus funds, and it defines itself a “grassroots community organization of low- and moderate-income people… committed to social and economic justice”. To be fair, check out their own page: ACORN Of course, ACORN has a right to exist and to aim for change it deems necessary; it’s the American way.



At the same time, ACORN is an organization in deep trouble. Accusations arose in 2008 from ACORN’s alleged registration of people not eligible to vote. They have been accused of falsifying documents, and registering underage and deceased voters. In addition, I’ve seen a story claiming that they used all the names of the Dallas Cowboys football team to register voters illegally. Even I, an ordinary citizen, know from personal experience that some people think it’s legitimate to stop at nothing to elect candidates they believe in. That’s just plain wrong.



Some may not know that recently several of ACORN’s offices were visited by two young, investigative reporters, James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles (remember the bold Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the ones who uncovered Watergate?). Today’s truth digging reporters exposed ACORN employees who encouraged illegal activities (prostitution) and offered suggestions for the reporters, who were posing as a pimp and a prostitute, to evade taxes and the law. These bold, young reporters released videotapes to prove their allegations are true. To learn more, see: ACORN exposed. ACORN’s leaders eventually fired the employees in question. Their CEO, Bertha Lewis, has ordered an independent investigation into the story. Ignoring President Obama’s many ties to ACORN for the moment, shouldn’t the government suspend all funds going to ACORN and shouldn’t the government itself investigate the group in a rigorous manner for the purpose of reducing fraud?



In addition, where’s the “60 Minutes” report? Why is the mainstream media so relaxed about this particular investigative story? If the national media are so concerned about law breaking and corruption in businesses, shouldn’t they be jumping on this story and publicizing it, as they did for the Watergate investigation? Shouldn’t your local newspaper or local TV station be exposing the truth about ACORN on their front page and as their top story? Why have you not heard more about this?




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Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Rep. Joe Wilson’s Apology



Written : Sep. 15, 2009




In case you haven’t heard about this yet, Representative Joe Wilson (R-SC) shouted “You Lie” during President Obama’s speech to both branches of Congress last week. He was wrong to do so and privately apologized to the president sometime afterward. The apology was graciously accepted. After the apology the president reportedly said, “Now, let’s move on.”



The Democratic Congress was not done, however. After all, Joe Wilson gave the Democrats something to rail against. Therefore, they jumped on the chance to punish Wilson. They did so by censuring him. The measure involves a vote by the governing body for a resolution showing displeasure toward the politician. The House of Representatives voted 240-179, passing it.



You know, there’s video which was shot during President Bush’s speeches to Congress showing the opposition (the Democrats) rudely booing, moaning, and shouting. No video has emerged revealing anyone calling him a liar during the speeches, at least not yet. There’s video of members of Congress stating that President Bush was a liar. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid outwardly showed anger toward him while speaking about his plan to rescue Social Security. Did any of them ever apologize? There was a movie made and people were urged to assassinate President Bush but was anyone called out for it in the mainstream media? No. It was awful, shameful, disgusting, embarrassing, boorish, immature, hateful, etc. - you have to admit it - what the media and many celebrities did to our last president.



However, all of the Democrats’ nastiness doesn’t excuse Joe Wilson. No one should boo or shout down a President of the United States – ever. No citizen should. No representative should. It’s bad behavior, it’s against the rules, and it’s inappropriate. Sure Wilson made a mistake. I disagree with most of Obama’s policies. I support the Tea Parties and the rallies against the current health care bill. But, Rep. Wilson interrupted a president’s speech inside the walls of Congress. He apologized to the president, but didn’t he owe an apology to the Congress as well? It wouldn’t have hurt to apologize to the Congress as well as to President Obama.

At the same time I wonder, would the Democrats have been as fair and as respectful to President Bush and/or a Republican Congress? Somehow, I doubt it. Take a gander at this, an article from the NY Daily News online by Albor Ruiz: Yet another biased, hateful article in the mainstream media



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Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Conservatives OK with Content of Obama Speech to Kids



Written : Sep. 8, 2009




A long time ago a young Democrat who happened to be the President of the United States urged the American people to, “Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.” It was part of the kind spirit and greatness of John Fitzgerald Kennedy to ask Americans to help America in a unique way.



The other day the current president announced he had an address prepared for the school children of this country. Great. JFK and other presidents did it. However, many parents believed the Obama Administration would make this a partisan speech. Why did they think such a possibility existed? The contents of the lesson plan, which was sent to the schools ahead of time, suggested it. The lesson plan asked the teachers to suggest the children write something (to themselves) describing what they could do to help the president! Help the president? What happened to “help America?” Such an idea to help the president stands in stark contrast to what John F. Kennedy said at his inaugural.



Conservatives are ok with the content of Obama’s speech to the school kids. Really. What ticked off many was the over-zealous lesson plan. Excuse some of us for thinking, but the lesson plan’s objective made many ask, “Help the president? Help him with his agenda? Help him ‘spread the word’ about how great his Congress’ Health Care Reform package could be? Help him by reporting those who don’t agree with him to the special web site he setup for such insanity?” You tell me, could asking the children how they would have helped him have been perceived as a partisan tactic, or not? What if President Bush had done the same thing? In that situation could liberals have guessed he would have been asking them to support his policies?



The icing on the cake was the way Thomas Friedman, author and NY Times correspondent, went nuts over the parents’ and others’ objections over the speech on the Sep. 7, 2009 edition of “Meet the Press”. He repeated over and over in a loud voice and angry demeanor, “It’s flat out stupid!” Of course he was telling us that thinking carefully about the matter is stupid. He and other liberals believe people are against the president because they are against the man himself. My local TV station repeated such an opinion at least twice this morning. Such a take is misguided, as is the racist angle, and the ridiculous argument that conservatives will never support him. We are just astounded how partisan the lesson plan sounded. Remember, our elected officials work for us, and not vice-versa. Asking the children to think about how they might help him is ludicrous. In fact, “It’s flat out stupid!”





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Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Health Care Plan (HR3200) Made Simple



Written : Sep. 1, 2009



It's a Government Run Program - and they never work properly -


- for instance, Social Security, Medicare, the Post Office, etc.



- and which seeks to save lots of money



- saves money one way by cutting Medicare re-imbursements



+ adds end-of-life counseling for old people



- reimburses Doctors for said counseling



= causes choices which favor only “efficient” operations with high success rates



= which is rationed care and goes against the Hippocratic oath and



= old people are encouraged to take meds and cross their fingers instead of getting life-saving procedures.



also = a change in values in America favoring death over life = scary!




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