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Obama too hands-off on health care?

Birth/Death Model Revisions After the typical in January in which the Birth/Death Model revisions bore some semblance of reality, the Birth/Death numbers remain in deep outer space. This month was closer to orbit however, as January and July are revision months. The BLS had a chance to catch up this month but did not. As usual their model added jobs. At this point in the cycle birth death numbers should have been massively contracting for months. The BLS is going to keep adding jobs through the entire recession in a complete display of incompetence. The Birth/Death numbers have been a...

Just haven't heard this being mentioned anywhere. But if the press was doing it's job and asking the tough questions of our officals and tough followup questions.

Mark Twain once said, "If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed." The latter might be true for those who rely on the national media for the facts. After six months in office, the national media are still telling us how popular President Obama is. That's the national media's spin. The facts tell a different story. A USA Today-Gallup poll found that nine of the last 11 presidents were more popular than President Obama after six months in office. A Rasmussen poll found the president's approval rating below 50%, with...

Derek Thompson over at the Atlantic seems to be a perfect example of blaming everyone and everything but Obama for the fact that the president’s ratings on his prime time TV pressers have steadily fallen since the first one. It can’t be Obama’s fault! It has to be other reasons. Why, Obama is da schnizzle,The One, the Obammessiah, dontcha know? Here is what Thompson says of the low ratings that Obama got for his last TV appearance to push his healthcare plan: Read the rest at Publiusforum.com...

RNC Chairman Michael Steele addresses the party in San Diego.

Thursday's edition of The New York Times goes out of its way to bury poll results that reflect a growing public backlash against President Obama's healthcare proposals

<p>Investigator: Palin May Have Violated Ethics Laws An independent investigator has found evidence that Gov. Sarah Palin may have violated ethics laws by accepting private donations to pay her legal debts.</p> <p>"All options are open in terms of legal remedies. It is a clear violation of Alaska law that Mr. Daniel explicitly reviewed with Ms. Chatman prior to her illegal actions. We will be contacting the appropriate authorities for review and action."</p>

The only time in my life as a broadcaster that I departed from impartial analysis was after 9/11, when I waxed lyrical about Donald Rumsfeld. He had united a fractured nation with his oft-hilarious press conferences. His wit and raw patriotism were an inspiration to many at home and to those of us suffering abroad in a fiercely anti-American world. However adoring the press was towards Rumsfeld, nothing equals in unctuousness a recent issue of Newsweek, “Obama on Obama.” Journalists are supposed to be impartial in reporting on the peregrinations of leaders. Little wonder I nearly dropped my pizza slice...

Whether you like her or hate her you have to admit that the treatment Sarah Palin received in the press has been unfair and unprofessional. So its no surprise that one of the reasons that Sarah Palin gave for her resignation last week was the horrible attacks she and her children have received from in the press. These attacks were not based on policy, from the very beginning they were personal. Here teenage daughter's pregnancy became press fodder, she was accused of not being the mother of her own child and Fox News token liberal Alan Colmes claimed that Sarah...

The world's most powerful media moguls are "very bearish" on the economy, but they don't seem to be blaming President Obama for the tough times, Rupert Murdoch says. Apart from Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, both owned by News Corp., the media "remains very supportive of him, perhaps not of all of his policies," Murdoch told Stuart Varney of Fox Business Network. Speaking during an interview with Varney on Thursday at the Allen & Co. conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, the News Corp. chairman and CEO also criticized the stimulus bill that was supposed to have juiced the...

On AOL Politics Daily, long-time White House reporter Carl Cannon bluntly declared that the political press gave Sarah Palin a raw deal in the 2008 campaign, and seriously failed to scrutinize Joe Biden, especially his fact-mangling and odd statements in the vice presidential debate. Cannon summed up: In the 2008 election, we took sides, straight and simple, particularly with regard to the vice presidential race. I don't know that we played a decisive role in that campaign, and I'm not saying the better side lost. What I am saying is that we simply didn't hold Joe Biden to the same...

TV and Obama: mutual love affair By David Bauder July 6, 2009 Reporting from New York -- Even President Obama, a gleam in his eye as he talked at the Radio and Television Correspondents' Assn. dinner two weeks ago, seemed to recognize the special relationship he's forged with TV networks in the opening months of his administration. "A few nights ago, I was up tossing and turning and trying to figure out exactly what to say," he said. "Finally, when I couldn't get back to sleep, I rolled over and asked Brian Williams what he thought." The reference to the...

WashPost sells access, $25,000+ By: Mike Allen July 2, 2009 08:04 AM EST For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post is offering lobbyists and association executives off the record, non-confrontational access to "those powerful few" — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and the paper’s own reporters and editors. The astonishing offer is detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health-care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he feels it’s a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its “health care reporting and editorial staff." The offer—which essentially...

Media: They laugh at his jokes. They say he's the smartest guy in Congress. And 90% of them agree with him politically. Small wonder the havoc Barney Frank wreaks on the economy gets so little attention.America has its share of problems, to be sure. But one of the most pernicious is the bias that permeates the media. We've been saying this for years, noting how it leads to half-covered issues, an ill-informed populace and wretched legislation that dogs us for decades. Never, however, has it been as pervasive as now. Yes, the fact that the media are head over heels...

Krauthammer on Press/Obama: 'The Hot Sex is Over, They're In the Cigarette Stage' By Brent Baker Created 2009-06-27 15:53 NPR's Nina Totenberg scolded the more adversarial approach some in the White House press corps took to President Obama during Tuesday's press conference, but on Inside Washington this weekend columnist Charles Krauthammer rejected the notion the media's honeymoon is “over,” as he cracked: The hot sex is over, they're in the cigarette stage right now. You get a question or two that's slightly obstreperous, but the adulatory coverage is still all wall-to-wall. That's a comedic improvement over what he offered Tuesday...

"I’ve always been struck by how -- and it’s not too strong a word -- how obsessed the President and the White House are with Fox News." So said ABC's George Stephanopoulos during the Roundtable segment of Sunday's "This Week." I kid you not. With an on-screen chyron shockingly asking, "Free Media Ride For Obama?" the former member of the administration exceedingly paranoid of what it declared was a vast right-wing conspiracy actually discussed with his guests the fawning coverage the current White House resident is getting from the press.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/President-Obama-Announces-Appointments-to-the-Presidents-Commission-on-White-House-Fellowships/ Tom Brokaw: Tom Brokaw is a Special Correspondent for NBC News. During 2008, he served as the Interim Moderator on Meet the Press. From 1982 to 2004, he served as the White House correspondent, the Chief Correspondent for Today, and the NBC Nightly News anchor. He has reported on 23 NBC News documentaries and authored five books, including The Greatest Generation and Boom! Talking About the Sixties. Also, Mr. Brokaw has served as an overseer for the International Rescue committee, a public trustee for the Mayo Clinic, member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a...

Reminiscent of Orwell’s book 1984, soon all television broadcasts may carry Dictator in Chief Barack Hussein Obama and his message all of the time. Joining NBC (the New Barack Channel), ABC (the All Barack Channel) will now begin broadcasting from the White House. We assume CBS (perhaps the Central Barack Station?) will follow its betters soon and announce that it too will officially become an Obama mouthpiece. By the way, no opposing viewpoints will be carried or allowed. ABC also plans to run a free-to-Obama campaign promoting the dictator’s healthcare plan. Does anyone at all remember the name Hugo Chavez?...

Just when you thought the propaganda from the NY Slimes could not get more loathsome and preposterous.