Tag: NPR

It's getting ugly out there. When it comes to the media, voters don't know whom to trust. It's no wonder, what with the disgusting dissembling by  Republicans and their financial enablers sponsoring a bilge-storm of disinformation. But  possibly the worst are those in the corporate and local media who front for the GOP lies or give them a free pass to deceive by asking them no meaningful questions whatsoever. They are useful tools, who spread the bilge even further.  

And so this Friday (and every Friday thereafter--until I get tired of it) I will announce the winners (or losers, as the case may be). of the label "The Worst of the Worst This Week." Today, it's a three-way tie.   The Trio of Mockworthiness is: 1) Jonathan Karl of ABC, 2) the entire national NPR team "news" team, and 3) local NBC-12 "reporter" Ryan Nobles.  Here's why...

David Axelrod, President Obama's political strategist, was interviewed by NPR's Steve Inskeep this morning:

INSKEEP: What do you think has happened im the states that the president, somewhat unexpectedly in some cases, won in 2008 where he seems to be in deep trouble now, Indiana, North Carolina and Virginia, all states that he won in 2008 and it would be hard to find an analyst who is certain that the president is going to win all 3 of those states again?

AXELROD: Well, look, I think certainty is a hard thing to come by in American politics ...

INSKEEP: I think it'd be hard to find an analyst who thinks you have a good shot.

Let's just look at the numbers here. In 2008, President Obama beat John McCain by 7.2%. Obama is currently leading Mitt Romney in national polls by 4.4%. In Virginia, the latest poll from Mason Dixon on January 18 shows Obama leading Romney 45% to 44%. In North Carolina, a January 8 poll from Democratic-aligned PPP had Obama leading Romney 46% to 45%, while a January 11 poll from GOP-aligned Civitas had Romney leading Obama 48% to 39%. There has been no presidential polling that I can find in Indiana.

Do the "analysts" Steve Inskeep talks to work for the Republican Party? Who else would be telling Inskeep, "Obama's leading in Virginia? He has no shot!" And the trends are moving briskly in Obama's favor. Job growth just hit a two-year high. Mitt Romney's favorability numbers have been tanking incredibly hard for a month now, while President Obama's approval rating has been improving for five straight months.

Well said by Rep. Connolly!

...Today we debate the rule on whether or not to fund National Public Radio. This is an ideologically-driven attempt at defunding a revered American institution, and the reason is, because you don't like its content. You can't stand balanced, objective news, so let's defund it. Regardless of whether one supports NPR or not, and I do, we can all be clear that this bill does not do one thing -- it does NOT create jobs.  We've been here for 11 weeks, Mr. Speaker, and the Republican majority has yet to bring a single jobs bill to the floor of the House...I ask my colleagues, turn away from this ideologically driven debate on National Public Radio and let's get down to basics, let's pass a jobs bill...

Democrats, especially progressives, are undergoing an agonizing re-appraisal since the recent mid-term election.  As always, the pundit class and the permanent Inside-the-Beltway Party are quick to tell us what to do: Democrats must move right, become more like Republicans---- and, as usual, they are dead wrong.  I believe, based on exit polls as well as the results of who won and who lost, especially among the Democrats, that what we are seeing is the on-going internal re-alignment of the American two-party political system into a more ideologically based division, as well as the continuing encroachment of corporate political power, which is modifying our quaint republic, historically based on representative democracy, into something new, which I call "corporate feudalism." The challenge is, how are progressives going to deal with these two situations, and the answers do not include becoming Republican Lite.