Quick Hits - August 29 & 30, 2012

Mark Twain once observed, 'It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt.'

This is particularly fitting over the last two nights of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida.  But it doesn't apply to the speeches delivered over those two nights by prominent Republicans and up-and-coming Republicans.  Nor do I associate that sentiment with my writings as I offer 'A View From The Ranch'.

Where this quote comes to play is in the rants, the odious commentary and incessant accusations, and desperate spins of biased and bigoted pundits to attack, demonize, marginalize, and just when you think they can't stoop any lower to define a despicable meme for the Republican Convention, they play the race card - and highlight who the real racists actually are.

We have several major media outlets (MSNBC, ABC) which effectively refused to show any member of a minority speaking during the first two days of the Republican convention.  On day 1, they ignored the superb speech by Congressional candidate Mia Love - and the standing ovation that the convention attendees gave Love when she completed her speech.  What was news?  The claim that two convention attendees, threw peanuts at an African-American camera operator working for CNN while supposedly saying, 'This is how we feed animals', and subsequently be ejected from the convention.

Two morons, acting like morons, were summarily ejected because they were morons.

That's a far bigger story than the one about the Washington D.C. Bureau Chief for Yahoo News.  David Chalian, not knowing he was in front of a 'hot mic', on the first evening of the convention, noted that Ann and Mitt Romney are 'happy to have a party with black people drowning'....

The comments were made during an ABC/Yahoo livestream, when the reporters believed that microphones were off.

The comments appear to be in reference to the Republican convention going on even as Hurricane Isaac hits the coast. Ann Romney addressed the convention last night; Romney is scheduled for tomorrow night.

Sources confirm that Chalian made the comments. Expect to see multiple statements from ABC and Yahoo News regarding this incident in the imminent future, sources say.

UPDATE: A Yahoo spokesman emails: "David Chalian's statement was inappropriate and does not represent the views of Yahoo!. He has been terminated effective immediately. We have already reached out to the Romney campaign, and we apologize to Mitt Romney, his staff, their supporters and anyone who was offended."

Did the other parts of the mainstream media also ignore the fact that Yahoo, to their honor, immediately and promptly sack their DC Bureau Chief who happened to let his own hatred and contempt for conservatives, Republicans, and the Romney's - not to mention towards blacks?

No, in fact several of the most clueless rushed to the defense of David Chalian.  One of these is the clueless idiot, Gwen Ifill, who has apparently taken a break from her non-stop whinging about not getting a spot to 'moderate' a Presidential debate this fall, removes all doubt about herself as she tweets the lame and biased David Chalian is 'God's gift to political journalism'. 

No card has been played as carelessly, shamelessly, or classlessly as the race card over the last 4 years by far too many of the liberal punditry or political chattering class.  The race card has been played with such callousness that it has weakened and diminished the despicable act of racism.  It's being used without evidence or examples of racism - which only reinforces the racism inherent of those who callously toss the pejorative around.

Throughout the progressive media nimrods stalking the halls of the Tampa convention site, the standard message they are trolling is one that the GOP stands for, supports, and is nothing but racist.  That is the primary meme being pressed by these ranting, delusional blowhards.  It started with the despicable race baiting and racism accusations made by the reprehensible Chris Matthews who foamed at the mouth during his attack on RNC Chair, Reince Priebus, and continued with additional rants by Laurence O'Donnell.

Where are the questions directed towards MSNBC and the race baiting of their 'talent' - or their decision to not highlight minority speakers like Mia Love, Condi Rice, Artur Davis, and Susana Martinez?  How about their decision to trash and denigrate Artur Davis simply because he decided over the last several years that Barack Obama was undeserving of his political support?  Or for that matter to ABC?

Matthews attacking Condi Rice re the 'birther' question...

At the progressively biased publication, The Atlantic, we're treated to their reporter, Elspeth Reeve, filing a delusionally headlined report about John Boehner at the convention - 'Boehner Says Out Loud He Hopes Blacks and Latinos 'Won't Show Up' This Election'....

The Weekly Standard asks, 'Is that what Boehner said?' and offers the full quote along with some commentary...

This election is about economics. And they may not show up and vote for our candidate but I would suggest to you they won't show up and vote for the president either.

Reeve's headline is grossly unfair.

Grossly unfair?  If only The Atlantic had the class of The Weekly Standard.  It's not only grossly unfair, but also a complete breach of any journalistic ethics.

But a complete breach of journalistic ethics is nothing new to Elspeth Reeves.  She's done that before - when she was a reporter / fact checker for another far left rag, The New Republic.    Reeves is the wife of one Scott Beauchamp.  Beauchamp was a soldier who served in Iraq during the Iraqi war and published a diary titled 'Shock Troops' in The New Republic - and was found to have fabricated the entire diary and events which were used to hammer President George W. Bush and those who supported the Iraq War.  Reeves was the one who promoted 'Shock Troops' to TNR - and failed to 'fact check' the fabrications.  Now here she is passing more lies to fit her political ideology.

Amie Parnes, of The Hill, another Obama shill, notes that the talking point about the right wanting a low turnout is now part of Barack Obama's stump speech as she proudly notes the President is 'refusing to cede the limelight to his opponent'.

Clueless and biased fact checkers determining 'facts' based on their own political ideology is becoming far more commonplace - particularly as Barack Obama continues to have no record to run on.

One of the most pathetic is the WaPoo's Glenn Kessler whose arrogance is nearly matched by his fecklessness.  Kessler has been working overtime to shill for Barack Obama's reelection efforts - and to denigrate and weaken the GOP assault on Barack Obama's dismal record in office.

He couldn't wait to assign Ann Romney '4 pinocchios' for her use of the President's line 'You didn't build that' - using the same tired Democrat / Obama campaign talking points in a failing Clintonesque argument about the phrase being 'taken out of context'.  As Kessler notes in his 'assessment', "Yes, it's a bit of a judgment call...' which then leads to the unsurprisingly conclusion that in his obviously dishonest and biased judgment, Ann Romney deserves to be called a liar by a hack.

Kessler also assigned the same '4 pinocchios' to both Rick Santorum and Artur Davis for their statements that Barack Obama waived the work requirements for welfare recipients in his executive order modifying the landmark 1996 legislation - calling it a 'gross simplification'.  If anyone is simple, it's got to be Kessler - who says that the references are worth 4 pinocchios because no one can conclude that Obama believes in government handouts and dependency....despite all of the evidence that he does via the soaring numbers of those government handouts and increased dependency...

What's also laughable is Kessler's pre-emptive defense - saying that when he 'rules' against Democrats, they express their outrage to him - and that is evidence that he is fair.  No, the evidence of one's fairness comes from the rationale that one uses to determine if something is true or false.  Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own set of facts.  In that, Kessler's bias is clear - no one without bias would have to leverage 'Clintonesque' parsing of words - like Bill Clinton's definition of the word 'is' is - as a justification for determining if something is true or false.  Saying because he can't see what Barack Obama is really thinking - and therefore deserves the benefit of the doubt is as asinine as the State Department / Obama looking at Iran's nuclear weapon program, and their continuing efforts to hide from the IAEA, and conclude, 'we don't really know they're making nuclear weapons because they haven't said they are officially making weapons'.

During the 2002-3 run up to the Iraq war, I used this example of how stupid that argument is.

You are walking down a narrow alley. You can only go forward or back. In front of you, you see your worst enemy in the world. This is a person who has repeatedly and openly threatened to kill you the next time he sees you. He sees you. Reaching into his pockets, he pulls out some metal items which he starts to assemble. You can see he is assembling a pistol. As he assembles the pistol, he reminds you that he is going to shoot you dead. You see he has the pistol nearly assembled. He has a magazine with bullets in it in his hand. He's moving to load the pistol - inserting the magazine and pulls back on the slide to chamber a round. He says he's going to put the barrel of the pistol on your forehead and pull the trigger.

At what point do you do something? Do you turn and run or attack him as he starts to assemble the pistol? Just prior to loading the pistol? Or do you wait because you can't be 100% certain he will really kill you?

Unsurprisingly, Kessler's 'fact check' of the second night of the RNC convention is as intellectually dishonest as his first night's 'check'.  This one is so vapid, one has to wonder if David Axelrod actually wrote it for Kessler.  He cites 'Wonkblog' as the authoritative source that Barack Obama's $850 billion stimulus plan, the one that was supposed to prevent unemployment from exceeding 8%, the one that was to deliver in the summer of 2012 a 5.6% unemployment rate and a 4%-4.5% GDP growth rate - a success.

A success?

Only to an ideologue.

Kessler also tries to spin the case that Solyndra was not a case of crony capitalism because of 'no conclusive evidence' of cronyism and yet more intellectually bankrupt parsing of the 'You didn't build that' comment.

With that, it's hardly a surprise that Kessler also shills for the Obama campaign team as he picks up on the meme (false of course) tweeted by Obama Deputy Campaign Manager, Stephanie Cutter (who is factually challenged in her own right), that Paul Ryan LIED when he said the GM plant in Janesville, Wisconsin closed in 2009.....noting that GM announced it's closure in 2008 when BUSH was President - ignoring that Barack Obama twice promised to work to keep the plant opening.  Here's the real story, Glenn, from the local paper in Janesville - 

General Motors will end medium-duty truck production in Janesville on April 23 [2009], four months to the day after the plant stopped building full-size sport utility vehicles.

About 100 employees associated with the line learned of the layoffs Wednesday.

April will mark the end of vehicle production at the Janesville plant that traces its roots to 1919 and the Samson Model M tractor. Chevrolet production started in Janesville in 1923.

Kessler, wasn't alone in this, as many others picked up and try to promote Stephanie Cutter's effort to spin yet another Obama failed promise away.

In fact, Kessler is sooooo good at 'fact checking - he's already fact checked the Romney acceptance speech - 10 hours before it is scheduled to be delivered by Mitt Romney...

As John Nolte of Breitbart.comn notes:

Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post's dishonest fact-checker, somehow found yet another shark to jump today. As if to prove the era of fact-checking as over; as if to prove that no amount of satire can begin to adequately come close to the clownish reality of these appallingly biased fact-checkers -- today Kessler fact-checked Romney's convention acceptance speech 10 hours before Romney is scheduled to give it.

This is not an "Onion" parody or me trying to be funny or prove an earlier point. This is Kessler's actual headline:

Previewing the ‘Facts’ In Mitt Romney’s Acceptance Speech

The details of Mitt Romney’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention on Thursday night are not known, but he’s been road-testing various claims about President Obama’s record for months. Here are five dubious assertions that he frequently makes on the campaign trail or in his campaign advertisements. (Republicans, no worries! We will also do this exercise for Obama next week.)

"No worries?" Does Kessler think he can buy us like he's been bought? Does Kessler think we're going to be content with this just because he's going to do something just as irresponsible, unprofessional, and immoral to Obama? And does Kessler think for a single moment we believe Obama won't be let off the hook?

To his credit, though, somehow, the very same Kessler who called Romney a liar for stating a president who didn’t visit Israel didn’t visit Israel, was able to control himself and not preemptively award Romney Pinocchios for something he hasn't yet said. But what Kessler is doing here is even more sinister and corrupt.

This feckless, impotent little fact-checker is bullying Romney; putting him on notice and threatening him. Kessler's firing a warning show across Romney's bow with the message: "You cannot say this stuff because I have deemed it untrue. And if you do, I will call you a liar."

This isn’t journalism, this is extortion.

But let's also give credit when credit is due, particularly with 'fact checking'.  I do need to acknowledge that yes, we're due for a Blue Moon on Friday, August 31st, because PolitiFact, has taken the aforementioned Stephanie Cutter to task for her outright lies.  In a better late than never moment, PolitiFact, a week after Stephanie Cutter made the laughable claim that the Obama 'recovery' created more jobs than the Reagan 'recovery' - PolitiFact finally reviewed the claim....

Even using Cutter’s cherry-picked formulation, job creation under Obama has dramatically trailed the pace set by Reagan. In fact, adjusting for the size of the workforce, Reagan’s recovery was more than four times bigger than Obama’s has been so far. We rate Cutter’s claim False.

Here's the chart I used to expose Cutter's lie the day after it was uttered...

Enough with the feckless lamestream media and the dishonest 'fact checkers' who tell us what / how to think with a strong bias behind their message.

Just a few more items to cover quickly before we need to wrap for this double edition....

Chris Christie delivered a superb speech - but not the fire and brimstone that many expected.  This wasn't a speech for the GOP base, it was a speech for the independents to see the choice they have this November 6th...

We believe in telling hard working families the truth about our country's fiscal realities. Telling them what they already know - the math of federal spending doesn't add up.

With $5 trillion in debt added over the last four years, we have no other option but to make the hard choices, cut federal spending and fundamentally reduce the size of government.

They believe that the American people don't want to hear the truth about the extent of our fiscal difficulties and need to be coddled by big government.

They believe the American people are content to live the lie with them.

We believe in telling seniors the truth about our overburdened entitlements.

We know seniors not only want these programs to survive, but they just as badly want them secured for their grandchildren.

Seniors are not selfish.

They believe seniors will always put themselves ahead of their grandchildren. So they prey on their vulnerabilities and scare them with misinformation for the cynical purpose of winning the next election.

Their plan: whistle a happy tune while driving us off the fiscal cliff, as long as they are behind the wheel of power.

We believe that the majority of teachers in America know our system must be reformed to put students first so that America can compete.

Teachers don't teach to become rich or famous. They teach because they love children. We believe that we should honor and reward the good ones while doing what's best for our nation's future - demanding accountability, higher standards and the best teacher in every classroom.

They believe the educational establishment will always put themselves ahead of children. That self-interest trumps common sense.

They believe in pitting unions against teachers, educators against parents, and lobbyists against children.

They believe in teacher's unions. We believe in teachers.

Paul Ryan's 'home run' speech -

Did you watch MSNBC last night?  or ABC?  Then you missed Condi Rice's excellent speech - delivered, by the way, without a teleprompter.  [How many are touting her oratorical skills? Not enough.]

Finally, two business news items that reflect on the record of President Barack Obama - a record since January 2009 that has done massive damage to the United States and millions of her citizens.

First, a study that demonstrates that the record high level of US Corporate taxes are driving our businesses abroad... and President Obama is openly supporting raising these rates even higher in 2013 and beyond.

Second, it's Thursday, and another release of new unemployment claims for the past week.  This week's number, 374,000 new unemployment claims filed, after seasonal adjustment.  

Initial claims were unchanged from last week - thanks to the now ubiquitous upward revision of the previous week's data. This is the highest print in six weeks and the third week in a row that the claims data has been greater than expected. The market is unsure - is this enough pre-FOMC to make a real difference or just more 'seasonal' noise? One thing is sure - the trend is higher in the last six weeks, hardly a positive sign (as the 4-week moving average rises 1,500 to 370,250) - and after the standard upward revision today's 374k claims will be 377k by next week.

There are three more monthly reports before the election on November 6....and things aren't getting better despite the 'cooking of the books'.

Today in History

29th

1533 - Francisco Pizarro executes the last Incan Emperor, Atahuallpa, and marks the end of the 300 years of the Inca civilization.

1842 - The Treaty of Nanking is signed between China and Great Britain - ends the First Opium War and gives the island of Hong Kong to the British.

1949 - The USSR explodes their first atomic bomb.

1965 - Gemini V, piloted by Gordon Cooper and Charles (Pete) Conrad, ends a record setting 8 day mission in space.

2005 - Hurricane Katrina makes landfall on the US Gulf Coast, devastating the region (Louisana and Mississippi).

30th

30BC - Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, takes her own life after the defeat of her forces by Octavium, the future first Emperor of Rome.

1780 - American General Benedict Arnold secretly promises to surrender the fortifications at West Point, NY along the Hudson River, to the British.

1862 - Confederate forces under General Robert E. Lee defeat the Union army at the Second Battle of Bull Run in Manassas, Virginia.

1918 - Vladimir Lenin survives an attempted assassination by a member of the Social Revolutionary Party.  In reprisal, purges were launched against members of the Social Revolutionary Party and other political parties opposing the Communists - accelerating the rush to civil war.

1963 - The U.S. - USSR 'hotline' goes into operation.

1965 - Thurgood Marshall was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to the Supreme Court, becoming the first African-American justice on the Supreme Court.