Glen Beck: Why "I left" Fox News...

 Forbes Magazine has an article out featuring an interview with talk show host Glenn Beck, where he discloses why he had to leave Fox news. It has to do with preserving his soul.

Read it here... 

Meanwhile, from this morning's Politico Playbook:

--A FOX NEWS SPOKEPERSON: "Glenn Beck wasn't trying to save his soul, he was trying to save his ass. Advertisers fled his show and even Glenn knows what that means in our industry. Yet, we still tried to give him a soft landing. Guess no good deed goes unpunished."


Sources: 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2013/04/26/glenn-beck-on-the-fox-news-pit-of-despair-and-why-he-got-out-of-cable-tv/

http://www.politico.com/playbook/

Dr. Barbara Bellar - Trading Integrity for Votes?

Dr. Barbara Bellar is a candidate for State Senate in Illinois's 18th District. She is a long time physician who also has military service, teaching experience and is also a licensed attorney in Illinois. She was also a Benedictine Nun for five years. She seems to be a serious person claiming to be a serious candidate for public office in the land of Lincoln.

Recently, Mrs. Bellar has been the focus of national media attention, especially Fox News, mostly due to a video of some remarks she made about Obamacare at a rally for Illinois Women for Romney/Ryan. (She was on Greta Van Susteren's show last night and will appear on Lou Dobbs show tonight.) Her remarks build off of one particular sentence that sort of gets the ball rolling in her speech:

We’re going to be gifted with a healthcare plan we are forced to purchase, and fined if we don’t, which purportedly covers at least 10 million more people, without adding a single new doctor, but provides for 16,000 new IRS agents, written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn’t understand it, passed by a congress that didn’t read it but exempted themselves from it, and signed by a president who smokes, with funding same sentence – with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn’t pay his taxes, for which we will be taxed for four years before any benefits take effect, by a government which has already bankrupted social security and medicare, all to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese and (laughing & applause) and financed by a country that’s broke. 

Dr. Barbara Bellar-Candidate for Illinois State Senate

Where to begin?

The fact checkers are having a field day with Dr. Bellar, as almost everything in that sentence is factually incorrect.

Let's break down that sentence and see how it holds up...

"We’re going to be gifted with a healthcare plan we are forced to purchase, and fined if we don’t,..."

Wrong - If you have health insurance, you are not forced by the ACA to change plans. If you don't have insurance and can afford it, you will be expected to purchase it. The "fines" she speaks of are pooled into a fund that will help pay for uninsured people who require healthcare, which the public winds up paying for.

"which purportedly covers at least 10 million more people..."

Wrong - The ACA is expected to help 30 million, not ten million, acquire health insurance, many of whom are currently accessing their healthcare through the most expensive of ways, the emergency room. 

"without adding a single new doctor,"

Wrong - According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 15,000 new doctors should be in place by 2015. 

"provides for 16,000 new IRS agents...,"

Wrong - According to the Factcheck.com, this is considered "wildly inaccurate." Its assumes every penny of money allocated to the IRS would be spent on new employees and every single one of them would be an "agent." 

Read more fact-checking of Bellar's remarks here...

Watch Dr. Bellar's comments in full:


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What troubles me greatly about Mrs. Bellar's comments is the blatent and bold-faced mis-information she puts forth as truth. She does so, obviously in an attempt to position herself as the credible, conservative candidate who will make life better for those in her State. Her disregard for factual information, given her position in our society, I find offensive and self-serving. She's apparently sold her soul in an attempt to attain public office. She brings shame to her profession and her career.

From her website's homepage:

This is the kind of person we need to turn Illinois around. 
This is the kind of person who will truly represent her constituents.
This is the kind of person of integrity and character that Illinois needs. 

The last line says it all. 

Sources:

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Closer-Look-Hit-video-criticizes-Obamacare-3887431.php

Ten thoughts on last night's GOP debate...

Ten thoughts on last night's GOP debate:

1) No one has really tagged Mitt Romney yet. I'm not even sure if anyone is really trying that hard. The candidate that WILL probably go after Romney directly will arrive Saturday. 

2) While the back and forth between Michelle Bachmann and Tim Pawlenty was certainly entertaining, I thought the exchanges between Rick Santorum and Ron Paul were equally so...

3) I thought the guys from Fox News did a terrific job moderating it. Best job by a mile of the first three debates. Tough questions were asked, especially some I didn't expect (Chris Wallace's "gotcha question" about Gingrich losing his staff was great.)

4) John Huntsman seems like a pretty interesting guy. John Huntsman does not however, look anything remotely close to a serious Presidential candidate. I think Huntsman goes bye-bye in the next sixty days or so...

5) Newt Gingrich was plenty feisty last night, but just seems to be one of two cranky old guys in the room. The proverbial "toothpaste is out of the tube" and I'll be surprised if the former Speaker can put it back in anytime soon. 

6) I liked Ron Paul's responses the best, by far...His remarks on bringing our troops home and Iran's pursuit of a nuclear weapon were probably the most mature things I heard all night...Mind you, those same comments probably destroyed any shred of hope he was clinging to. (How long till the "Ron Paul is no friend of Israel" comments start?)

7) Rick Santorum had his best performance this far. He's on message, projecting some forcefulness and did as much as any other person on stage to improve his chances. He'll be around a while it seems, although don't confuse that with a belief that he can win the nomination. He won't. Santorum's campaign will also likely be hurt by the entry of Perry to the race this weekend. 

8) Michelle Bachmann, I thought, slipped some last night from her previous debates. While sparring with Pawlenty, she made a few false statements about TPaw's record, which may or may not come to light over the next few days. Its certainly more ammo for her fellow Minnesotan. As with Romney and Santorum, the Bachmann campaign will be hurt substantially when Rick Perry joins the fray.

9) Herman Cain seemed to fumble on some questions and I'm just not sure how well his "I know more now than the last time we debated" line will play. I don't see him as a long term candidate. I may be proven wrong, but I don't see a path forward to victory for him.

10) Fox Anchor Brett Baier asked if any candidates would endorse a deficit reduction plan that included any tax increases. ALL said no. He then rephrased and said what if the ration was slanted heavily towards spending cuts but still included a small tax increase...such as for every dollar in new taxes, there would be ten dollars in cuts? Still, no GOP candidate raised their hand in approval. If former President Reagan could raise taxes several times during a period not remotely close to the fiscal emergencies we're experiencing now, why can't a single candidate endorse even the theoretical notion of a 10:1 ratio of cuts/taxes? 

Answer? Grover Norquist and his anti tax pledge, the Tea Party and Right Wing talk radio...

Summary: A GOP debate this early doesn't mean a great deal, but I suggest it means more that Saturday's straw poll will. I heard nothing said last night that indicated anyone laid a glove on Romney. I thought Bachmann/Tpaw and Santorum/Paul were entertaining, but chances are very, very slim that any of those four will be the nominee. Huntsman, Cain and Gingrich seem to be filler right now. That leaves Texas Governor Rick Perry as the most viable threat to the Romney express. Sarah Palin is not running, but will be a factor, for sure...I think she aligns more closely with Perry than she does Romney, so I anticipate a tag team of Perry and Palin going after Romney before Memorial Day next year. The deck can be reshuffled at any time, especially if a scandal emerges from one of the higher profile campaigns, so stay tuned. 

Promises, Promises...

What did he say?

Mitt Romney said he said it...

Michelle Bachmann said he said it...

Tim Pawlenty said he said it...

John Boehner and Eric Cantor said he said it...

Sean Hannity said he said it...

Glen Beck said he said it...

But....

President Barack Obama never said it...

The question is did President Obama actually promise if Congress approved his stimulus package back in 2009, that unemployment wouldn't go above 8%? 

Obama never said those words. Look it up...

I'm hearing it quite often these days from the GOP candidates as they take the first steps on their long walks to the Republican nomination. Its a juicy sounding claim to say the President lied about how high unemployment would go. Its just not true.

Fact is, two of his advisors made that statement, along with plenty of caveats and disclaimers. Christina Romer,  chairwoman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers, and Jared Bernstein, the vice president's top economic adviser. It was from a joint effort called the "Job Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan. 

From Politifact: 

"It should be understood that all of the estimates presented in this memo are subject to significant margins of error," the report states. "There is the more fundamental uncertainty that comes with any estimate of the effects of a program. Our estimates of economic relationships and rules of thumb are derived from historical experience and so will not apply exactly in any given episode. Furthermore, the uncertainty is surely higher than normal now because the current recession is unusual both in its fundamental causes and its severity."

There's also a footnote that goes along with the chart that states: "Forecasts of the unemployment rate without the recovery plan vary substantially. Some private forecasters anticipate unemployment rates as high as 11% in the absence of action."

The Administration has acknowledged its projections were wrong. Just like the non partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projections were wrong as well. 

Words matter. Obama had been office a very short time and his team came up with a set of projections they felt were credible. They warned through the report that the estimates were prone to fluctuations, given the volatility  of the financial markets. There's no debate they were under estimating how high unemployment would go. It is fair to say they should've had a better projection. (Although the people that do budgets, cost estimates, etc. for a living also blew it...) To suggest however, that Obama is a liar because he "promised" unemployment wouldn't go above 8% is simply untrue. 

This election cycle like those before it will have an endless supply of unfair allegations like this one. To the average Hannity or Beck listener/viewer, it sounds plausible. Its certainly something they'd be inclined to agree with and share with their like minded friends. It grows and grows. There will many more by the time November 2012 arrives. On both sides. As interested voters, its our job to fact check everything that we hear. Trust no one. Not Fox, not MSNBC, or whoever you prefer. 

Just as important, ask yourself why does a particular person misrepresent the facts? If you consider Hannity or Olbermann to always tell you the truth, why are they actually failing you? Often on a nightly basis. If you belong to a political personality's fan club, you might be prone to accepting some pleasant sounding but factually wrong information. 

It bothers me. 

It should bother you.

Its very vogue these days to toss around quotes from the founding fathers, so consider this from Thomas Jefferson:

 If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed."

Sources: 

http://www.nbc12.com/story/14190126/politifact-virginia?redirected=true

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/07/mitt-romney-ok-maybe-obama-didnt-make-the-recession-worse.php

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/jan/26/michele-bachmann/rep-michele-bachmann-says-white-house-promised-sti/

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/oct/23/news/la-pn-pawlenty-obama-20101024

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/jul/09/eric-cantor/Cantor-and-other-republicans-say-obama-promised-s/

http://conservativeamerican.org/dems-libs-socialists/dems-libs-socialists-obama/obamas-top-10-broken-promises/

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/glenn-beck-warns-america-is-on-the-verge-now-of-a-great-great-depression/

http://otrans.3cdn.net/ee40602f9a7d8172b8_ozm6bt5oi.pdf

Tax Dollars Spent on what? (Nice job lame stream media...)

Thanks to my old pal Karen who shared this:

ABC News Reports Millions of Tax Dollars wasted on foreign trips to observe billboards...

  The gist of the story that for at least ten years, the Transportation Department has paid fairly big bucks for groups of  Federal and State employees to travel abroad and investigate how other Countries manage their larger highway systems. look at issues like safety, materials used to construct the roads, climate issues, etc. Basically trying to learn how we can make our roads better, safer and last longer. Sounds reasonable. We can always learn from others, but in the last week or so a particular trip all OVER the world with the purpose of studying how various Countries handle policies related to billboards.

  Reportedly, the employees stayed in high end hotels in Australia and Europe, ate at expensive restaurants, and had a wonderful time. Estimated cost of this particular trip? In the 300K range.

  The program began under George Bush and continued under the current administration until yesterday, when Obama official Ray Lahood, Secretary of the Transportation Dept. ordered it suspended till further notice. Which was, albeit a tad late, the right thing to do.

  A few questions:

1) I thought President Obama had staff working round the clock in every Federal nook and cranny to root out waste. How did they miss this? This seems like a big fat one hanging right out over the middle of the plate. So obvious Ray Charles could've seen it. On this count, there's no excuses Mr. President. Your Administration, and therefore you, Sir, appear inept. Please tell me how a well known expense drain such as Travel wasn't examined well enough to discover this? Clumsy, amateurish and once again, a self inflicted mis-step. (This is getting old...)

2) This story seems to have gotten a charge from the work done by Brian Ross of ABC News. Last I checked, ABC News was firmly in the group of "lame stream media" outlets that were nothing but Obama puppets. One story does not a new trend make, but its nice to see a story like this come from an association connected with "the left."

3) As of 12:15pm today, I couldn't find this story mentioned anywhere on Fox News. I count on Fox News to keep me informed on news such as this, because in all of media history, no other "mainstream media organisation" seems willing to show the President or his Administration in a less than adoring light. Thank God for Fox News. This seems exactly like the kind of story they would do well with. (What I did find on the Fox News home page was a clip alerting me to how many times Obama used the word "I" (or a form of it such as I've) in his Afghanistan speech last night.) Eck...

Its not the end of the world, but its more the principle of the thing. For a man who said " I got this" repeatedly during the campaign, you don't "got this" Mr. President nor did your Sec.of Transportation until ABC News put a story out on it. That's a Fail.

Fox News also gets a Fail on this because this is the kind of stuff they do better than anyone else. If you weren't so busy looking for Obama's imagined mistakes, who knows-you might find even more goodies like ABC did.

ABC News? They get a thumbs up for reporting the story, in spite of their "loyalty" to the anointed one. They should have done a better job providing details as to how and why the program began in the first place. What benefits have come from it that might offset the cost? How long was the program intended to last?




Sources:

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/international-billboard-research-trip-ridiculous-watchdog/story?id=13900677

http://blogs.sites.post-gazette.com/index.php/news/the-roundabout/28045-international-transportation-program-irks-altmire-?cmpid=bcpanel10

http://video.foxnews.com/v/1016772170001/the-obama-is-have-it/

Sarah Palin uses Rolling Thunder to advance her own cause...

"Gotcha motorcycle riding?"

  I really wanted to write a pro-Sarah Palin piece about her riding in the Rolling Thunder rally in Washington DC this weekend. Seriously, I did. I basically had it laid out in my mind, something like this:

Palin is invited by the organization (fact...well, sort of).
Palin works with the group to arrange a tasteful presence at this honorable function (fiction).
Palin would not make any speeches or official remarks (fact).
Palin would make sure she didn't interfere with the main goal of the ride, not be a sideshow or distraction (fail).

  I get that she was invited by someone who used to be connected to the event. I also get that that piece of information wasn't shared with the organisation. That's odd. For someone who's exerting an incredible amount of control over her public appearances, its very hard to explain. Event organizers complained they weren't aware of her riding, which may have been an internal problem, not one of the Palin camp's doing.

  Some have been critical of her riding in the front of the procession. I'm told by a long time biker that she should have rode from the rear of the pack out of respect for the actual club members. The scene, by many media reports was totally chaotic and not very well handled for a person of her star power. It seemed too impromptu to have been a full blown Palin event. I've heard criticism about her having a sharpie at the ready for autographs. I'm sure she signs autographs every place she goes. This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.

 So, on one hand, she gets invited, agrees to attend, the organizers don't tend to the details very well, she works through it with a smile on her face, is accommodating and even visited some wounded vets. She made no speeches, she didn't force her way onto the lectern, etc. She took, some would say, as low a profile as she can. Reaction was mixed about her participating. Some hated it, some liked it. The ride went on, successfully, no big problems to it, so - who cares, eh?

  I do. It was wrong beyond belief.

  On Sunday, our Secretary of Defense Robert Gates spoke. Likewise, Mike Mullen, currently the Military Advisor to the President and Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff, also spoke. Did you hear much about these two men this week? Nope, not too much. Does it sound right that a television personality who resigned from her position as Governor of Alaska attending this event after being invited by a former board member gain this much coverage? Not to me, it doesn't.

  I don't see how it benefited the Rolling Thunder rally for those who have served.  

  I do see how it benefited Sarah Palin. Ray Charles could see that.

  It would have been more professional of Palin's camp to reach out to the actual organizers of the event, those currently responsible and make sure there was actually an invitation. That way, both sides could've coordinated details, security, etc. about her being there. That never happened. Which was disrespectful of those who are regular participants at this event.

  It sounds to me like she got a loose invitation from a guy who used to be in the upper levels of the Rolling Thunder group. It wasn't an "official" invite. Rather than, as I suggested, contact the officials running the event and coordinating everything, she basically just showed up. Went to the front of the line, got tons of media coverage, said a few cutesy, nice things and then rode off into the sunset.

  I'm trying to get my head around the mind bending levels of howling I'd see/hear if President Obama did what she did. Fox would be shooting off fireworks. The RW talk shows tomorrow would be just white noise for all the screaming from Rush, Hannity and Mr. Beck. It would be crazy. Laura Ingraham would've just killed herself as there'd be nothing left to live for.

  Palin weasles her way into this noble event and its kid gloves all weekend long. Will there be any post event apology for any inconvenience her participation may have resulted in? Probably not. Palin engages in "gotcha" motorcycle riding and Fox goes mute.
 



Sources:

http://www.rollingthunder1.com/PressRoom.html

http://slatest.slate.com/posts/2011/05/28/sarah_palin_bus_tour_not_invited_at_rolling_thunder_bike_run.html

http://hotair.com/archives/2011/05/28/yes-palin-was-invited-to-rolling-thunder/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/mixed-feelings-about-sarah-palin-at-rolling-thunder/2011/05/29/AGNCu9DH_blog.html

How Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes Failed at Setting Up a Strong Republican Candidate for 2012 -- New York Magazine

How Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes Failed at Setting Up a Strong Republican Candidate for 2012 -- New York Magazine: "The circus Roger Ailes created at Fox News made his network $900 million last year. But it may have lost him something more important: the next election."

Fascinating background on how Glen Beck and Sarah Palin are viewed at the network.