What’s interesting in the news today?
The other day I was hard on Gov. Jerry Brown for his signing of the non-physician abortion law. He was wrong to do so IMHO, but this time he gets it right, so it’s only fair I point that out too.
From ABCNews “California Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a bill Friday that would have banned future sales of most semi-automatic rifles that accept detachable magazines, part of a firearms package approved by state lawmakers in response to mass shootings in other states.
The governor announced signing other gun-related legislation but rejected the centerpiece bill, which would have imposed the nation’s toughest restrictions on gun ownership.
Brown’s veto message said it was too far-reaching. The bill by Democratic Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg would have outlawed future sales of an entire class of weapons that includes most assault rifles.”
“”I don’t believe that this bill’s blanket ban on semi-automatic rifles would reduce criminal activity or enhance public safety enough to warrant this infringement on gun owners’ rights,” the Democratic governor wrote in his veto message.”
Golf clap.
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Funny, now they’re called non-essential, but they have no problem activating these units for Iraq and Afghanistan though. More discretionary cuts meant to hurt. They didn’t have to do this. The White House and DoD chose to.
From PewStates.org “Nearly 50,000 full-time National Guard employees have been furloughed as a result of the federal government shutdown. The standoff in Washington also has resulted in the cancellation of most of this weekend’s training exercises, depriving even non-furloughed guardsmen of the salaries they receive for drilling.
The furloughed guardsmen are paid by the federal government, even though they are under the command of their states’ adjutant generals and governors. The guardsmen who have been affected generally work as full-time computer programmers, or are engaged in cybersecurity or administrative work. Guardsmen whose salaries come from state funds will not be furloughed. In some states, that is about half of the total.”
“Several governors were furious about having to issue furlough notices to guardsmen in their states. “Some of these men and women have been deployed multiple times,” Maine Republican Gov. Paul LePage said in a statement. “This is a shameful tactic to use against Mainers who have put their life on the line to protect our freedoms.”
In Colorado, where National Guard troops are helping with the recovery from massive flooding, Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, ordered the state to pay the salaries of the 650 furloughed guardsmen who were assisting with cleanup.
“We can’t afford to lose one day in rebuilding areas destroyed or damaged by the floods,” Hickenlooper said. “Our National Guard troops are an invaluable part of the team working on the recovery. We need them to stay on the job.”
Not smart.
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The Senate has approved a bill restoring funding to military chaplains. But due to changes to the House bill, it now goes back to the House.
From FoxNews “The Senate has approved a bill to let military chaplains work despite the partial government shutdown.
The Senate backed a version of the measure late Thursday. The version expressed the sense of Congress that chaplains should continue offering their services to members of the military and their families, and it had already passed the House.
Slight changes to the House measure were made by Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin of Michigan. Levin added a provision expressing Congress’ hope that the defense secretary could figure out how to pay contractor clergy.”
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One group challenging the shutdown of a federal park has won a court case challenging the closing. At least for now.
From TheWashingtonPost “Fed up that the federal shutdown was keeping them off their practice fields, a group of young lacrosse players in Northern Virginia challenged the government in court. And at least for now, they won.
A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the National Park Service to immediately reopen Langley Fork Park in McLean — which was closed Oct. 1 — and allow the boys and girls of the McLean Youth Lacrosse organization back onto the fields.”
“The judge’s order was not final. Attorneys are scheduled to return to federal court in Alexandria on Oct. 18 — provided the courthouse is still open and judges are still hearing civil cases — to hash out a more permanent resolution. But until then, Langley Fork Park will be open for the hundreds of kids in the youth lacrosse group, which sued the Park Service, and for anyone else who might want to use it.”
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Fizzled.
From FoxNews “A trucker protest aimed at clogging the Capital Beltway around Washington to protest government “corruption” was not shaping up to be quite the commuter nightmare organizers had threatened.
As of Friday morning, dozens of tractor-trailers were said to be on the road as part of the protest convoy.”
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Wandering Views 
I see in The Times-News that the Nobel prize went to the people who are looking for chemical weapons.
“Recent events in Syria, where chemical weapons have again been put to use, have underlined the need to enhance the efforts to do away with such weapons.”
It figures, nothing done, nothing accomplished. Kinda like the previous awards.
Carter got the Nobel Prize for peace in the Middle East.
AlGore got one for saving the planet.
Obama got his for a nuclear free world.
The chemical searchers get one for thinking about searching for chemicals.
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The issure came up on Fox News yesterday when someone thought the prize should have gone to the 15 year old Pakistani girl who was shot in the head for trying to go to school.
She survived.
But that doesn’t fit the Nobel template, does it?
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The Nobel Prize ceased to mean anything when they gave it to Obama for simply getting elected. He is a man who came out of no where and rocketed to the top.
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http://chicksontheright.com/posts/item/24822-they-re-shoving-obamacare-in-your-tv-shows-now
Propaganda? Thoughts? The scariest sentence is about “research showing that people get information from TV shows”
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Carter’s prize makes sense — it was for his work in Israel-Egypt Camp David Accords. He really did accomplish something. The rest of those winners mentioned indicate the Nobel committee is hoping their award spurs good works in the future …. an incentive so the persons actually feel guilty and thus will accomplish something. Giving the reward first rarely works with children and students and its highly unlikely to work with adults.
The gov’t shutdown and the people’s reaction is interesting. It appears some people may have learned that gov’t is a good thing and should not reduced to the size of a bathtub as Norquist once said. If the gov’t doesn’t have the money and apparently it doesn’t then why should sports fields (and why does the fed gov’t have community sports fields that should be a municipal concern) stay open or even national parks, guardsmen, chaplains, etc If you refuse to pass a spending bill this is the natural result and those who advocated lesser gov’t should be happy. Personally I would pass the spending bill and work to rescind previously passed legislation through the democratic process ie win the Senate and perhaps the presidency.
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Kim,
Awhile back I linked to some stories on the Obama admin throwing out anti-propaganda regs and changing what type of “advertising” was permissable. That was done for exactly stuff like this. It’s Pravda, and its also disgusting. Of course their contributors/friends in Hollywood will play along gleefully. It’s one thing to use this type of stuff in foriegn countries during war, but this is an attempt to do the same here. And as we all know, this propanda will be left leaning. It’s already started, and not just with ObamaCare. They are using the same tactics in the shutdown issue, and foriegn affairs as well. The White House hosts journalists to get everyone “on message” and then the media and Hollywood do their thing. They couldn’t do such blatant propaganda before, but they can now. And they’ll use it to sway elections as well. I’ll find the inks.
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A look at what’s perhaps behind that distinct “drift” on social issues we see in some younger evangelical circles:
http://theaquilareport.com/why-liberal-evangelicals-are-lying-to-millennials/
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The peace prize going to the president right after he was elected was very strange. Even then it was strange. Now it just seems nothing short of bizarre.
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Judge Judy for the Supreme Court
Last night, on Fox News, Judge Judy told Megyn Kelly that, though truly disabled people should be helped, people disabled by such as alcohol and narcotics should be made to work it out themselves. Government shouldn’t support junkies.
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Bringing reporters onside is politics 101. You can be nice and friendly which may ensure a nicely-tinted story-line or you can exclude reporters who asked penetrating questions. Every politician campaigns on transparency and openness but once they win they do everything to control their message which in today’s climate is quite Orwellian. Bush did, and Obama does it. In Canada, our present Conservative gov’t (which has hired Republican advisers and attended their “schools”) is a master of controlling the message. To suggest this is new and uniquely Obama is to ignore the reality of modern politics.
In terms of the entertainment industry, people often find what they want to find or what offends them. For me, the law and order message of Law and Order (especially SVU) is blatantly conservative, especially towards rehabilitation and legal technicalities. However, their MO is to copy real life crime stories hence the need for reality and a need to know the latest laws. 24 was condemned by the left when it came out as a pro-Bush show with its emphasis on stopping terrorism despite human rights violations. Police reality shows such as COPS are even more blatantly law and order with police officers spouting their views unfiltered. Here for me is approval of the police state/correctional industry gulag. Interestingly COPS is hugely popular in Europe for entirely different reasons than in the US — they view it as an anti-American comedy.
In the film industry, the pro-American message is very prevalent in the action genre. In the 80s simplistic films such as Red Dawn made many people cringe with its black and white message being almost intentioal Reagan approved propaganda. But even more modern shows, the American action hero prevails over terrorists, internal enemies (often the gov’t now thats right wing), Russians, Arabs, and aliens. I can almost cue the music when victory begins.
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I agree Obama is a politician, just like them all (more so I think, the guy never stops campaigning). But — no one could be told that when he was running for office, people really did simply lose their heads over him.
It was one of the most frustrating (and strangest) phenomenons to watch — many of my otherwise clear-thinking (albeit liberal) friends just thought he was super human. You could NOT tell them otherwise.
Trust me, the whole thing was just bizarre. And that does make the fact that he’s such a controlling, really quite cynical & thoroughly partisan politician not a surprise to some of us. He out-Nixons Nixon. 😉
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Obama campaigned on the transparency far harder than other presidential candidates before him. Sure, they’re all bad, but the transparency thing was *key* to his Change thing. Additionally, he’s been particularly derided by a number of the usually faithful media for his pronounced *lack* of transparency. Sometimes “everybody does it” doesn’t tell the entire story.
Until this thread, I had never seen it implied that people who want less government would be happy shutting down stuff that’s government controlled. That’s pretzel logic.
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How is law and order a conservative issue? Do liberals prefer lawlessness and chaos?
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Solarpancake is right about the obama campaign — it was said to be almost “transcendent” in its shunning of traditional politics. You remember, that hope and chang-y thing where the oceans were going to rise (or was it recede?), etc., etc., etc. And the photos with the halo.
Right? Yeah, we all remember that. Some of us laughed, but too many were swept away in a delirium.
So there is a lot of irony when you hear journalists now complaining that this is the most controlling, closed administration they’ve seen.
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In Canada, Harper campaigned heavily on accountability and transparency and we’ve seen nothing resembling either. In terms of freedom of information, journalist access, and parliamentary access to gov’t documents its gotten worse. Canada’s position of the Transparency Index has been in steady decline every since.
I think for both Harper and Obama are caught by the 24 hour news cycle to always campaign. For example, Harper recently decided not to attend the Commonwealth conference in Sri Lanka to protest their poor human rights record against the minority Tamil population. Its an interesting decision in that he just returned from a visit to an other Commonwealth country with a bad human rights record against minorities; Malaysia. However, the largest concentration of Tamils outside of Sri Lanka are located in three Toronto electoral districts; an interest group both the Liberals and Conservatives actively pursue and need.
Personally, I was hoping Obama would be better than Clinton. However it appears instead of a female Clinton we have a black Clinton in that he is following the same centrist policies of the male Clinton.
The fact journalists openly complain about the Obama administration should put to rest the liberal press myth. Or perhaps the myth that the Democratic party is left of centre.
kbells,
“law and order” is a slogan of the right in which the emphasis is personal responsibility as opposed to societal responsibility, a more leftist concept. Notice Chas’ comment on Judge Judy and think of other “court” shows — personal responsibility is the message as is the idea of deserving and undeserving poor. Other than anarchists on the left and libertarians on the right, law and order is the goal of all administrations.
solar pancake,
you should visist some left of center sites/blogs; commentators simply can’t understand why the smaller gov’t people are upset as this situation is exactly what a smaller gov’t would provide.
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“should put to rest the liberal press myth.” You’re joking, right?
I can’t find it, but a journalist wrote a piece not long ago detailing how awe-struck and fawning the press corps were in his very presence (the writer included).
You’re finally seeing some long overdue criticism of this administration because part of the love affair is rubbing off a little bit. But between him and any Republican? You don’t think it would be obvious who the media is rooting for? Journalists are overwhelmingly liberal. It’s just a fact.
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He was given mostly a free pass in both elections, hardly vetted at all in the first.
Benghazi? Shrugged off for the most part.
Just close your eyes and try to imagine if Bush were still president … See how it would be just a tad different?
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This is what I was thinking of:
“Rolling Stone reporter Michael Hastings, author of the BuzzFeed special book on the 2012 campaign Panic 2012, joined Martin Bashir on Thursday where he revealed that journalists who covered President Barack Obama during the campaign were sometimes so overcome by his presence that they would ‘lose their minds’ and behave in ‘juvenile” and ‘amateurish’ ways.
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/reporter-on-obamas-amateurish-press-corps-when-theyre-near-him-they-lose-their-minds/
Embarrassing. But It was so obvious — just glad to see someone actually coming out and saying what was always so evident.
Unfortunately, the media isn’t big on self-criticism. And that partly (aside from the upheaval brought about by the tsunami of the Internet) is contributing to their undoing. 😦 Very sad state of affairs.
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Journalistic criticism from the RollingStone would suggest liberal reporters aren’t impressed by regular journalists. Matti Tabbi from Rolling Stone doesn’t provide fawning coverage. However, “main-stream” journalist seem to be part of the celebrity culture …. they fawn over the Kardashians … not much credibility there.
Actually there were embassy attacks during the Bush presidency but the Democrats didn’t use it as an opportunity for political advantage and the press didn’t personally criticize Bush so I hardly expect Beghazi (which looks like a CIA operation inadvertly discovered) to be on the press radar.
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hwesseli: this situation is exactly what a smaller gov’t would provide.
How so? How would Old Faithful be off-limits in a small government world?
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If a tree falls in the forest and you are wearing earplugs does it still make a noise?
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solar pancake — it would be privately owned.
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Excellent book on media bias:
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Denying that there’s a liberal bias in both the news and entertainment media just astounds me.
I suppose it reminds me of how whites rarely understood racial bias back in the day — but those who felt the brunt of it saw it all too clearly. Eventually, eyes were opened, but it took a while …
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Just read a short article by Thomas Sowell titled “Who Really Shut Down the Government?”
Very clear and concise.
dated Oct. 9th
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hwesseli: Big deal. You assume the land would be off limits still. Might be, might not. Arbitrarily evicting landowners is a raw deal,
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HRW, If Old Faithful were privately owned, that doesn’t necessarily mean the public would be excluded. I have climbed most of the tallest mountains in Texas. Some are in National Parks and some are on private land.
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