What’s interesting in the news today?
I’m a little behind on the news today, so mostly this is an Open Thread, but here’s a few that caught my eye.
1. Tonight the President will announce his amnesty plan for illegals. Funny thing though, other than the news channels, none of the networks are broadcasting it. That seems odd. One network that will air it is Univision, the Spanish language network.
Gee, I wonder why? 🙄
I guess they want to make sure their target audience hears the news, the folks against it…. not so much.
From TheWashingtonPost “President Obama’s announcement Thursday night of his plans to overhaul the nation’s immigration system is scheduled to happen at an opportune time — at least if the White House is hoping to reach a captive audience of Hispanic television viewers.”
“Univision says it will postpone part of the awards show to air Obama’s speech, while the big four TV networks, ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC, currently have no plans to air the address.
Told about the scheduling coincidence by a pack of reporters, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) the second-ranking GOP senator, said, “Talk about a major pander.””
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2. In a not at all shocking development, DHS thinks there may be another surge of illegals at the border. I’d pretty much guarantee it after Obama announces more amnesty.
From TheWashingtonTimes “Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson warned Wednesday that the country could face another spike in illegal immigration as the U.S. economy picks up and as seasonal patterns change, though he said they have made major progress in combatting the surge of illegal immigrant children that wrong-footed his department earlier this year.
“We’re determined that we need to do more ourselves for border security,” Mr. Johnson said in a speech at the National Press Club sponsored by Democratic group NDN. “I’m concerned about the possibility of another rise in illegal migration.”
“This summer’s surge of illegal immigrant children and families from Central America exposed flaws in the current immigration enforcement system — particularly U.S. agencies’ inability to quickly deport many of them.”
Sure, it’ll be the booming economy causing it and not the promise of amnesty. Riiiight….. 🙄
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3. And here I thought liberals were all about the separation of church and state. Apparently that only applies when you won’t shill for their causes. Sadly it seems many churches are fine with being shills for the govt.
From TheDailyCaller “Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley made national news last year when he fought to pass and signed a tax bill that levied a tax on Marylanders, businesses and churches for the amount of “impervious surface” they have on their property.
Roofs, driveways, sidewalks, and parking lots qualify for the “rainwater remediation fee” to “protect the Chesapeake Bay.”
Though the O’Malley administration calls it a “fee,” it is commonly called the “rain tax” throughout the state. It is wildly unpopular and the promise to fight to repeal the tax was a large factor in Maryland electing Republican Larry Hogan governor this month.
Now Prince George’s Country is offering a way for churches to avoid paying the tax, which is estimated to be an average of $744 per year for them — preach “green” to their parishioners.
So far 30 pastors have agreed to begin “‘green’ ministries to maintain the improvements at their churches, and to preach environmentally focused sermons to educate their congregations” to avoid being hit with the tax, The Washington Post reports.”
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Wandering Views 
Re #1
From the Washington Post via Drudge:
President Obama has invited senior lawmakers to the White House for dinner Wednesday night so that he can explain his plans to use executive authority to change the nation’s immigration laws, according to several congressional aides.
Obama has invited Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the leaders of the congressional Asian, Black and Hispanic caucuses, said the aides, who were not authorized to speak publicly about the plans.
Obama did not invite GOP leaders to the meeting, according to aides.
He needs to do this soon while he still has some Democrat leaders to invite.
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I can’t remember a more overtly partisan president. Most at least try …
One thing is sure: The next two years in Washington won’t be pretty.
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Anyone familiar with Michelle Malkin? I was surprised to learn from one of our editors that she used to be “one of us” — she was the editorial writer for our sister paper in the SF Valley for a few years way back in the early 1990s.
And now for the ultimate Gruber video — your government at work. 🙂
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Interesting tale about how the media reacted (or mostly didn’t) to GruberGate videos:
” … if not for one slightly obsessed citizen, we wouldn’t have the videos of Jonathan Gruber saying the health care law was deceptively designed and its passage depended on the stupidity of the American public. And it is about his frustrating struggle to get that information out to the media. … Weinstein used every means he could think of, from Facebook to phone calls, to get the attention of journalists. He says he tried getting messages to Fox News, Forbes, National Review, Glenn Beck and a network affiliate in Philadelphia where a friend worked. Nobody bit. Nobody called back.
“ ‘It was so frustrating,’ Weinstein said. ‘I tried really hard to give this to the media. I had this and couldn’t get it to anybody that knows what to do with it.’ All he wanted, Weinstein says, was a train ride to D.C. for him and his lawyer, and ‘I was going to give them everything for nothing, no money, all I wanted was autographed pictures of the people I was working with to hang on my office wall.’ ”
“Crickets.
” … ‘Just to be clear, I don’t actually live in my mom’s basement wearing a tin foil hat’ … I can attest that he is actually quite lucid, and sounds nothing at all like a conspiracy theorist. Just a ticked-off guy who lost his insurance. … ”
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/11/20/found-jonathan-gruber-videosand-no-media-outlet-would-call-him-back/
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Ouch. That has to hurt his ego a little.
Perhaps I was too hard on the networks. They say they won’t air because it’s overtly political.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2014/11/white-house-hits-tv-networks-for-skipping-immigration-199015.html
“The White House is exasperated with the major broadcast networks — ABC, CBS and NBC — for skipping out on President Barack Obama’s Thursday prime-time address on his executive actions on immigration.
“In 2006, [President George W.] Bush gave a 17-minute speech that was televised by all three networks that was about deploying 6,000 National Guard troops to the border. Obama is making a 10-minute speech that will have a vastly greater impact on the issue. And none of the networks are doing it. We can’t believe they were aggrieved that we announced this on Facebook,” a senior administration official told POLITICO.
When the president wants to make a prime-time address, White House officials will reach out to the big networks, like ABC, NBC and CBS, to gauge whether they would consider running the speech live before putting in a formal request for airtime.”
“Mike Allen reports in Playbook on Thursday morning that part of the reason the networks didn’t want to air the address was because of its perceived political nature:
“There was agreement among the broadcast networks that this was overtly political. The White House has tried to make a comparison to a time that all the networks carried President Bush in prime time, also related to immigration [2006]. But that was a bipartisan announcement, and this is an overtly political move by the White House.”
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I really like Michelle Malkin. She helped my son with research when he was writing a college paper defending the use of internment camps for Japanese- Americans during WWII.
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