Nancy Pelosi Extreme Makeover Working — (Not Her Facelifts) Her Transformation from San Francisco Liberal Progressive to Kindly Grandma, Italian Catholic

By Mick Gregory

Newt Gingrich has exposed the lies of Nancy Pelosi and is calling her actions the worst example of political power and damaging lies he has ever experienced in his lifetime. Watch the new Democrat one-party system ignor Pelosi’s poison and turn it on the few remaining Republicans.

 

 

Recent Pelosi items in the news

Chris Mathews of “Softball” calls Ms. Pelosi “a knockout.” She is amazing looking for a 68-year-old.

Update: Feb. 25, 2009 (Morning after Obama’s first State of the Union address). 

Pelosi’s face- and eye-lifts are amazing, but her biggest makeover is her political image, from a progressive Democrat/socialist, atheist, wealthy resort owner, to a middle of the road, “working class” Catholic.

 

 

Quite a makeover for newly sworn House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as her national image morphed from leader of the San Francisco liberal elite to Italian Catholic mom from Baltimore.

There was her photo-op return to the Little Italy neighborhood where she grew up as Nancy D’Alesandro, the mayor’s daughter. There was the visit to St. Leo the Great Catholic Church, where they still recite Mass in Italian several times a year.

“It’s clear Republicans are reeling today based on her outreach to Italian Catholics who, as we know, have deserted the Democratic Party in the Midwest in droves,” said San Francisco power attorney Joe Cotchett, who was among those attending the Pelosi swearing in.

While the marathon events in the nation’s capital might have resembled a coronation, those most familiar with how Washington works said Pelosi’s time in the spotlight amounted to well-calculated politics that could help her move her agenda in her first 100 days.

“A lot of people don’t know much about her, so this is a chance to fill in her profile and biography so she doesn’t just become the San Francisco liberal,” said San Francisco consultant Chris Lehane, a veteran of the Clinton-Gore White House. “This is the one time when the press will be focusing on it.”

And it may be working.

According to the results of a Rasmussen Reports national phone survey of 800 likely voters, released Friday, Pelosi’s approval rating has jumped to 43 percent — up 19 points from November.

On the other hand, the same poll also found 39 percent of those surveyed still give Pelosi the thumbs-down.

Showing off: In politics as in movies, staging is all-important to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger — and his inaugural was no exception.

Produced by Schwarzenegger family friend Carl Bendix, who has done the Academy Awards Governors Ball and other Hollywood events, and emceed by former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, the Friday affair was Hollywood through and through — including a last-minute prop to help the gimpy governor.

–Matier & Ross, SF Chronicle

Keep a score card on the liberal mainstream media. Make note that there is never a word about:

Nancy Pelosi’s age.
The age of her children — in photo-ops it is Pelosi and her youngest, prettiest grand children
Her resort, Napa Valley vineyards, and high-end restaurants and use of non-union and illegal immigrant labor.
Her total support of partial birth abortion.
How she gained the votes from Democrats for first, minority leader and now majority leader.

Notice how the San Francisco reporters go with the spin, calling her a “mom” and not mentioning any of these items.

That’s why citizen journalists are filling the void.

New York Times burried Obama ACORN major donor story before the election

‘New York Times’ Spiked Obama Donor Story

The New York Times building is shown in New York on June 2008. The Times pulled a story about Barack Obama’s campaign ties to ACORN. (Frank Franklin II/Associated Press)

Congressional Testimony: ‘Game-Changer’ Article Would Have Connected Campaign With ACORN

Constitutional crisis.

This story was published in the Philadelphia Bulletin. Did you see this in your local favorite newspaper?

By Michael P. Tremoglie, The Bulletin

Monday, March 30, 2009

 

A lawyer involved with legal action against Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) told a House Judiciary subcommittee on March 19 The New York Times had killed a story in October that would have shown a close link between ACORN, Project Vote and the Obama campaign because it would have been a “a game changer.” 

Heather Heidelbaugh, who represented the Pennsylvania Republican State Committee in the lawsuit against the group, recounted for the ommittee what she had been told by a former ACORN worker who had worked in the group’s Washington, D.C. office. The former worker, Anita Moncrief, told Ms. Heidelbaugh last October, during the state committee’s litigation against ACORN, she had been a “confidential informant for several months to The New York Times reporter, Stephanie Strom.”

Ms. Moncrief had been providing Ms. Strom with information about ACORN’s election activities. Ms. Strom had written several stories based on information Ms. Moncrief had given her.

During her testimony, Ms. Heidelbaugh said Ms. Moncrief had told her The New York Times articles stopped when she revealed that the Obama presidential campaign had sent its maxed-out donor list to ACORN’s Washington, D.C. office.

Ms. Moncrief told Ms. Heidelbaugh the campaign had asked her and her boss to “reach out to the maxed-out donors and solicit donations from them for Get Out the Vote efforts to be run by ACORN.”

Ms. Heidelbaugh then told the congressional panel:

“Upon learning this information and receiving the list of donors from the Obama campaign, Ms. Strom reported to Ms. Moncrief that her editors at The New York Times wanted her to kill the story because, and I quote, “it was a game changer.”’

Ms. Moncrief made her first overture to Ms. Heidelbaugh after The New York Times allegedly spiked the story — on Oct. 21, 2008. Last fall, she testified under oath about what she had learned about ACORN from her years in its Washington, D.C. office. Although she was present at the congressional hearing, she did not testify.

U.S. Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisc., the ranking Republican on the committee, said the interactions between the Obama campaign and ACORN, as described by Ms. Moncrief, and attested to before the committee by Ms. Heidelbaugh, could possibly violate federal election law, and “ACORN has a pattern of getting in trouble for violating federal election laws.”  

He also voiced criticism of The New York Times.

“If true, The New York Times is showing once again that it is a not an impartial observer of the political scene,” he said. “If they want to be a mouthpiece for the Democratic Party, they should put Barack Obama approves of this in their newspaper.”

Academicians and journalism experts expressed similar criticism of the Times.

When newspapers start reporting the news, and both sides to an issue, letting us make up my own mind, rather than having it influenced by the unionist/socialist agenda, we will start reading again…until then, God save the Internet.

Will terrorists strike again? Why is the U.S. pouring 20,000 troops into cities? There must be some ‘chatter’

UPDATE:

The Washington Post reports that the Pentagon has issued the marching orders to mobilize 20,000 millitary troops to secure unspecified cities within the U.S.

Homeland Securtiy issued warnings of a terror attack on New York City’s mass transit system from Nov. 28 through the holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas and Hanukkah) the mainstream media doesn’t even have the intellectual honesty to report which holidays. Commuters and vacationing shoppers are supposed to be uneasy and many may even put off their trips to buy gifts. This, as we watch to bloodbath from Nov. 26-28, in Mumbi, India where the death toll has reached 200 from a group of 10 terrorists.

Who did it? We know the terrorists hate Jews. That narrows it down. 

What do the learders of Iran, Palistine and Syria have to say about the bombings? 

A Brooklyn rabbi and his wife were found among the dead in a series of terrorist attacks in India that have claimed more than 150 lives. In response to the attacks, the NYPD beefed up patrols around large hotels and Jewish centers, including the Lubavitcher headquarters, said NYPD spokesman Paul Browne.

The department already was on alert because of a warning earlier this week of a possible al-Qaida plot to strike the city’s rail systems over the holidays.

“The threat is serious, the threat is significant, and it is plausible,” said Congressman Peter King, R-Long Island, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee.

Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka, who ran the Chabad-Lubavitch local headquarters in Mumbai were killed during a hostage standoff at the center, said Rabbi Zalman Shmotkin, a spokesman for the movement. 

On Wednesday, federal authorities warned New York police of an unsubstantiated (but reliable) report that al-Qaida operatives discussed an attack on New York’s subway system or rail lines like Amtrak and the Long Island Rail Road.

A spokesman for Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he had no plans to comment. (Keep shopping sheelple). 

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said additional resources were being deployed in the mass transit system in an “abundance of caution,” a common response when police receive new information about a threat.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the city’s 468 stations and 6,480 subway cars, released a statement saying there was “no reason to be alarmed.”

The terrorists have been weakend from eight years of George W. Bush as Commander and Chief. 

We can be thankful for that time.

China and Cuba drilling for oil off Florida’s coast. The Democrats say the U.S. can’t.

Mick Gregory

The Republicans have hit a political gusher. The Democrat/socialists hiding under the friendly Green flag of environmentalism are being exposed today. I predict the Democrats will vote against the issue of drilling off U.S. coasts.

This while Cuba and China begin drilling off the Florida/Cuba shore. They will have their straw in our oil reserve milkshake.

Next, I predict, President Bush will issue an Executive Order opening up drilling.

The coastal reserves are estimated to be 18 billion barrels from 20-year-old studies. That is the short estimate equal to the amount of oil the U.S. would produce in almost 10 years (that’s 3,600 days producing 5 million barrels per day). The coastal reserves are also nearly equal to what some experts believe can be recovered at Anwar Reserve in Alaska. The reserve that the Democrats and Jimmy Carter put under lock and key over 20 years ago as well.

Tonight, look for the new reality show called “Black Gold” syndicated on cable channels across the country on TruTV. It’s a show that drills down into the ongoing oil explorations going on in West Texas today.

The U.S. still has oil! In fact, almost 70 percent of the oil in mature wells, some over 100 years old, is attainable with today’s technology.

The timing is right for U.S. oil industry stocks to rise. Meanwhile, the world market of crude will soon fall to below $100 in my guestimation.

Four major league oil companies are in negotiations for contracts that will return them to Iraq, 36 years after losing their oil concession to nationalization as Saddam Hussein socialized the oil companies and grabbed power.

Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total, BP and Chevron — and a number of oil-service companies, are in talks with Iraq’s Oil Ministry for contracts to service Iraq’s largest fields, according to press releases.

The deals, expected to be announced on June 30, will begin the first commercial work for the major companies in Iraq since Hussein ordered the burning of his country’s oil fields and the start of the Iraq war.

UPDATE: Time to ask why the Democrat Congress doesn’t do anything about the oil crisis.

The percentage of voters who give Congress good or excellent ratings has fallen to single digits for the first time in Rasmussen Reports tracking history. This month, just 9% say Congress is doing a good or excellent job. Most voters (52%) say Congress is doing a poor job, which ties the record high in that dubious category.

Major national poll finds 70% of U.S. believe newspaper journalists are out of touch with reality — Newspapers are now the last source of news at only 10%

Mick Gregory

Nearly 70 percent of Americans believe traditional journalism is out of touch, and nearly half are turning to the Internet to get their news, according to a new survey.

While most adults think all forms of journalism are important to the quality of life, 64 percent are dissatisfied with the quality of journalism in their communities, a “We Media/Zogby Interactive” online poll showed.

Nearly half of the 1,979 adults who took the survey said their primary source of news and information is the Internet, up from 40 percent just a year ago. Less than 1/3 watch television to get their news, while 11 percent listen to radio and 10 percent read newspapers.

Newspapers are now at the bottom of the heap. What is the NYT trading at today? Next…

The New York Times Co.’s continued struggles with declining advertising revenue, circutlation, unehtical yellow journalism smear tactics and the bling support for the old guard, the Clinton machine, prompted Standard and Poor’s to caution Friday that it is inching closer to cutting the company’s debt ratings. That is a rare and serious threat.

The office at Standard & Poor’s said it placed all of the New York Times’ ratings, including its key long-term corporate credit rating, on CreditWatch with negative implications. In plain English, that means the rating agency is leaning heavily toward a downgrade unless current financial trends at the company improve.

Why the drop? A dissident investor stepped up pressure on The New York Times Co. Friday, formally proposing its own slate of four directors and saying the company needs to take more drastic action to compete online.
Harbinger Capital, an investment firm that now owns about 19 percent of the company, filed its own proxy statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission listing its nominees for directors to be elected at the Times’ annual meeting April 22.

The Times has already filed its own full slate of director nominees, but has said it was still considering whether to accept Harbinger’s candidates.

Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis said the company’s board was interviewing the Harbinger nominees. She declined to comment further on their proxy filing.

The looming proxy battle comes as the Times and other U.S. newspapers are facing huge challenges in adapting to the steady migration of readers and advertising dollars to the Internet. An economic slowdown coupled with a deep slump in the housing market is worsening the situation.

Earlier Friday, the Times reported that its newspaper advertising fell 11.4 percent in January, with a 22.6 percent dropoff in classified advertising, a once cash cow business for newspapers that is vulnerable to competition from online rivals like Craigslist, eBay and Yahoo.

The New York Times is hedging its future. They are big investors in WordPress.com.

The Star Tribune bankrupt

By Mick Gregory

We are observing the death throws of a star on its way to becoming a white dwarf. Gasses spewing, used matter is shredded and  thrown out. The size of the once bright, powerful force rapidly shrinks as it collapses on itself. These are the telltale signs of a dying star.

The Star Tribune, once among the Midwest’s largest newspapers, was purchased by the Sacramento-based McClatchy media company in 1998. The “executive editors”  paid $1.2 billion for it from a family who wanted out of the business.

In less than 10 years, the rapid growth of Google, Drudgereport, Craigslist, E-Bay, FaceBook and WordPress lured away much of the newspaper audience and built new readers/users that were not newspaper-friendly. So the advertising found new rising stars.

Last year, Avista, a New York-based private equity group, purchased the dying Star Tribune for less than half of what McClatchy paid only eight years earlier.

Since Avista’s purchase, the star has been shedding  reporters, editors, photographers, advertising sales staff and designers through two rounds of buyouts and the elimination of open positions. That was just a show for creditors.

Now, in January of 2008, the Star-Tribune filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. 

The Star Tribune’s long-term business slump has continued, with revenue declining by about 25 percent, from $400 million in 2000 to $300 million last year, according to a Star Tribune story in July. While major expenses such as newsprint and transportation  increased.  Even those adult newspaper carriers throwning papers out of the window of their pickups, need to be paid.

Several weeks ago, Avista announced that it was writing down the value of its $100 million equity investment in the Star Tribune to $25 million. That’s $75 million wiped out in one year. The Star shed more than $1.15 billion in value over nine years. The new owners are getting pennies on the dollar trying to restructure their debt.

The only candidates for buying into debt-ridden newspapers now are hedge funds, especially those that make a specialty of distressed debt investments, according to several industry observers. It’s called a loan-to-own strategy, they calculate that the owners like Avista will default on their new loans and the fund becomes the new owner for pennies on the dollar. What’s left may be some downtown real estate and a false store-front Web site. This is the white dwarf stage. And there are hundreds more flickering, spewing gas and spitting out  used up matter.

Grimm Fairy Tales for Journalism Students

By Mick Gregory

I am fascinated by the deluded, foggy, liberal idealists who wasted their parents’ hard earned savings on “J-school” degrees. Here is another reporter/journalist candidate who wrote in to “Brother (Joe) Grimm” (His real name) at the Poynter Institute.

I don’t have to comment on this entry. Read for yourself what this sad young bastard is doing. Working for free at such low level papers as a 9,000 weekly; a fry cook at IHOP has more prestige and a lot better pay.

How Can Internship No. 4 Help Me?
I know that everybody does it, but I can’t resist thanking you for running your column.

I’m a rising senior in political science doing my third internship, and the odds look good for a fourth one in the fall. Three or four internships sound good, but I have doubts about how editors will feel about these internships when it comes time to apply for a job.

Internship number one was at a 9,000-circulation daily in Pennsylvania, 40 hours per week, unpaid. I wrote an average of three or four stories a week, and did grunt-work otherwise. It was a great introduction to professional journalism, and I got a top-notch evaluation.

Number two was at a 27,000 or so circulation daily in Massachusetts, 10 hours per week (during a school semester), unpaid. I wrote one or two stories a week, and once again, great evaluation.

Number three is at a daily of about 18,000 circulation in New York, 18 hours per week, unpaid. I’m writing about four or five stories each week, and I feel like I’m really being challenged and being kept busy. I feel like the editors like my work and that I’ll get a good evaluation.

And if number four happens, it’ll be at a 100,000 circulation daily in New York, 8 hours a week, unpaid.

I also recently founded, and am the editor-in-chief of, my college’s online-only newspaper.

So, my fear is that these newspapers are too small for an editor to appreciate. I certainly appreciate them, and in fact, I feel like I had a lot more hands-on experience at them than I would have had at much larger newspapers. But I’m not the one whose opinion ultimately matters on that.

Is my fear well-grounded? And, if so, how can I increase my chances of getting a good job?

Thanks,

Timothy

The number of internships is fine, as they are all coming before you graduate. Three or four post-grad internships — now that could be a problem.

The pattern you have raises three issues, but all can be cured if your next internship is a good one. The first issue is that most of your internships have been for fewer than 20 hours a week, and the trend has been toward shorter and shorter ones.

Joe Grimm
The next problem is related: The size of the companies you work for goes up and down.

And the third problem is that no one has paid you yet. Certainly, you feel that pain. And it is a testament to your tenacity that you work for free. But we need to get someone at a solid daily — it need not be huge — to hire you for a full-time, paid internship. Ten hours a week just isn’t nearly as intense or impressive as full-time.

And while you have worked hard at your internships, the idea that interns at large newspapers are somehow sitting around waiting to deliver coffee and sandwiches — or merely observing — is pretty much urban folklore. They’re working, and their clips prove it.

Take the initiative you have shown in founding an online publication, and use those qualities to try to get a good internship where your online awareness could benefit the newspaper. It might ensure that your fourth internship is the launching pad you need. — Mr. Grimm.

How about internship No. 5 or 6?

Isn’t it a lie to call unpaid “gofor” positions interns? What kind of corporate shill are you?
Mr. Grimm, have you no shame?

Now is time for all good stockholders to cut off the gravy train to the pockets of the New York Times playboys.

Shareholder Advisory Firm ISS Recommends Withholding Vote on New York Times Co. Board of Directors

Mick Gregory

A big time shareholder advisory firm, Institutional Shareholder Services, (ISS) is campaigning to investors to withhold their votes for four directors at The New York Times Co. as a way to push for corporate governance changes. The New York Times Co. is one of a very few using an outdated “robber baron” stock scheme.

The ISS report published this week, joins forces with a longtime shareholder, a Morgan Stanley investment fund, to roll back the dual-class share structure which allows the Sulzberger family to maintain dictatorial control of the company with only a minor share of the stock.

ISS analysts recommend separating the chairman and publisher roles, which are both currently held by Arthur Sulzberger Jr., “Pinchy,” as well as establishing key committees on the board that would be made up solely of directors elected by holders of the company’s publicly traded Class A shares.

The Class B shares, which are controlled by the Sulzberger family, have the right to elect nine of the company’s 13 directors. This is an blatantly undemocratic set up.

“Shareholders are left with few avenues through which to voice their opinion other than by withholding from Class A directors,” ISS said in its report. “While we do not advocate removal of the Class A directors, we believe that a strong message to effect change is necessary.”

The Times said in a public relations statement it was “disappointed” that the ISS had recommended a withhold vote for the four directors elected by Class A shareholders.

The Times’ annual meeting is scheduled for April 24. So watch for more positioning in the next two weeks.

Last year the Morgan Stanley fund and two other large shareholders withheld their vote for Class A directors, resulting in a 30 percent withhold rate. The votes are largely symbolic and are intended to signal shareholder dissatisfaction.

ISS also said that neither Sulzberger nor other managers are accountable to the company’s public shareholders “in any meaningful way.”

This is a democratic crisis. How long can the wealthy Sulzberger famiy (pronounced Sal-bur-jay among the inner-circle) soak the majority of their stockholders?

Big Cash Bonuses for Executives — Not oil companies — Newspapers

By Mick Gregory

How much do the top management of today’s media empires make? We only seem to see reports of the CEOs of a few global oil companies. What about the newspaper business? A product that is not a necessity in today’s multi-media age. Let’s look at the McClatchy gang.

These bonuses for McClatchy Newspaper executives are in addition to their annual salaries. Not a bad take for walking around in suits discussing global warming and the chances of Hillary/Obama winning in ’08. This is in sleepy Sacramento, with a nick name of “Sack-o-tomatoes” because it is smack in the middle of central California’s farm belt and you see semi-trucks by the score stacked high with small red potatoes that look a lot like tomatoes.

You can see the demographics in their Sunday best, as they make the trip to town. You know, starched white shirt, cowboy hat and boots on Pa, Ma has highlights and a long cowgirl skirt. The kids look like gang bangers. Old Town Sac has maintained wood sidewalks for that “Old West” look.

This is where the McClatchy Bee newspaper empire holds court. Bee is a very old-timey name for a newspaper, isn’t it? Kind of cute. “Busy bees.” Who knew this clan would end up gobbling up Knight Ridder, then pay for half the purchase by selling off the prestigious Philadelphia Inquirer/Daily News and the San Jose Mercury News right off the bat?

In an industry that is losing revenue every year and piling on expenses, while it cuts its staff and puts more and more operations offshore, to Pune, India, isn’t it funny that they reward this type of executive management?
How about offshoring management? With today’s Skype, Web conferencing, and Business Service Software, the real number crunchers in India could streamline operations in months.

Here is the president of McClatchy, Gary Pruitt from two years ago.

Base Pay $950,000

Bonus $1,100,000

Restricted Stock $0

LTIP Payouts $108,600

Present Value of Option Grants $342,194

Other Annual Compensation $0

All Other Compensation $19,171

Total Compensation $2,519,965

Stock Option Exercises and Cumulative Balances

Shares Aquired on Exercise (#) 0

Value Realized for Options Exercised $0

Remaining Exercisable (vested) Options (#) 301,250

Remaining Unexercisable (non-vested) Options (#) 268,750

Value of Remaining Exercisable Options $9,616,656

Value of Remaining Unexercisable Options $3,204,843

Data for fiscal year ended in 2004

The following executive officers received the cash bonuses shown below:

Name and Title Amount of Annual Cash Bonus
Patrick J. Talamantes, Chief Financial Officer $170,000
Bob Weil, Vice President, Operations $200,000
Frank Whittaker, Vice President, Operations $220,000
Howard Weaver, Vice President, News $129,000

—SEC report 2006.

These figures are just “‘at-a-boy” bonuses. Just triple the figures and see how much the suits made out.
Here is what they received two years ago:

Frank R.J. Whittaker
Vice President Operations $1,277,252

Robert Weil
Vice President Operations $1,257,148

Patrick Talamantes
Vice President Finance and Chief Financial Officer $1,003,908

Howard Weaver
Vice President News $726,720

Let’s look at McClatchy stock (MNI) on the NYS exchange. The past 12 months high – $56.12, The past 12 months low – $36.95

Today’s price — $36.91. Whoopsie! If that price holds or drops this afternoon, it’s new low. After all that wheelin’ and dealin’. Well, time for another board meeting, and editorial executive summit, Palm Springs?

Pelosi Fying Circus. What About the Carbon Footprint? Abuse of Power?

By Mick Gregory

Democrat Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, now demands a free jet. Ever hear of conference calls?

Hillary’s big guns are holding back from advising Pelosi.

I have a new theory, I think that Pelosi is being sabotaged by the powerful elite in the Democrat party. Image mistakes like this can easily be avoided with a little brainstorming. I think that having Pelosi around hurts Hillary’s chances. Not even moderate Democrats want to see the total government run by Prorgressive Democrats.

In a new world of face-to-face conference calls, Blackberries, online chats from all over the world on Skype, Macs and many other devices, the new Democrat Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi is asking for her own government jet to fly her and her friends around for meetings.

Can you imagine the outrage in the media if Newt Gingrich had demanded his own 747-200 passenger jet? I can. Page one stories all week.

The excuse Pelosi is using now is that she just wants a plane that doesn’t have to refuel. Question, don’t most smaller aircraft sometimes have to refuel, including the president’s plane?

Question 2) Doesn’t Pelosi own a brownstone mansion in Georgetown? Why does she all of a sudden have to shuttle back and forth the California?

During the same week that Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats are pushing for a bill that states “It is not in the national interest of the United States to deepen its military involvement in Iraq…” she is demanding a military 747-200 for her use.

I think the jig is up.

Meanwhile, Republican Conference Chairman Adam Putnam of Florida said Mrs. Pelosi’s request represents “an arrogance of office that just defies common sense” and called it “a major deviation from the previous speaker.”

Now she is DEMANDING (and by demanding we mean having John Murtha send threatening phone calls to the administration) to be given a military aircraft that is the equivalent size of a commercial 757.

Evidently having the old small plane that Dennis Hastert had occasional use of was not enough, nope — she wants Air Force One – without the Oval Office. Room for her friends and lobbyists?

And what would Al Gore say about the amount of fuel she would be using?

Minority Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri called it a “flying Lincoln Bedroom,” and Rep. Patrick T. McHenry, North Carolina Republican, labeled the speaker’s plane “Pelosi One.”

“This is a bullet point to a larger value — Pelosi’s abuse of power continues,” Mr. McHenry said yesterday. “It began when the speaker denied minority rights to Republicans, continued with her ‘TunaGate’ scandal, and now she’s exploiting America’s armed forces and taxpayers for her own personal convenience.”
“TunaGate” was a reference to Democrats exempting American Samoa from legislation to increase the minimum wage. Star-Kist Tuna, whose parent company Del Monte Corp. is based in Mrs. Pelosi’s district, had lobbied against the wage increase.

Nancy Pelosi has unleashed her clueless, elitist, and out-of-touch inner-limousine liberal and allowed it to run free. First it was her recent demand for private use of an Air Force jet for trips to California not only for her, but her staff, delegation colleagues, family friends, and generally anyone else she likes. Now, in a moment of irony so rich it should carry a diabetes warning, we learn that she will be going to tomorrow’s Congressional hearings on global warming in a Chevy Tahoe.

It’s amazing to contemplate, but I do believe she has a political tin-ear bigger even than Hillary’s.
—irishspy.typepad.com

Oldest Newspaper Now Out of Print

For literally centuries, Swedish readers thumbed through the pages of the Post-och Inrikes Tidningar newspaper. Not any more. The world’s oldest paper has dropped its paper edition and now exists only online. The newspaper, founded in 1645 by Sweden’s Queen Kristina, became a Web-only publication on Jan. 1, 2007. It’s fate may await many of the world’s most popular newspapers.

Queen Kristina used the publication to keep her kingdom informed of the affairs of state, much like Democrat politicians use the mainstream media today.

What else is new? Editor and Publisher, the trade magazine for newspapers has been out of print for several years now. When in print, it was a small People Magazine size on a cheap glossy stock. Why wasn’t it printed on newsprint?

More bad news for newspapers — McClatchy Co., the second-largest newspaper publisher in the country, behind Gannett, reported a fourth-quarter loss of $279.3 million Tuesday after taking a hit on the sale of its largest newspaper, the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The editor-centric company is not very savvy at investments.

In late December McClatchy executives announced that it was selling the Star Tribune for $530 million to the investment group Avista Capital Partners, well below the $1.2 billion it paid for the newspaper in 1998.

Newspaper values have been hit hard in recent years due to slumping advertising trends as more readers and advertisers go to the Internet for news and information.

For the full year, McClatchy posted a loss of $155.6 million.

Editor-Centric New York Times Loses More Than $800 Million in Fourth Quarter, Yet Makes Room for Baquet

The New York Times Co. posted a $648 million loss for the fourth quarter as it absorbed an $814.4 million expense to write down the value of its struggling New England properties, the Boston Globe and the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.

It’s fun to watch editors with no business acumen calling the shots and rearranging the deck chairs as the big old ship, New York Times takes on water.

The top editors made a space for the former LA Times editor, Dean Baquet. You have to wonder what hard-working, award-winning New York Times editors think of that, especially the next time there is another round of layoffs. Baquet was reported hoping and holding out for new owners of the LA Times to have him “back at the helm.”

“it became clearer and clearer to me that the New York Times was the place where I belonged now,” Baquet said.

Would Senator Biden think that Baquet is “clean and well spoken?”

Why Do Newspaper and TV Reporters Usually Decide Not to Describe Gunmen and Victims?

I know that the PC, AP style line is ‘don’t report race in crime unless it is absolutely necessary.’

Here is a recent random example, the first story I looked at, a shooting at Bay Area BART station late Monday afternoon left four people with bullet wounds — including the driver of a passing AC Transit bus that was pierced by bullets and a suspected gunman who may have accidentally shot himself, authorities said.

The shooting just before 6 p.m. led to chaos as authorities shut down the busy station during the evening commute, passengers tended to the wounded, and police searched for the gunmen.

Police took a juvenile suspect into custody and said it was unclear whether he was the only shooter involved.

Ralph Crane, a station agent on duty at the time, said he heard gunshots and peered out of the break room to see a teenage boy running from the bus zone. As the young man ran toward the station, a bullet struck the youth in the lower left leg, Crane said.

The young man yelled out, “I’m hit,” after he was shot just a few feet from an opening to the station that was fenced at the time, Crane said. Another person with a gunshot wound to the left thigh had made his way to the upstairs BART platform, Crane said.

Also shot was the driver of a 92 AC Transit bus, which runs between the BART station and Cal State Hayward, said AC Transit spokesman Clarence Johnson.

“We don’t belive it’s life-threatening,” Johnson said. “We certainly hope not.”

BART shut down the station after the shooting for several hours, allowing trains to pass through but not stop, and Hayward police assisted in setting up a perimeter to search for the gunmen.

This PC style reporting is what leads to fear and distrust. What about a description of the one gunman they caught? Why was he wounded? There must be another shooter on the loose. What race was the wounded shooter? How about the victims? Was this a hate crime, gang related or terrorism?

Will the lack of details keep BART commuters satisfied? Why don’t I believe that?

Here is a story of a horrible hate crime in the LA Times’ backyard, yet they decided not to cover it.

The story broke on November 3, when a local Web site editor William Pearl scooped the LA Times on LBReport.com, quoting Long Beach police spokeswoman Jacqueline Bezart as saying a crowd of black attackers hurled racial taunts (“White bitches!” “We hate whites!”) at the young women, and the police were pursuing it as a hate crime.

So, it takes a citizen journalist to get a quote.

At the Press-Telegram in Long Beach, reporter Tracy Manzer quickly landed an exclusive interview with the victims, introducing awkward issues of race and culture rarely seen in California media. Said one victim, identified as Laura: “They asked us, ‘Are you down with it?’ We had no idea what that meant so we didn’t say anything and just walked by them up to the haunted house. They were grabbing their crotches — we didn’t know if it was a gang thing or what.”

As the Press-Telegram reported on November 3, three white women aged 19 to 21 emerged from a “maze” walk in a house on Halloween and were confronted by up to 40 black teenagers who pelted them with pumpkins and lemons. The paper said, “The taunts and jeers grew more aggressive, the victims recalled, as did the size of the crowd. Now females joined in, and everyone began saying, ‘We hate white people, f— whites!’ ”

The Press-Telegram had the honesty to followup the blogger with the details.
But the “prestigious LA Times” wouldn’t dare.

Imagine if 40 white young women beat three black girls, yelling we hate n***ers!

That would be front page news for days on the LA Times and hourly on CNN. That’s my guess.

Gannett Knows How to Cut Expenses

by Mick Gregory

Two Gannett papers — the Honolulu Advertiser and the Indianapolis Star — are combining their business staff with their metro staff and putting both under one editor.

“This is exactly the kind of action toward business desks that I feared when many papers like the Star announced at the beginning of last year that they were cutting stock listings from their business section,” writes Chris Roush. “If it’s easy to cut the business section once, then it’s easy to cut there again.”

That’s called managing a business. A publisher I worked with once said, “There are two ways to skin a cat.” Either profits rise, or expenses have to be cut. It’s Managerial Economics 101.

What other business has managers for every four or five people?

Well, maybe banks. But where else?

Meanwhile, blogs thrive with very few in head-count and surging readership.
Guess where investors are putting their money?

Did the ‘advanced’ South American tribes bury women alive?

Mick Gregory

Have progressive liberals in the media and public schools buried the truth from the masses about atrocities such as killing and burying servants, wives and children of royalty in Egyptian and South American tombs? Are progressive leftists actually rewriting history?

What do you think?

Check your local newspaper for the slant when you see this story on Friday. Did the reporter explain that an ancient mortician didn’t create the look of terror on the mummy, that the twisted terror is due to the woman being buried alive?

Hands over her eyes and her face gripped with terror, the woman’s fear of death is all too obvious.
The remarkable mummy was found in a hidden burial vault in the Amazon.
It is at least 600 years old and has survived thanks to the embalming skills of her tribe, the Chachapoyas or “Cloud Warriors.”

It doesn’t take an expert to come to the conclusion that this female was buried alive.

Eleven more mummies were recovered from the massive cave complex 82 ft. below ground. Some appeared to be family members. Did they all die at once? Why speculate on that? (Because it may turn out to be the entire family was put to death as was practiced by Pharos.

This provides more evidence of the savage, cruel norms practiced by the often vaunted South American civilizations, as was depicted by Mel Gibson in his controversial movie “Apocalypto.”

The vault – which was also used for worship – was chanced upon three months ago by a farmer working at the edge of northern Peru’s rainforest. He tipped off scientists who uncovered ceramics, textiles and wall paintings.

I’d like to point out that a display at the “prestigious” Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago has done some rewrites of history in the permanent exhibit, “Inside Ancient Egypt”. There you can traverse the catacombs once used by Egyptian Kings and Queens and see the many mummies and tombs that have outlasted them. But also take note of how equal time is given to examine the labor-intensive lives of the servants and how they served their masters even in death. A model of a mummy embalming room (that I remember seeing as a student) has been updated. Instead of explaining how family and servants of the dead king were put to death to join him in the after life, the model’s description now ignores that bit of information, and explains away the set of several dead bodies as depicting a busy, highly-ranked embalming studio. Get it? The PC progressives didn’t want to cast a negative light on the godless, morbid practice. But just 25 or 30 years ago, the truth was being explained.

Newspapers killing Scripps profit picture

Mick Gregory

When did newspapers make 20 percent profits?

The Scripps Co. owner of several newspapers and the popular HGTV channel, sent out a press release to stock analysts stating it is “talking about options” for its newspaper division, which is dragging down the company’s stock price.

“We’ve reached no conclusions, it’s fair to say,” Chief Financial Officer Joseph NeCastro said at an investor conference late Tuesday. “But we do believe that there probably is some value to be created in looking at a structural alternative there . . . maybe some form of separating the newspapers out.”

Scripps has built its cable-networks business, which includes HGTV and the Food Network, into the company’s leading profit generator. It’s now entering e-commerce with acquisitions of Web sites Shopzilla and uSwitch.

Scripps’ newspapers are slow-growth or no-growth. In the first nine months of 2006, the Scripps Networks division, which includes its cable business, posted a 17.8 percent gain in revenue. Meanwhile, its Interactive Media division, aided by the uSwitch acquisition, grew 408 percent.

Newspapers, which account for less than 30 percent of the company’s revenue, saw sales drop by 0.1 percent in the same time period.

Compared to broadcast television, “Newspapers seem to be much more troubled, and it’s hard to call a bottom there,” NeCastro said. “I think up until this last year probably it wasn’t that clear. I think we collectively feel like there is some damage.”

The newspaper industry is in a death ride. The Knight Ridder chain sold itself last year after investor pressure, and the Tribune Co., which paid more than 8 billion dollars for Times Mirror, is now being pressured to break up its newspapers, especially by the Chandler family, (former owners of Times Mirror), to boost its stock.

Scripps’ comments cheered Wall Street, with analysts from Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs publishing positive analyses Wednesday. Scripps stock hit a 52-week high, closing up 3.8 percent to $51.92.

“We were positively surprised by the company’s comments, which indicate that management has given more serious consideration to this possibility than we had previously thought,” Goldman Sachs analyst Peter Appert said. “Elimination of the newspaper unit would meaningfully enhance the company’s growth prospects and likely translate into a higher valuation for the shares.”

Scripps has daily and community newspapers in 18 markets, including Denver; Memphis and Knoxville, Tenn.; and south Florida. Scripps is a 50-50 partner with MediaNews Group, the owner of the Denver Post, in the Denver Newspaper Agency.

Scripps executives did not say an investment banker has been hired to assist in the deliberations. But NeCastro said the company’s board has spent “a fair amount of time” discussing options.
One possibility is a spinoff, in which Scripps shareholders would receive shares in a new, “pure play” newspaper company. Investors could then choose to sell the newspaper company shares and stick with the higher-growth, new-economy Scripps — or vice-versa.
“We believe (Scripps) could spin out its non-newspaper businesses, could sell most of its papers, or likely pursue many other scenarios,” Merrill Lynch analyst Lauren Fine said.

— David Milstead, Rocky Mountain News

Hip LA journo decides not to be recalled to Sacramento — On a listening tour instead

Here is another example of the smug mainstream media

By Mick Gregory

Ms. Laura Mecoy looked at the McClatchy marching orders of a recall to the home office in Sacramento and decided it wasn’t for her. Instead, the paper’s ex-Los Angeles correspondent takes a page from the many politicians she has covered:

After leading The Sacramento Bee’s coverage of Southern California for 14 years, veteran reporter Laura Mecoy today announced the formation of an “exploratory campaign” to determine the next chapter in her life.

Laura will launch her campaign with the traditional “listening tour” at local restaurants, coffeehouses, bars and anywhere else people gather.

Shortly before Christmas, The Bee announced plans to close all its bureaus, including Los Angeles, and “recall” its out-of-town reporters.

“I saw how the recall worked out for Gov. Gray Davis and decided it’s not for me,” Laura said.

Earth to “journo:” without your Sacramento Bee byline, you are a zero. Aren’t you happy that the Democrats you were spinning for will raise the minimum wage?

Inside the mind of an LA Times columnist

You have to wonder why newspaper journalists seem to be so out of touch with the public. Maybe it comes down to elite, arrogant snobbishness.

Joel Stein of the LA Times writes:

I don’t want to talk to you; I want to talk at you. A column is not my attempt to engage in a conversation with you….Not everything should be interactive. A piece of work that stands on its own, without explanation or defense, takes on its own power.

I get that you have opinions you want to share. That’s great. You’re the Person of the Year. I just don’t have any interest in them.

A lot of e-mail screeds argue that, in return for the privilege of broadcasting my opinion, I have the responsibility to listen to you. I don’t. No more than you have a responsibility to read me. I’m not an elected servant. I’m an arrogant, solipsistic, attention-needy freak who pretends to have an opinion about everything. I don’t have time to listen to you.

Hello? We don’t care to digest your opinion anymore. This is the world of Web 2.0. Read up on it. You may need a new job in the next couple of years.

New Year — New Job Cuts at Philly Newspapers

The Newspaper industry can’t stop the bleeding. McClatchy lost more than 38 percent of its market value even after they absorbed Knight Ridder. McClatchy sold the Star Tribune at a 58 percent loss from it’s purchase price eight years ago.

By Mick Gregory

The McClatchy newspaper chain may be remembered in the same light as Mrs. O’ Leary’s cow. You may know the “story,” her cow was blamed for kicking over a lamp that started the Great Chicago Fire. McClatchy’s leveraged buyout of Knight Ridder and the spin-off of large, award-winning (union-heavy) newspapers started the Great Newspaper Fire Sale of 2006. And it has raged out of control.

Maybe journalists will start to gain some humility along with a dose of reality and economics 101. Especially at the papers McClatchy dumped i.e., the Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News and now the Star Tribune. Where have all their union dues gone? I’m guessing that most went to multi-millionaire Democrat politicians.

The Associated Press reports this afternoon that the Inquirer began a round of layoffs today. Several reporters at the Inquirer said they were told Tuesday morning that their jobs were being eliminated, according to AP. The employees said that they were told to meet with personnel officials on Wednesday to discuss details of their severance pay and health benefits.

“The specific number of layoffs is still unclear because some Inquirer employees have already taken other jobs since word of the impending layoffs was announced in November,” the AP reports.

“As we all know, layoff notices are expected next week and could come as early as Tuesday (Jan. 2, today), so I am sending this memo in advance to inform you of some basics,” the e-mail from Ferrick said. “This FAQ is intended for those who may receive layoff notices.”

They tried to avoid more layoffs following last year’s 80-person job cut at the Inquirer. My thinking is the union wants enough dues paying members so the Guild/CWA bosses can still rub elbows with John Edwards, Obmama and Hillary.

Philly shouldn’t take in personally, the entire newspaper industry is in death spiral.

Alan Mutter of the non-profit Poynter Institute said the shares of publicly held publishing stocks in the last two years lost nearly $13.5 billion in value. “Growing investor pressure has terrorized and dangerously defocused the executives of publicly held [newspaper] companies,” he says. “Instead of navigating their businesses through the most difficult environment they will ever know, the executives have been forced to spend disproportionate amounts of their time on investor relations, financial engineering and ill-considered expense cuts that could imperil the long-term health of their franchises.”

Alan Mutter of the non-profit Pointer Institute says the shares of publicly held publishing stocks in the last two years lost nearly $13.5 billion in value. “Growing investor pressure has terrorized and dangerously defocused the executives of publicly held [newspaper] companies,” he says. “Instead of navigating their businesses through the most difficult environment they will ever know, the executives have been forced to spend disproportionate amounts of their time on investor relations…”

What? Newspaper CEOs have actually started to care what investors thought?

‘Apocalypto’ has prevented one of the biggest rewrites of evil in history

Mick Gregory

I just saw Apocalypto and I am in awe of Mel Gibson’s work. The digital photography caputured the jungle beauty and the heart pounding running that could not have been filmed just a few years ago. The cast was meticulously picked from villagers and the man who played Jaguar Paw is an excellent actor. He has a future in Hollywood.

But most important to me is that Gibson has pointed out that the Mayan empire was not morally or scientificly superior to Western Civilization. The Mayans did hold pagan festivals where they beheaded and cut the hearts out of captured countrymen and took women as sex slaves by the thousands. They were a blood lusting totalitarian society that killed off their own civilization at a greater clip than Hitler or Stalin. This movie is based on documented events and many are learning them for the first time.
Another was the Mayan’s great studies of the solar eclipse… For what reason, science? Only to show power over their people and stop the killings once every ten years or so. The Mayans had played a sport similar to lacross… No, it was just a sand pit where the sport was hunting men like animals.

Why the coverup?

Gibson has overturned one of the most unusual rewrites of an evil empire in history. I know that the progressive/socialists at our universities are not happy with the truth coming out. They are busy coming out with their counter punches.
“Don’t pay attention to Gibson, he’s a (fill in the blank). Why the distortions? Because it doesn’t fit their propaganda model that all culures are equal and most are even superior to Christianity, Western Civilization and the bottom line, America’s cultureal roots.

————

I remember teachers and texts telling me that the Mayans were so advanced, that they performed operations on skulls and hearts to save their warriors.

My father laughed at me when I repeated that story in the early 70s.

He said the Mayan witch doctors were killing people, mainly slaves, including virgins by cutting their hearts out and cooking them in front of them as offerings.

Living in San Francisco, I have to report that the Progressive Democrats in that city no longer observe Memorial Day, instead, the city has a parade celebrating Hispanic culture, compete with samba dancing, Mayan Sun God dances and floats.

I can imagine Hugo Chavez as one of the high priests ordering the heads chopped off of his competition.

Did you read this in your daily newspaper or text books?