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.

Who is Nancy Pelosi? What does Progressive Democrat mean? Watch Obama, Hillary and Pelosi smile and talk with Ortega and Chavez, fellow socialists

OBEY OBAMA

You won’t see the mainstream media reporting who Nancy Pelosi is.

Citizens: Print,  clip and save this free Obey Obama poster (Void where prohibited by law).

By Mick Gregory

I know quite a bit about her, having lived and worked in her San Francisco district. You won’t see the San Francisco Chronicle or New York Times mentioning that she is a multi-millionaire from earnings on her non-union Napa Valley winerey and resort hotel. Yet, the soon-to-be-crowned Speaker, gets one of the largest shares of union campaign money.

Your 68-year-old grandmother hasn’t spent as much on her home as 68-year-old Nancy Pelosi has on facelifts.
Democrats are America’s neo-progressives, better known as socialists. I lived in Nancy Peloci’s San Francisco, where transsexuals are given special status along with all the other classes of minorities and the city is a “sactuary city” for illegals.

 

Do you think I am exagerating? Progressive Democrats are America’s Democrat/Socialists — Google it for yourself. Why doesn’t the LA Times with it’s 950-person newsroom devote an afternoon of a reporter’s time to check into this?

Socialism in America is growing. Aided by such influential Congressmen as John Conyers, Ranking Member of the House Judicial Committee, and the one who will start impeachment proceedings against George Bush in the coming months. Nancy Pelosi is one of the stars of the nearly 60 other Democrats advancing socialism in America behind the “Progressive” label.

Here are a few excerpts taken directly from the web page of the Democratic Socialists of America.

“The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is the largest socialist organization in the United States, and the principal U.S. affiliate of the Socialist International. DSA’s members are building progressive movements for social change while establishing an openly socialist presence in American communities and politics.

“At the root of our socialism is a profound commitment to democracy, as means and end. We are activists committed not only to extending political democracy but to demanding democratic empowerment in the economy, in gender relations, and in culture. Democracy is not simply one of our political values but our means of restructuring society. Our vision is of a society in which people have a real voice in the choices and relationships that affect the entirety of our lives. We call this vision democratic socialism – a vision of a more free, democratic and humane society.

0. We are socialists because we reject an international economic order sustained by private profit, alienated labor, race and gender discrimination, environmental destruction, and brutality and violence in defense of the status quo.
0. We are socialists because we share a vision of a humane international social order based both on democratic planning and market mechanisms to achieve equitable distribution of resources, meaningful work, a healthy environment, sustainable growth, gender and racial equality, and non-oppressive relationships.”
Here is what “Liberty” looks like to a socialist:
“A democratic commitment to a vibrant pluralist life assumes the need for a democratic, responsive, and representative government to regulate the market, protect the environment, and ensure a basic level of equality and equity for each citizen. In the 21st century, such regulation will increasingly occur through international, multilateral action. But while a democratic state can protect individuals from domination by inordinately powerful, undemocratic transnational corporations, people develop the social bonds that render life meaningful only through cooperative, voluntary relationships. Promoting such bonds is the responsibility of socialists and the government alike.
“The social welfare programs of government have been for the most part positive, if partial, responses to the genuine social needs of the great majority of Americans. The dismantling of such programs by conservative and corporate elites in the absence of any alternatives will be disastrous. Abandoning schools, health care, and housing, for example, to the control of an unregulated free market magnifies the existing harsh realities of inequality and injustice.”
The action agenda posted on the socialists’ web site very closely parallels Agenda 21, and the recommendations of the President’s Council on Sustainable Development. The web site boasts the creation of the “Progressive Caucus” in Congress, as well as the coalition that is working to promote the socialist agenda in Congress.

Now you know that the third person in line for the Presidency is a socialist.

Secret Service, please make sure that President Bush and Dick Chaney are not ever again with in a mile of each other for the next two years.

Imagine this, the Democrats impeach George Bush for invading Iraq, Dick Cheney becomes president, he dies of a heart attack within weeks because of his spike in blood pressure. Nancy Pelosi becomes the first women President of the United States, and another first of much more import, America’s first Progressive Democrat president.

Sources: http://www.dsausa.org/dsa.html,
http://www.sovereignty.net/center/socialists.htm

More Layoffs at the Denver Post

Updated Feb 26:

Note to “journalists:”  Your socialist views promoted Obama and the Democrat Party take over of Colorado. Businesses small and large are the enemy of Democrats. They were your advertisers. Does Big Brother spend advertising in your newspaper?

The Denver Post announced the layoffs of six newsroom managers Wednesday as part of a cost-cutting effort. Big deal, you think? After hundreds have been “let go” over the past two years? Yes. It is big for them.

Dismissed, effective Friday, were Gary Clark, managing editor of news; Mark Cardwell, managing editor of online news; Erik Strom, assistant managing editor of technology; Ingrid Muller, creative director; Cynthia Pasquale, assistant city editor; and Stephen Keating, online special- projects editor. Keating will continue to work on a project for Post owner MediaNews Group.

The layoffs come as dozens of newspapers across the country are cutting staffs and budgets to deal with steep declines in advertising and circulation.

“These departures were forced by budget cuts I have to make,” Post editor Greg Moore said in a memo to staffers. “I think you all know the financial challenges facing this industry and this newspaper.”

MediaNews Group is negotiating with union-covered Post employees for $2 million in wage and benefit concessions.

Rocky Mountain News owner E.W. Scripps has put that newspaper up for sale, and may close it, because of mounting financial losses.

Scripps imposed companywide pay and benefit cuts Wednesday at its newspapers and television stations, although the Rocky Mountain News reported that the cuts will not apply to the News.

The reductions, announced in an e-mail from Scripps chief executive Rich Boehne, were reported in several Scripps newspapers. Scripps declined to publicly release what it described as an “internal employee memo.”

I wrote about Times Mirror pulling the plug on The Denver Post, Dallas Times-Herald, and Houston Post, some 13 years ago, next they sold the family jewels, the rest of Times Mirror to the Tribune Co., and we all know about Zell’s offer to take the company private.

This is what is in store for all the former Times Mirror papers:

Layoffs, cuts to the bone.

Memo from Denver Post editor Greg Moore

To The Staff:

On Monday, April 23, in the auditorium on the first floor, we will have two very important staff meetings. I don’t think there is any secret that our newspaper and others have been facing some challenging times.

Even though just a year ago we went through buyouts in an effort to reduce costs, the financial situation facing the paper and the Denver Newspaper Agency requires additional measures be taken. At meetings at 11 a.m. and again at 4 p.m., we will explain details of another round of buyouts in an effort to cut expenses without having to do layoffs. These buyouts will be offered to Guild and exempt employees. I really hope we are able to achieve the savings we need and every effort has been made to construct an offer that will help us get there. The meetings will give us a chance to share details of the offers with you and answer questions. I know this is tough and introduces more anxiety in already difficult times. But we will get through it.

See you then,

Greg

While the Chandlers live like royalty in California.

 

Singleton should be praised for saving the Denver Post. It very easily could have been the Post shutting down today instead of the weird, tabloid Rocky Mountain News.

Drill here, drill now, pay less, create jobs — That’s stimulous

Gov. Sarah Palin continues to make news. She understands economics and real-world energy issues. 

 

I AM DISMAYED THAT LEGISLATION HAS AGAIN BEEN INTRODUCED in Congress to prohibit forever oil and gas development in the most promising unexplored petroleum province in North America — the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, in Alaska.

Let’s not forget: Only six months ago, oil was selling for nearly $150 per barrel, while Americans were paying $4 a gallon and more for gasoline. And today, there is potential for prices to rebound as OPEC asserts its market power and as Russia disrupts needed natural gas to Europe for the second time in three years.

As I traveled throughout the country campaigning for vice president, I was glad to hear politicians, including Barack Obama, promise that “everything was on the table” to address America’s great challenges. I also found that when Americans were apprised of the facts, most people became supporters of responsible oil and gas drilling in Alaska. So, I want to remind our national leaders of this promise and make the case against this legislation:

•Oil from ANWR represents a huge, secure domestic supply that could help satisfy U.S. demand for more than 25 years.

•ANWR sits within a 20 million-acre refuge (the size of South Carolina), but thanks to advanced technology like directional drilling, the aggregated drilling footprint would be less than 2,000 acres (about one-quarter the size of Dulles Airport). This is like laying a 2-by-3-foot welcome mat on a basketball court.

•Energy development is quite compatible with the protection of our wildlife and their habitat. For example, North Slope caribou herds have grown and remained healthy throughout more than three decades of oil development. Most of the year, our coastal plain is frozen solid and thus characterized by low biological productivity.

•ANWR development would create hundreds of thousands of good American jobs, positively affecting every state by providing a safe energy supply and generating demand for goods and services.

— Gov. Sarah Palin

The real Nancy Pelosi — multi-millionaire, resort, dining and winery baroness who profits from non-union and illegal labor. Now she pushes more taxes on U.S. oil companies — not OPEC oil producers.

UPDATE
By Mick Gregory

UPDATE: Sept. 21, 2008; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senator John Kerry and more than 50 other members of Congress, Bloomberg reports.

Pelosi, in her most recent financial disclosure form, reported that her husband owned between $250,000 and $500,000 of stock in AIG, which ceded majority control to the U.S. government this week in exchange for $85 billion of loans.

Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, disclosed that his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, had more than $2 million of AIG stock at the end of 2007, when shares were worth $58.30. AIG has fallen 85 percent this week to close yesterday at $2.69. The lawmakers’ aides didn’t respond to calls seeking comment.

Did you know that the Obama family had their own private chef for years? Journalists didn’t bother to report that at any time during the past two years. Do you wonder why?

Sam Kass, who cooked for the Obamas in Chicago will now move onto the government payroll as a White House chef. (Ever wary of annoying the feminist base, the Obamas are not firing the very first woman to hold the Chief Chef job, chosen by Laura Bush. They’re just pushing her out of the way.)

Who knew? I believed all that stuff about how Michelle was an overburdened modern working mother, rushing from school dropoff to her high-paying, demanding work at the hospital, to dress fittings, to whatever it was she needed to do to support her husband’s political aspirations, back home to take care of her daughters. Call me naive, but that model usually includes making dinner. And squeezing in a weekly grocery shopping trip. Especially for those fresh, whole foods that don’t keep so long. Now I have to wonder who did the laundry, and the vaccuuming. Sure, granny helped—but I doubt she was the maid. Who was?

In fact, I don’t actually care who did the cooking (or cleaning) in the Obama household. And Chef Sam is fine with me. The orchestrated deception—the pretense that this family did it all themselves, living a low-key life just like most upper middle class Americans, working hard and taking care of the necessary, sometimes tedious requirements of home life as well as they seemed to have done—is a little more troubling. To be sure, a University of Chicago-educated private chef seems a little more indulgent than a nanny who broils the chicken or chops up the broccoli. But that’s their call.  

Didn’t the women at Slate, among others, complain that there was something offensive about Sarah Palin’s apparent ability to raise 5 children, run the state of Alaska, run marathons, and cook those mooseburgers—because it set the bar too high for ordinary women? But they were willing to believe that Michelle could do it all, and keep it all organic and healthy at that—because she has a law degree from Harvard?

This is one of the great gifts that comes with being a Democrat who is so beloved of the media. Instead of the inevitable carping and cries of hypocrisy and elitism, the New York Times food writer just gushes at what a master stroke this appointment is—bringing sustainable food to the White House and inevitable gardens to the grounds.

When you run for president as a community organizer, and a writer, or even a professor of constitutional law, perhaps it’s politic to hide a few salient details about your actual lifestyle that might mess up the “savior of the downtrodden” narrative. It’s important to keep up the fiction that only spoiled, indifferent, wealthy Republicans have personal servants. — Lisa Schiffren

Did you know? CNN’s Democrat cheerleader Anderson Cooper is the son of billionaire heiress Gloria Vanderbilt.

This new tax on oil is not unlike Chavez taking over control of private industries. Even liberal Californians voted down an identical energy tax just last November. So what does Pelosi do? She pushes through a more expensive energy tax in the first 100 hours without debate. This is similar to Hugo Chavez’s progressive politics. You think? What’s the difference?
The millions of dollars that Democrat supporters spent to pass Proposition 87 to promote an increase in the extraction tax on crude pumped from California oil wells wasn’t enough to win over the state’s voters last November.

The hotly contested ballot measure, which proposed to impose a new tax on oil production to fund a range of alternative energy programs, was backed by 45% of the voters, while 55% opposed it, according official returns.

Opponents of the initiative campaigned heavily, arguing the tax would be borne by consumers, who would end up paying even more at the pump.

The proposed Clean Alternative Energy Act sought to raise $4 billion over 10 years through an oil-extraction tax. The funds would be used to sponsor research and projects in alternative energy, including ethanol, solar and wind power.
The initiative, which sought to cut the use of petroleum by 25% over the next decade, drew a massive response from the oil industry and pulled in endorsements from political heavyweights such as former President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore.

Both sides spent millions of dollars on their campaigns.
Hollywood producer Stephen Bing provided major funding in favor of the measure by pledging about $49 million to the campaign. Other backers include Google Inc. (GOOG

Energy companies calculated the impact of the potential new tax would range from 1.5% to 6%, depending on the price of oil. During its third-quarter earnings conference call, Chevron Chief Financial Officer Steve Crowe said the company could take a $200 million pretax hit on its annual earnings from the proposition.

Nancy Pelosi‘s socialist political views are exactly what have kept her elected in San Francisco, along with the flow of union campaign money. The staunch “union supporter” Pelosi has even received the Cesar Chavez Award from the United Farm Workers Union. But her $25 million Napa vineyards and winery, she and her husband own are non-union shops. The extra profit she earns is more than she gets from labor unions. But I don’t think she wants the rank and file to know this. Do you?

The hypocrisy doesn’t stop there. Pelosi has received more money from the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees unions than any other member of Congress in recent election cycles.

The multi-millionaire investors own a large stake in an exclusive resort hotel in Wine Country, the Napa Valley Auberge Du Soleil Resort. It has more than 250 employees. But none of them are in a union, according to Peter Schweizer, author of “Do As I Say, (Not As I Do) – The Hypocrisy of Democrats” and a regular contributor to the New York Times.

Pelosi is also partners in a restaurant chain called Piatti, which has 900 employees. The chain is – you might have guessed — a non-union shop. It is a very high-end restaurant group with locations in Carmel, Sonoma and Danville to name just the locations I dined at. Hardwood-fired ovens, exhibition kitchens, Napa wines, a very nice experience. I did notice some Hispanic kitchen help and busboys. I’m wondering if they are illegal alliens? No, the Speaker of the House wouldn’t hire illegals, would she?

I’m sure The Chronicle’s Herb Caen gave Piatti a big plug every so often.
The 67-68 (?) year-old Pelosi has spent more money on facelifts, cosmetic enhancements, and Armani suits than every one of her union supporters combined, don’t you think?

I heard Chris Mathews of “Hardball” say “what a knockout Pelosi is, “I can’t wait to see her sitting behind President Bush at the next State of the Union speech.”
Mathews actually worked at the The Chronicle and Examiner in San Francisco before his show “Hard Ball” on MSNBC, and before that he was a ‘gofer’ and occasional writer for the Democrat Speaker of the House, Tip O’Neill.

I believe that Mathews wasn’t as kind to Kathryn Harris who is young enough to be Pelosi’s daughter and quite attractive without expensive plastic surgery.

Rupert Murdoch tells journalists: Shape up or risk extinction

Rupert Murdoch is a media genius. He has an instinct for fair and balanced news. Of course,  members of the elite, liberal media (former monopolies) would say he is just a rich conservative who buys up media. I’ve seen the smears against him for the past 25 years. Now his empire includes FOX, the Wall Street Journal and You Tube. 

This is what Mr. Murdoch has to say: 

“It used to be that a handful of editors could decide what was news-and what was not. They acted as sort of demigods. If they ran a story, it became news. If they ignored an event, it never happened. Today editors are losing this power. The Internet, for example, provides access to thousands of new sources that cover things an editor might ignore. And if you aren’t satisfied with that, you can start up your own blog and cover and comment on the news yourself. Journalists like to think of themselves as watchdogs, but they haven’t always responded well when the public calls them to account.”

Mr. Murdoch points out  the media reaction after bloggers debunked a “60 Minutes” report by former CBS anchor, Dan Rather, that President Bush had evaded service during his days in the National Guard.

“Far from celebrating this citizen journalism, the establishment media reacted defensively. During an appearance on Fox News, a CBS executive attacked the bloggers in a statement that will go down in the annals of arrogance. ’60 Minutes,’ he said, was a professional organization with ‘multiple layers of checks and balances.’ By contrast, he dismissed the blogger as ‘a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas writing.’ But eventually it was the guys sitting in their pajamas who forced Mr. Rather and his producer to resign.

“Mr. Rather and his defenders are not alone,” he continued. “A recent American study reported that many editors and reporters simply do not trust their readers to make good decisions. Let’s be clear about what this means. This is a polite way of saying that these editors and reporters think their readers are too stupid to think for themselves.”

—Reported by Charles Cooper of CNET.

Update: Dan Rather now works for Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks. Cuban is under investigation  for insider trading by the federal SEC.

“My summary of the way some of the established media has responded to the internet is this: it’s not newspapers that might become obsolete. It’s some of the editors, reporters, and proprietors who are forgetting a newspaper’s most precious asset: the bond with its readers,” said Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive officer of News Corp., owners of FOX News.

UPDATE: Dec. 21, 2008

Some 500 managers and nonunion workers at The Seattle Times are being asked to take a week off without pay as financial troubles mount.

This is one of many JOAs that allow two mastheads to remain “independent” while all the marketing, promotion, advertising, publishing and distribution are joined in one economical operation. It is a form of monopoly, exactly what Mr. Murdoch was discussing. 

 

· Times memo to unaffiliated employees

Company spokeswoman Jill Mackie said workers can take the time off in a weeklong chunk or a day at a time between now and February. She declined to say how much money the Times expects to save from the mandatory time-off program.

It’s the latest in a series of dire steps by the company, which has had three rounds of layoffs this year.

“There are very few areas remaining in which we can pursue necessary savings,” wrote Seattle Times Senior Vice President Alayne Fardella in a two-page memo sent to all nonunionized Seattle Times employees Friday.

“It has been and continues to be a long and difficult fight for our survival.”

The memo says the time must be taken off before Feb. 28 because the company needs to achieve cost savings early in the year.

Obama would be Jimmy Carter’s second term

Sen. John McCain just shot off the best line of the 2008 campaign: “Obama would be Jimmy Carter’s second term.” That is a grand slam, slam dunk and TD rolled up into one.

Jimmy Carter was the worst president of the past 50 years, but Obama could take that  title away from Carter. Maybe it would be good for the country to see how much damage the Democrat/Socialist party can do. That’s how Reagan and the Republicans came roaring back to power in a landslide. Even die hard Democrats couldn’t take another term of Jimmy Carter’s mediocrity.

The Clintons make in one day what the average American makes in a year. Hillary Clinton’s ill-gotten gains from speeches, ‘cattle futures’ and ‘White Water’ are fine, only their campaign funds were wiped out. She is $20 million in debt in regard to her campaign. So? There is more money where that came from.

Why did it take seven years for us to see the Clinton’s taxes?

By Mick Gregory

I’m wondering how “working class” families feel about writing a $20 check to the Clinton’s campaign? The Democrat power couple made more money than any other to leave the White House.

The old guard, uneducated, unskilled union workers who gave to her campaign over the past two years lost their bet. Did they know that she spent it all? Worse yet, did they know that the Clinton’s made over $109 million since leaving the White House? They made $41,000 every 24 four hours while the Average American makes $48,000 a year.

How about the “jobs” they did. What did the Progressive couple do for the money?

Bill Clinton has earned $15.4 million from billionaire Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa Cos. investment firm since 2003, according to tax documents released by his wife, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

The earnings represent 20 percent of the approximately $75 million Bill Clinton earned during the same period, according to the documents. That may raise new questions about what services he performed for Los Angeles-based Yucaipa, whose investors include the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid al- Maktoum — acording to Bloomberg.

Tax lawyers said the Yucaipa partnership income for Bill Clinton looks to be a form of salary because it was in round numbers for most years.

Why did the Clinton machine finally release these numbers? I think it was to show they have the money to win the election, and Obama can’t win. We will see how it is reported.

“Most people who make that much money work for it,” said Yale University tax law professor Michael Graetz, a former Treasury Department official. “What are they being paid for, and if it’s the Sheikh of Dubai paying the husband of somebody who might be the next president of the United States, what do they think they’re paying for?”

How does that make the “poor folk” feel? Please write and tell us.

How does that make those life-long Democrats feel who were always told that the Clintons “feel their pain.”

She owes businesses $20,000,000 from the last gasp of her two-year campaign. She has told African-Americans that they are second class citizens after winning 90 percent of their vote during her Democrat career.

It’s all come to the surface now. Hillary has brought the Democrat party back to their roots of the elitist tier system that America hasn’t seen since the Civil War.

The Chicago Sun-Times stock price falls to $1. It’s now a penny stock.

Shares of Sun-Times Media Group Inc. stopped trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday after hitting a red flag, a rule that halts transactions when a stock falls below $1.05. The stock will soon be kicked out of the exchange. The smell of death is in the air of their rented offices.

Trading halted on the floor of the NYSE when the stock opened at $1, down 11 cents from Thursday’s close.

I predicted six months ago that the Chicago Sun-Times would be the next large metro daily to shutter its doors. They sold the roof over their heads just to pay the bills and pay for the penthouse for Mr. Black (who will be living in much more spartan quarters in a federal pen).

But what will happen to all the professional journos? Maybe there will be a few openings at the Hoffman Hearld? Chicken dinner news, obits, high school sports…

Wolf Blitzer caves to threats from the Hillary-Obama machine and lets her flip-flop

Mick Gregory

Watch the political play unfold. Scripted questions. Obama put in his place with threats of dirt that Hilary’s people have on him “but refuse to release” yet. That’s just to make sure Obama doesn’t get any ideas that he is to be the top of the Hillary-Obama ticket.

The smelly pant-suit and her machine has ways of keeping Obama in line.

I’m hoping that B. Hussein Obama does better than expected in Iowa, then let’s see Hillary come out with her dirt. It’s an empty threat, most likely to make her look above it all.

With Wolf Blitzer’s gentle tea party questioning, Hillary Rodham-Clinton was able to avert another debate meltdown in the Nevada Democratic debate held last night, November 15. Asked about driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants, a compliant, even subservient, Blitzer accepted Hillary’s one word answer, “No,” with no follow up. Had a better journalist been asking the questions — like Tim Russert — he would have followed up the bland negation with probing questions about why she is yet again flip flopping on the issue.

The Drudge Report today highlights that a “senior adviser to the Hillary campaign” said, earlier today, that Blitzer “was outstanding, and did not gang up like Russert did in Philadelphia. He avoided personal attacks, remained professional and ran the best debate so far.” And Blitzer checked his journalistic instincts at the door.

The debate also had a pro-Hillary bias in the amount of time allocated to Bill Richardson — who had the third longest face time in the debate. Since Richardson is auditioning for Vice President on Hillary’s ticket, using his time to plead for unity among Democrats (i.e. don’t bash Hillary), giving him the mike was the same as giving it to Hillary. –Dick Morris on FOX.

Over managed editor-centric suburban papers can’t compete with the scrappy blogs all over the Internet

By Mick Gregory

The alternative blogs are much better reading than the pompus little newspapers as they continue to shed readers like a 330 pound man on a July afternoon in Las Vegas.

The St. Charles Journal wrote about a teenage girl who killed herself over two adults’ postings on MySpace. After the paper didn’t name the pair, bloggers went to work and asked for help in identifiying them. The culprits were outed and the Lee paper was criticized for declining to name them. One person writes on Jezebel.com: “I am a newspaper journalist. Every day newspaper journalism as we know it gets one step closer to death, as readers turn to blogs and TV and other media for information. This wimp of an editor, who doesn’t have the guts to name the wrongdoers involved, has just hastened our eventual demise by at least another week or two.”

Watch the in-fighting as the old rotten hulks take in water.
A good site for this is Poynteronline.org

San Francisco City Officials Condem Radio Talk Show Host Michael Savage

Mick Gregory

Michael Savage will be the poster child for the “Fariness Doctrin.”

Bay Area illegal immigrant advocates say radio host Michael Savage should be fired for using hate speech when suggesting supporters of an illegal immigration reform bill who fasted in San Francisco’s Civic Center Plaza last week should continue their fast and starve to death.

During a July 5 broadcast of “The Savage Nation,” his nationally syndicated talk show, Savage said, “I would say let them fast till they starve to death … because then we won’t have a problem about giving them green cards because they’re illegal aliens.”

That is the way the McClatchy Newspaper Company Crumples

Mick Gregory

Circulation continues to fall along with advertising revenue. This news wil not be found in the A section today. Maybe page two in the business section?

Yet, Gannett continues to gain, while the cut staff to the bone. They are the most aggressively managed media company. They are able to keep producing profits like a mature oil patch, using all the stimulation and artificial lift technology available to keep the depleated well pumping.

Weekly circulation at U.S. dailies has dropped 2.1% over the past six months, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Sunday papers saw a 3.1% drop in circulation over the same period. The figures reflect 745 of the country’s 1,400 or so daily newspapers. The New York Post bucked the trend with a 7.6% rise, followed by the New York Daily News with a 1.4% gain. The Dallas Morning News saw a 14.3% decline, due in part to a circulation cutback to within about 100 miles of Dallas. Newsday saw a 6.9% decline. Newspaper circulation has been dropping steadily as news consumers have turned increasingly to other media, particularly round-the-clock cable TV news and the Internet.

The Dallas Morning News and Riverside News-Press Fall Below Expectations for Belo

Publisher and television station owner Belo Corp. said Thursday that first-quarter profit and sales slumped on a double-digit decline in newspaper revenue.
Profit fell 10 percent to $15.5 million, or 15 cents per share, in the January-March period, down from $17.3 million, or 16 cents per share, a year ago.

Analysts had expected profit of 13 cents per share, according to a survey by Thomson Financial.

Revenue fell 5 percent to $354.1 million from $371.7 million, missing Wall Street’s estimate of $368.7 million.

Belo owns four daily newspapers, including The Dallas Morning News, and 20 TV stations.

Executives forecast that TV revenue would rise by low-single digits in the April-June quarter, while newspaper revenue would decline but probably less than it did in the first quarter.

Newspaper group revenue fell 11 percent in the January-March period on soft advertising conditions, including the weak housing market in Southern California, where Belo publishes The Press-Enterprise in Riverside. Advertising of autos, health care and furniture was soft, while ads for financial services, restaurants, movies and home improvement were better, executives said.

Excluding an extra Sunday in the first quarter of 2006, newspaper revenue would have fallen slightly less — 9.3 percent from a year ago.

Belo’s newspapers have lost readers in recent years. Executives hope that a recent redesign at its flagship Dallas paper will stop the slide by tailoring the paper to its most loyal readers.

“A lot of newspapers have seen a lot of circulation move in the last three or four years, and we believe there is a point where your core readership defines itself,” said Chairman and Chief Executive Robert W. Decherd. “We hope we’re going to reach that soon.”

Belo cut jobs last year through voluntary buyouts at the Dallas and Riverside papers, which led to an 11 percent decline in newspaper costs in the first quarter. Lower newsprint prices helped, and Belo used less of it.

Major left-leaning papers are bearing the brunt of the responsibility for the declines. The same papers that promote global warming and bury the news on Nancy Pelosi’s non-union and illegal hiring practices.

Papers that are showing daily drops of 5 percent or more, according to circulation sources, include:
The Miami Herald, The San Diego Union-Tribune, The Austin American-Statesman, the San Jose Mercury News, and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Gary Pruitt, CEO of the McClatchy Sacramento chain continues to spin. To give a taste of what is to come, during Q1, McClatchy executives said daily circulation fell 3.6 percent and Sunday dropped 4 percent. The Sunday paper is their aircraft carrier of revenue and readership. And it’s taking water.

Shares of newspaper publisher McClatchy Company fell to a seven-year low yesterday while the stock market hit an all time high busting the 13,000 mark.

The McClatchy fall came after the company posted a sharp drop in 1st quater net income on slumping classified print ads. Revenue grew on last year’s acquisition of 20 newspapers from Knight-Ridder. Q1 net profit came in at $9 million ($0.11/share), a 67% drop from $27.7 million ($0.59/share) in the year-ago quarter. Excluding items, the company would have had EPS of $0.18. Revenue rose to $566.6 million from $194.5 million. Analysts were expecting an average EPS of $0.27 on $564 million in revenue, although estimates varied widely. Ad revenue dropped 5.3% from last year to $477 million in Q1. All three main categories of classifieds — automotive, real estate and employment — suffered double-digit percentage declines.

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?

Offshore Wave Sweeps through Newspapers

Yesterday, about 100 demonstrators representing local newspapers and unions called for the New York Times Company to stop outsourcing and eliminating jobs in front of The Boston Globe’s main building.

In the past few years, The New York Times Company has been making widespread administrative cuts, including some in various newsroom bureaus, to save money.

Protesters said the cuts made by the Times Company, which owns the Globe, have eliminated 120 local advertising and circulation jobs from the company. The Boston Newspaper Guild, joined by representatives from other area newspapers, including South Boston’s The Patriot Ledger, said the cuts indicate the Times Company is ignoring the needs of the local community.

Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Bob Haynes denounced the recent layoffs and said future employee cuts could cripple the Globe.

“People in the community made this newspaper,” he said. “It was built on the sweat and intelligence of the people who put it together.”

Many protesters held picket signs reading “It’s The Boston Globe — not the Bombay Globe.”

Leaning on a “Boston, not Bombay” picket sign, he said the Times Company will take notice of the protests if readership and subscriptions suffer.

“It is important in any city to have a newspaper that can cover that city,” Barrios said. “If the Globe loses its local touch, Boston will lose out.”

Totten said he hopes the community will notice the protest. The guild also has plans to rally at upcoming Globe-sponsored events in the near future, including flower and travel shows.

How about this sign: “Outsourse the Suits!”

Or: “Save the Trees. Just shut down.”

Or this: “The Bombay Telemarketers not as annoying as most I talk to. But I digress.

Major Media Fund Will End Race-Based Journalism Programs With Colleges. A Settlement to a Federal Lawsuit.

By Mick Gregory

White students were excluded until today. Race-based affirmative action program ends after 40 years.

The Dow Jones Newspaper Fund, a nonprofit organization supported by the Wall Street Journal, has agreed to cease operating summer journalism programs solely for minority students in response to a lawsuit filed by an advocacy group critical of affirmative action.

As part of a legal settlement announced today, the fund — which had been operating more than 20 program for minority high-school students in connection with colleges — agreed to open up the programs to members of any racial or ethnic group and to rename the programs to drop references to minority members. The fund has been awarding students of color only for four decades with the goal of inspiring minority students to pursue careers in newspaper journalism.

Today’s settlement comes in response to a federal lawsuit filed in September by the Washington-based Center for Individual Rights. The lawsuit challenged a summer program for minority student journalists operated by the newspaper fund, Virginia Commonwealth University, and the Media General Corporation, publisher of the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The suit alleged that the program’s race-exclusive eligibility criteria violated the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees equal protection under the law, as well as various federal civil-rights statutes, including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits racial and ethnic discrimination by educational institutions that receive federal funds.

The plaintiff in the case had been Emily Smith, a junior at Monacan High School, in Virginia’s Chesterfield County, who submitted an application to participate in the Virginia Commonwealth summer program last March. The lawsuit alleged that Virginia Commonwealth initially notified Ms. Smith that she had been accepted for the workshop but then rescinded its offer after one of its faculty members called Ms. Smith, asked her race, and learned that she was white.

As part of the settlement, Virginia Commonwealth agreed to offer Ms. Smith admission to its workshop for 2007 and agreed that, if she accepted, she would “not be discriminated against on the basis of her race or because she filed the lawsuit.”

The Dow Jones Newspaper Fund’s guidelines for newspapers and colleges involved in its summer workshops previously had said that “each participant must be a minority (defined as U.S. citizens who are black, Hispanic, Asian or Pacific Islander, American Indian, or Alaskan Native).”

Among the other colleges involved in the race-exclusive programs last summer were Florida A&M, Kent State, Marquette, Monmouth, New York, San Francisco State, and Seattle Universities, and the Universities of Alabama, Arizona, Kentucky, Miami, Missouri, and Texas at El Paso.

In announcing the settlement of the lawsuit, Terence J. Pell, president of the Center for Individual Rights, said, “Virginia Commonwealth University deserves credit for taking the lead in promptly settling this case. Today’s settlement saves the taxpayers significant legal expense and ensures that this summer’s programs will be open to all, regardless of race.”

New York Times Empire Crumbling — Road Trip! Publisher Meets and Greets at Davos, Switzerland!

By Mick Gregory

“I don’t know if we will be printing in five years, and you know what, I don’t care,” said Pinchy Suzberger, New York Times publisher.

You know what Pinchy? Most of us don’t care either!

Profits at the Times have been declining for going on five years, and the Times company’s market capitalization has been crumbling faster.

The Times wrote down the value of its New England Media Group—which includes The Boston Globe—by $814 million, resulting in the shocking quarterly drop announced last week. Oopsie!

Yet, as they hold “town hall” meetings with their working stiffs at the Boston Globe, the editors made room to hire Dean Baquet and hand him the Washington DC throne. Baquet, you may recall, is the executive editor who refused to make any more cuts at the LA Times which has a 950 person newsroom.

But Mr. Baquet, you just joined a paper that has cut some 150 journalists in the past year? No problems with that, eh?

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Janet Robinson’s pep talk: first impression

Word is, the Times Co. president/CEO faced a very tough crowd at Morrissey Boulevard today. Here’s what Media Log has heard so far:
It was a very hostile meeting. I would say most of the hostility came from the classified ad people who’re being outsourced to India. This woman–her name doesn’t matter–got up and said, she’s been there 37 years, she loves the company, and basically, how can you do this? The paper’s been cut back; we’re kicked out; is this corporate greed or what?

So Janet Robinson right off the bat had to handle this highly indignant, well-spoken classified ad person.

(Note: classified sales people are subhuman in the eyes of the far superior editorial department, so the surprisingly well spoken woman doesn’t get a name).

And she just kept on talking about how they’d had to make very difficult decisions, they wouldn’t be doing them if it wasn’t necessary. That was basically the theme: in order to save the village, we have to destroy it.

The people really kept at her about the outsourcing–that was really the main theme. Dan Totten [the Globe union head] said it was appalling and disgusting, and when did they make the decision–because let’s face it, we just agreed to this contract, and right after that they announced this outsourcing. Was that bad-faith bargaining? And [Robinson] never really gave an answer. She said [the outsourcing] had been under consideration for at least a year, but they didn’t make the final decision until the terrible results of the final quarter were known. They didn’t have a choice.

Somebody said, why do you still want us as part of [the Times Co.] portfolio? And she went on about, you’re a beacon of great journalism, people want to buy you and I admire their taste, but you’re a very important part of the company.
—thephoenix.com

Morgan Stanley, has set out on a campaign that could cost Sulzberger control over the paper. The New York Times is one of a unique few that have a two-tiered stock plan. The family holds a fraction of the stock, but they are voting stocks, the majority of the stockholders do not have a vote on decisions of the company. They ivory tower “executive editors” at the Times have been making horrible business decisions. And Morgan Stanley has been communicating the reasons why.

The details are by AFX International Focus — The New York Times has refused to list on its proxy a proposal from a Morgan Stanley investment fund that called for putting the company’s two-class share structure to a vote.

That system, which has existed since before the company went public in 1969, cements control of the company with the Ochs-Sulzberger family. The company says the control is necessary to protect the editorial integrity of the newspaper.

The Morgan Stanley fund had proposed the measure in November after expressing dissatisfaction with the company’s share price and what it called a lack of accountability to public shareholders.

Catherine Mathis, a spokeswoman for the Times, said the Times rejected the proposal last month, with the blessing of the Securities and Exchange Commission, after determining that the issues being raised in the proposal couldn’t be voted on by holders of the company’s publicly traded stock.

Those shares, which are called Class A stock, have limited voting rights, such as electing 30 percent of the company’s directors, the approval of certain acquisitions and other matters, she said. The more powerful voting rights belong to the Class B shares, which are almost entirely controlled by the Sulzbergers.

The company rejected the proposal last December, Mathis said, but the news became public late Tuesday in a regulatory filing made by Morgan Stanley Investment Management.

And Mr. Sulzberger had to get away. He jumped on a jet to the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland. Remember, that’s where Senator John Kerry called the USA a pariah to the civilized world?

Then they fit in some skiing at one of the ritziest resorts in the world.

What began as a casual chat ended in a fascinating glimpse into Sulzberger’s world, and how he sees the future of the news business.

By Eytan Avriel of Haaretz.com

Given the constant erosion of the printed press, do you see the New York Times still being printed in five years?

“I really don’t know whether we’ll be printing the Times in five years, and you know what? I don’t care either,” he says.

Sulzberger is focusing on how to best manage the transition from print to Internet.

“The Internet is a wonderful place to be, and we’re leading there,” he points out.

The Times, in fact, has doubled its online readership to 1.5 million a day to go along with its 1.1 million subscribers for the print edition.

Sulzberger says the New York Times is on a journey that will conclude the day the company decides to stop printing the paper. That will mark the end of the transition. It’s a long journey, and there will be bumps on the road, says the man at the driving wheel, but he doesn’t see a black void ahead.

Asked if local papers have a future, Sulzberger points out that the New York Times is not a local paper, but rather a national one based in New York that enjoys more readers from outside, than within, the city.

Classifieds have long been a major source of income to the press, but the business is moving to the Internet.

Sulzberger agrees, but what papers lose, Web sites gain. Media groups can develop their online advertising business, he explains. Also, because Internet advertising doesn’t involve paper, ink and distribution, companies can earn the same amount of money even if it receives less advertising revenue.

Really? What about the costs of development and computerization?

“These costs aren’t anywhere near what print costs,” Sulzberger says. “The last time we made a major investment in print, it cost no less than $1 billion. Site development costs don’t grow to that magnitude.”

The New York Times recently merged its print and online news desks. Did it go smoothly, or were there ruffled feathers? Which team is leading the way today?

“You know what a newspaper’s news desk is like? It’s like the emergency room at a hospital, or an office in the military. Both organizations are very goal-oriented, and both are very hard to change,” Sulzberger says.

Once change begins, it happens quickly, so the transition was difficult, he says. “But once the journalists grasped the concept, they flipped and embraced it, and supported the move.” That included veteran managers, too.

How are you preparing for changes to the paper that are dictated by the Internet?

“We live in the Internet world. We have, for example, five people working in a special development unit whose only job is to initiate and develop things related to the electronic world – Internet, cellular, whatever comes.

The average age of readers of the New York Times print edition is 42, Sulzberger says, and that hasn’t changed in 10 years. The average age of readers of its Internet edition is 37, which shows that the group is also managing to recruit young readers for both the printed version and Web site.

Also, the Times signed a deal with Microsoft to distribute the paper through a software program called Times Reader, Sulzberger says. The software enables users to conveniently read the paper on screens, mainly laptops. “I very much believe that the experience of reading a paper can be transfered to these new devices.”

Will it be free?

No, Sulzberger says. If you want to read the New York Times online, you will have to pay.

In the age of bloggers, what is the future of online newspapers and the profession in general? There are millions of bloggers out there, and if the Times forgets who and what they are, it will lose the war, and rightly so, according to Sulzberger. “We are curators, curators of news. People don’t click onto the New York Times to read blogs. They want reliable news that they can trust,” he says.

“We aren’t ignoring what’s happening. We understand that the newspaper is not the focal point of city life as it was 10 years ago.

“Once upon a time, people had to read the paper to find out what was going on in theater. Today there are hundreds of forums and sites with that information,” he says. “But the paper can integrate material from bloggers and external writers. We need to be part of that community and to have dialogue with the online world.”

And while on community, the scandal about Jayson Blair, the reporter caught plagiarizing and fabricating, hurt the brand, not the business, he says. Blair was forced to quit in May 2003.

You’re one of the few papers that continues to print on broadsheet, which people consider to be too big and clumsy. Until when?

“Until when? The New York Times has no intention of changing that,” Sulzberger promises. At any rate, transitioning from broadsheet to tabloid would be prohibitively expensive, he says.

If you own any of those secondary NY Times stocks, I think it’s time to sell.

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.

What the MSM makes sure you don’t read in your Sunday newspaper

By Mick Gregory

The progressive liberal desk editors have been hard at work keeping certain stories out of the well-read Sunday papers. For example, some news broke on Friday on Hannity’s radio show that Nancy Pelosi’s rush to raise the Federal minimum wage with one big exemption, that of Del Monte’s U.S. Samoa tuna factory, it was cut out of the wage hike. By next week, it will be “old” news.

The perverted teenage boy kidnapper was caught on Friday, and jailed. Police charged Michael Devlin, 41, a pizza shop worker who moonlights at a funeral home, with one count of kidnapping. (Wondering about that funny tasting sausage and mushroom?) Two boys kidnapped four years and 40 miles apart. Not a word on what Devlin wanted with the boys.

But the New York Post reports that Devlin had child porn on his computers. Thanks for sparing us the gay, pedophile details. But is this another white wash by the PC, liberal press?

Also on Friday, the federal deficit has improved significantly in the first three months of the new budget year, helped by a continued surge in tax revenues.

In its monthly budget report, the Treasury Department said Friday that the deficit from October through December totaled $80.4 billion, the smallest imbalance for the first three months of a budget year since The budget year ends Sept. 30.

Tax collections are running 8.2 percent higher than a year ago while government spending is up by just 0.7 percent from a year ago. Last year’s spending totals were boosted by significant payments to help the victims of the Gulf Coast hurricanes.

The Treasury said for December, the government actually ran a surplus of $44.5 billion, the largest surplus ever recorded in December and a gain that reflected a big jump in quarterly corporate tax payments.

The $80.4 billion deficit for the first three months of the current budget year was down 32.6 percent from the imbalance for the same period a year ago of $119.4 billion.

Then no mention of icicles forming on snow covered, tiny Prius hybrids in California and Texas, nor of the billions lost in citrus crops. Where is Al Gore and the Democrat Progressives rants about global warming?

Guess who is coming to dinner? The Nancy Pelosi $1000 a plate dinner?

Will your 67 year old grandmother be able to have the facelifts and eye lifts that Nancy Pelosi did on Mediacare?

“‘This old woman is quite prejudiced toward China. Therefore, (she) may bring some dissonance to Sino-U.S. relations,’ Professor Jin said.”

Actually, I hope my grandmother can afford a better plastic surgeon. Pelosi’s face now looks like the Joker played by Jack Nicholson. She must sleep with her eyes open.

Are any union bosses and other lobbyists coming to the dinner tonight? Will Nancy Pelosi‘s high-end Piati restaurants be the official caterers? Which Napa Valley wines will be served? Will the Rev Jesse Jackson be at the table? How about Cindy Sheehan? Will the servers be union? Will the women wear burkes? Imagine how much Nancy Pelosi could have saved on face lifts if she wore a burke.

Speaking of Democrat Progressives, this would be a good time to show you the progressive income tax mirroring socialist systems in France and Germany.

The Top 1% Pay 35%

Maybe our liberal friends are onto something. They keep saying the rich should pay more taxes, and it turns out the rich already are! That’s one of the valuable lessons from the IRS’s annual study of income tax data, just released for 2004.

Americans who earned more than $1 million in adjusted gross income paid $178 billion, or an average of $740,000 per filer, in income taxes in 2004. That’s up about one-third from 2002, the year before the Bush tax cuts in marginal income-tax and dividend and capital gains rates. The wealthiest 1% of tax filers paid a remarkable 35% of all individual income-tax payments that year.

Here’s a way to think of the distribution of current income-tax payments: Imagine Nancy Pelosi’s banquet attended by 100 random Americans. If the bill for the meal is distributed like the income tax, the richest person in the room is required to pay one-third of the tab (that would be George Soros) — or more than all 50 attendees with a below-average income. The three richest people are charged as much as the other 97. And the 30 or so lowest-income people in the room — those with a family income of $30,000 or less — pay nothing and eat for free.

The Earned Income Credit, actually allows 30 lowest-income people get paid to eat, thanks to the rest of the people in the room.

Social Security, contrary to Mainstream Media reports, is a “progressive” setup too. In its case, the more you make, the less you get in retirement benefits compared to what you earned while you were working.

And the new Democrats in Congress want to make income taxes and social security even more progressive.

“According to China Daily, Jin Rong-can, a professor at the International Relations Institute of the People’s University of China, pointed out that although the House’s influence on diplomatic policies is actually limited, Sino-U.S. relations will be affected if the democratic party controls the house following the midterm election.”

“‘This old woman is quite prejudiced toward China. Therefore, (she) may bring some dissonance to Sino-U.S. relations,’ (professor) Jin said.”

“Zhang Guoqing, associate investigator at the American Institute of National Academy of Social Science, concurs: ‘The Democratic Party cares more about domestic issues. It will protect the mid- and small U.S. enterprises and American labor’s interests, and thus will have some impact on trade relations between China and the United States.”