“For years, journalists participating in the lockups have shown up at DOL at the appointed time, then entered a limited-access area to receive the new data and prepare news stories for release as soon as official embargoes end.

The system insures that major news organizations get the data as soon as possible and allows journalists covering the release get a jump on providing analyses and opinion about the data.

But Carl Fillichio, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis’ top communications advisor, circulated a memo earlier this week to interested media informing them that everybody is being required to re-submit their credentials requests.

He also offered a one-sentence assurance that ‘the department will not consider editorial or political viewpoints in making credentialing decisions.’“

Bullshit!  Don’t believe for a minute that a politically-appointed member of the Obama Administration won’t consider “editorial or political viewpoints in making credentialing decisions.” because that is precisely what they will do.  It is the entire purpose of the new plan.  The number of slots is limited.  They will use that to give an edge to those news organizations which favor them.  Granted, that is most news organizations already, but still…  They already do this with favorable treatment during press conferences.  If you don’t toe the line you’re out.

This is a Presidential election year.  Obama is desperate to keep his job.  One of his primary problems with re-election is the miserable state of employment.  Spinning employment statistics is critical and the first news releases are the ones remembered.  This sounds exactly like a scheme Rahm would come up with to make it sound like Obama is doing well, when in fact, the number of unemployed is disgraceful.  And the groups with the highest unemployment are Obama’s political base.  So basically the message he will send to his supporters through his favored news agencies is that everything is wonderful and if they don’t have jobs, its only a matter of a short time before they will.

Mark Davis is another matter altogether.  Davis has the ability to go National.  He frequently filled in for Rush Limbaugh, had guests of National stature and hosted a very high quality show.  I will miss Mark Davis if his absence is permanent in Dallas.

It is my understanding that KLIF and WBAP are “sister” stations.  That sounds like it means they are commonly owned.  And that makes me think the coincidence of both Davis and Bolton being off the air is no coincidence.  If that’s true, it sounds like the bean-counters are at it again.  Management decisions being made by people who have never participated (from behind the microphone) in the success of a radio station. Bolton, Davis and Ingraham had loyal followers.  Where do you suppose the loyal followers are going to go now?  Someplace where they get what they want, that’s where!  In the case of KLIF they will almost all go away.  In the case of WBAP, some will settle for the new guy.  But, the moment a dynamic new host of Mark Davis’ calibre comes along they will leave WBAP for that new guy.

In the cases of Mark Davis and Laura Ingraham, the decision will certainly end up costing them much more than they think they will save.  I imagine that the payment for syndicated programming (like the Rush Limbaugh and Laura Ingraham shows) is predicated on building listenership to local advertising sold on the station.  Drive down the listenership with sub-par programming and you automatically drive down the revenue you recieve from your own advertisements.  Short term, that might seem to make sense, but ultimately it’s a death spiral.  I guess in the case of Laura Ingraham it was cheaper to drop her and replace her with Chris Krok – for the time being.  In the case of Mark Davis it just seems stupid to me to replace a high-quality, highly popular, rising star with someone who is not of the same calibre.

I might be all wet in my analysis.  I have no real idea how a profitable radio station is run.  Maybe these decisions are good ones.  On the other hand, maybe they’re not.  I guess time will tell.  But if the decisions made are bad ones, the cost of regaining the lost audience will be great.  And believe me, all the decisions cited will result in lost listeners.  If the replacements were of the quality that would add listeners to make up for the lost ones, then it might make sense – but they are not.

There are many, many videos on the net of President Obama telling ACORN leaders that they will have a “seat at the table”.  Couple that with the fact that he actually worked with them and you have a real “game-changer” as Obama would say.  My guess is the the White House staff is working full-time, to the exclusion of EVERYTHING else to find a way to spin what Obama has said and to distance him from this bunch of lying, cheating miscreants.

He, through his solid connections to ACORN, is now tainted with tax evasion, slavery, prostitution, gaming the system, fraud, voter fraud(they’re currently being investigated in about 14 states), and who knows what else.  How is he going to get out of this one?  Claim he didn’t know?  Too late, he’s already used that “get out of jail free” care with Jeremiah Wright.  No one believed him then, and trying to pull that again will only certify him as a liar.  His only real choice is to throw them under the bus like he did with Van Jones and Wright.  However, they don’t seem like the types to go quietly.  And, there you have the Obama conundrum.

What to do?  What to do?  Well obviously he has to distance himself from them somehow.  And then, I predict, the whole thing will become yet another “distraction” from obamacare formulated by the Republicans (code for whites).  This is going to turn into a huge oboner.

When Republicans were waving copies of their healthcare proposals in the air, he should have stopped his speech, pointed at one of them and asked the congressman to bring it up and give it to him.  Or, he could have sent someone to fetch it.  In either case he would have been seen literally asking for the plan.  If it had turned out to be a prop he could have exposed it right there.  If it was an actual plan he could have promised to read it and incorporate any good ideas.

He blew his chance because the thought of reading proposals from Republicans never occurred to him. He’s not really interested in what Republicans or Conservatives have to say.  He’s not really interested in the specifics of a healthcare bill.  He is only interested in passing something identified as healthcare reform with his name on it.  That’s it.

He has gotten himself to a critical juncture in his career and is now scrambling to have any credibility at all.  He has hyped this issue to the max and cannot let it go away – if it does, so does his presidency.  So his only solution is to get something called Healthcare Reform passed by an increasingly contentious and polarized congress.  They could label a McDonald’s menu as The Healthcare Reform Bill and as long as it is called Healthcare Reform he will be happy.  He can spout all he wants to about what he’ll sign or not, but my money is on his signature no matter what is contained in the bill.

Presidential aides have promised Obama will take back the reins after allowing Congress to work its will on his idea, without one specific plan for Democratic lawmakers to defend back home. We’re entering a new season,” senior adviser David Axelrod said in an interview Tuesday. “It’s time to synthesize and harmonize these strands and get this done. We’re confident that we can do that. But obviously it is a different phase. We’re going to approach it in a different way. The president is going to be very active.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/26700.html#ixzz0Q26QqLTu From Politico, read more here..

If he lays out specific plans, he has no wriggle room. If it doesn’t pass It is his huge oboner. He owns it. This doesn’t seem like his normal strategy so I think its unlikely he’ll lay our specific plans without a lot of wriggle room. If he chooses this route the “plans” will seem specific but leave all his options for denial or taking the credit in place while leaving it up to Congress to compromise the bill to such an extent that none of them will survive the wrath of the voters.

If he “urges” Congress to get the job done it will be seen as weak by his constituents because they believe he has the power to do anything and will see this as going back on, or not fulfilling, a campaign promise. Congress will see it for what it is – a lame attempt to set Congress up for the fall when it doesn’t pass while immediately taking credit for it if it does. And reserving the option of wriggling, if after passing it, all goes bad.

This is a risky, desperate move. For his political career it has the potential to be the “mother of all oboners” until now and could lameduckize the balance of his presidency. It also has the potential to take down Pelosi and if you think she doesn’t see that…

If he was thinking smart rather than arrogant he’d sit quietly right now let Congress take the fall.

• Current Massachusetts law prohibits the governor from appointing a replacement. Ironically it was Kennedy himself who instigated the change while Mitt Romney was governor in order to prevent Romney from appointing a replacement in the event that Kerry won the 2008 Presidential Nomination. Kennedy recently sent a letter urging a change back so that Deval Patrick, the current governor, would be able to appoint Kennedy’s replacement if he died in office. Pretty hypocritical, but that’s politics.
• This issue is very hot and one vote really counts. So much so that the senate is considering the very slippery manuever of reconciliation in order to get around the possibility that the peoples elected Republican Senators and a few “blue dog” democrats might be successful in defeating it.
• The summer recess has demonstrated clearly that an awful lot of vociferous voters are adamantly opposed to obamacare and self-serving politicians want nothing more than to keep there seats and stay in positions of power, influence and free lunches from lobbyists.
• Senator Kennedy was a champion for national healthcare. In fact, you could say he was the face of healthcare. Without his indefatigable support and tremendous political influence some senators who might otherwise have reluctantly been on board with it may waiver in their support.

Logically, to me anyway, the above factors put an end (for now) to obamacare. Lets watch and see if I’m correct.

Asked about the importance of bipartisan support for a bill in which divisions between the parties are only growing deeper, Gibbs said:

“The president is going to evaluate ultimately any piece of legislation as to whether it meets his goals and principles for health-care reform… The president’s goal is not to print a banner and sign a bill just so somebody can say we’ve reformed health care.”

From the Chicago Tribune

Bullshit.  The banners, t-shirts and bumper stickers are probaly already at the printer.  This is exactly what he is going to do.  AND it is a classic example of doublespeak on the part of the administration.  Ironically it’s happening right in the middle of Obama’s emphasis and focus on “myth, lies and disinformation”.  Evidently his administration will stoop to any level to accomplish their goals.  Really, it’s shameful.

If a healthcare bill passes at all (which is increasingly unlikely) Obama will take credit for acting on a campaign promise while passing the buck to Congress for “watering it down”.

Talk about being “wee-weed up”.  Recently the bill was referred to as Obama’s Waterloo.  It just may be.

]]> http://chuck-thompson.com/2009/08/that-is-exactly-his-intention/feed/ 0