Mr. Ethics Reform

Jim Lindgren of The Volokhs remembers the days when the press actually vetted the candidates and not the people who questioned them:

I was stunned to see some document showing Joe the Plumbers' tax problems on my 10pm (CT)newscast on the local NBC affiliate in Chicago on Thursday night. They have very little time for any national news and they actually spent time on Joe the Plumbers' tax problems. Amazing!

But when an actual candidate — Barack Obama — released his tax returns, which on their face seemed to show an ethics violation of Illinois law, the press couldn't care less.

Just to remind you, Illinois prohibits state legislators from taking speaking fees, and Barack reported "speaking fees.":

He explains in detail and concludes wistfully:

I really don't blame Obama for not addressing this; he released his tax returns after all. The problem is the press, which seems to be having more trouble than usual doing its job this season.

Yes, but - what about Fox News?  Where has the WSJ been on this?  Rush?  Geez, for what kind of Right Wing Noise Machine am I toiling, anyway?

And let me add a "Things I Would Like To Doublecheck" caveat here - if Obama donated his speaking fees to charity (possible!) how would they be reported?  If the check went straight to the charity from the payer, Obama would show nothing on his tax return.  But if Obama cashed the check then wrote an equal check to charity, that might comply with Illinois ethics rules and explain the tax reporting.

POWER OF GOOGLE: It will surely change and I am not taking a screen shot but right now this Google search -"Barack Obama" "speaking fees" - turns up this March post from Jim Lindgren, a Patriot Files link to Lindgren, and a lot of coverage of speaking fees received by Rudy Giuliani and Bill Clinton.

Our watchdog media.  Great job on Joe the Plumber though.

WASTED PIXELS:

TO:  [email protected]

Dear Mr. Hoyt;

Great job reporting the news that Joe the Plumber has tax liens.  Shouldn't the Times follow with something dismissive about (a) the tax liens on the treasurer of Obama's campaign, and (b) Obama's apparent ethics violation in reporting speaking fees fon his 2000 and 2002 tax returns that are barred by Illinois State ethics laws that apply to state legislators?

The NY Times search is quite bare on that coverage as of now.

That does not even make me feel better.  Would Nov. 5 be a good day to cancel my subscription?  I only hesitate because that will be the day they begin to turn on Obama in disillusionment and pent-up frustration.

Comments

[clarice Plumber]

I hopethe tax lines you caught this before you sent it
**the tax lines [leins]***

(Warned you, it's catching.)

[clarice plumber]

Wish there were some way to be sure the M/P campaign got this though--it would make a stunning one liner..

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Well, I'm not sure it made me feel any better either, but I just sent this:

Sir --

I am writing to protest the treatment "Joe the Plumber" has received from the new York Times.

This is a poor schmuck who had the temerity to embarrass Senator Obama after the Senator chose to chat with him on a campaign appearance. his treatment at the hands of the press since then, including the New York Times, has been nothing short of despicable. For his crimes, the poor man has had his tax issues, his divorce, and his employment questioned in your paper. (Ref: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/17/us/politics/17joe.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=joe%20the%20plumber&st=cse&oref=slogin)

At the same time, Obama Campaign officials with larger tax liens seem to have avoided this scrutiny. (Ref: http://webofdeception.com/nesbitt.html)

Frankly, I've more or less given up on the notion that the New York Times, once the example of journalistic probity, could be expected to show impartiality or even basic honesty in its treatment of the candidates, but this investigation of a mere bystander who happened to ask an uncomfortable question is a low to which I had never before imagined the Times could sink.

Sincerely

Charles R (Charlie) Martin

[Rick Ballard]

"Would Nov. 5 be a good day to cancel my subscription?"

Every day is a good day to cancel an NYT subscription. That's been true for seventy years and will remain true until it's sold or goes broke. It's almost there and some good analysis of S&P and Moody's lackadaisical approach to cutting NYT debt to pure junk (which it is) might help. The consolidation in banking and reductions in staff at hedge funds are going to have an impact on Manhattan real estate. Will it take the value of Pinch's Folly dropping below the mortgage amount for S&P and Moody's to do their job?

[Charlie (Colorado)]

By the way, Weekly Standard has a good piece on Noonan et al.

[clarice plumber]

Speaking of which, Rick...
Yesterday while waiting on an errand I picked up one of those slick mags ubiquitous in recent years in all rich coastal enclaves. You know--full of celeb parties for charity, ads for the most expensive baubles, restaurants, spas and frivolities, interspersed with editorials and articles backing The One.
It occurred to me that if The One gets in the advertisers will surely suffer and these mags will go broke. (A silver lining to everything.)

Today the Business section of the WaPo takes note of the struggling high end retailers with the news that the belief that the high end never suffers appears to have been wrong..Retailers of luxury goods have been hit hard and fast...Maybe we'll start to find shoe repair and such in retail areas again where now there are only blocks of Vuitton, Fendi and Choo establishments.

[PeterUK]

"Charles R (Charlie) Martin".

Hmmmmmm! Middle name start with a R. Why is he hiding it,does it stand for REPUBLICAN.
Caught out Mr "Charles,so called R ( Charlie)
Martin".

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Actually it's Robert, but you tempt me to change it.

[Jor]

TM -- David Brooks is writing love poems to Obama as editorial opinion pieces. You basically said almost the same thing a couple weeks ago. Face it -- for all the nit-picks you've tireless investigated -- Obama is by far the best man for the job.

I know this might be personally painful for you. But face it, the republicans need whole-sale defeat -- across the board -- to institute the internal reforms they need.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Jor, if there's anything that I've ever seen to serve as an absolute paradigm of "disingenuous", it would have to be your "for their own good" argument above.

[centralcal]

Clarice: I don't know about luxury goods, but NBCU is cutting $500 million from it budget and TV Guide sold for $1 to an equity group who assumed its substantial liabilities, so there is always hope that NY Times will eventually tank too.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

TV Guide sold for $1 to an equity group who assumed its substantial liabilities

Didn't Walter Annenberg sell it originally for $1 BILLION?

[Rick Ballard]

Clarice,

Sooner or later business reporters are going to figure out what the consolidation of the 14 largest financial institutions into 8 (even bigger) institutions means wrt employment in finance. Toss in the reduction in the number of hedge funds and there are going to be a heck of a lot of people who have enjoyed six figure pay checks for years who won't be able to find jobs at anywhere near their current pay - if they can find a job at all.

Walmart and Costco will be seeing some new faces and Vuitton, Fendi and Choo are going to be very uncrowded for a bit.

[clarice plumber]

For at least three years my husband and I have been marveling about the weekly opening of ever more fancy restaurants, shops and spas here. D.C. has become like the best sections of Beverly Hills but on a scale (given our size) that seemed unsustainable..and I bet it is. Now, multiply this my NYC and its tonier suburbs, LA,SF and its richer sisters (like Montecito and Santa Barbara), Miami, Dallas, etc..and the flood of luxury goods hitting the downstream will soon be remarkable. I walked into Saks Fifth Ave and popped into the fancy handbag dept and the sales clerk practically tackled me to tell me that everything was (already) 20% off.

It's going to look like 1980 in Rome where the dollar was so strong, the deals were exceptional.

[clarice plumber]

**multiply this By NYC and **

[Antimedia]

What makes anyone think that the collapse of the NYT (for example) would be a good thing? Look around you. Almost all of the enormously wealthy are Democrats (Soros, Buffet, Gates, etc., etc.) One of them will buy it and make it even worse.

[clarice plumber]

Now that's an impossibility, antimedia. As bad--maybe--worse--can't be done.

[bad]

Antimedia

Obama could bail it out and make it the state newspaper. Pravda-ish...

[centralcal]

Antimedia: I am with Clarice and bad on the NY Times potential demise and bailout.

Hey, soon it will be the death knell of AP too (or as Rush calls it APObama). Tribune alreday gave them notice, others will soon follow suit. BUT, the Obama Newsletter - the Politico - is saying how it is going to take AP's place. The liberals in the media are like ants - you never get rid of all of them.

[PeterUK]

Robert the Republican eh?

[PeterUK]

Rick,We really need a SCAM board meeting,we simply cannot have Clarice wearing Walmart shoes.

[clarice plumber]

Don't worry,PUK, I'm just stuffing a little cardboard into the soles of my Chanels and Louboutins.*sniff* I'll make it through somehow.

[Pofarmer]

What kind of a business model exists where TV frickin Guide has substantial liabilities?

[Plumber's Pal]

The dry cleaning business is in the tank out here. My d-i-l has gone from working 12 hours a day, 6 days a week and still being behind, to working 6 1/2 hour days, 5 days a week and sitting around with nothing to do half that time. She says if it weren't for the large numbers of military personnel in the area, they wouldn't have any business at all.

[Plumber's Pal]

Rick,We really need a SCAM board meeting,we simply cannot have Clarice wearing Walmart shoes.

Every time we went somewhere, my friend would say, "you have the cutest Summer clothes." When I told her that the tops and shorts she was complimenting were on sale at K-Mart at 2 for $9, she got all huffy and said, "she wouldn't be caught dead in K-Mart clothes." Didn't matter that she really loved what I had on once she found out I hadn't bought them in a fancy store.

[narciso]

Paula Throckmorton, seriously, tell me that's not her real name; wasn't that the name of the officious veep in the Thornton Wilder play. You would think someone who eluded campaign finance reform requirements so as to be able to receive contributions from the 'qwerty slams' would raise some interest and even consternation from the Times. You'd be wrong,

First of all Cindy Hensley McCain's is from San Diego, and Arizona not D.C. that where most of her seven properties are located. Second of all, there is no second of all;
"is everyone here on crazy pills". not at JOM or Ace or Tim Blair, but in the wider community. Obama calls for a special prosecutor, to go after those who would enforce the laws against voter fraud. He ignores his greatest contributors who were at the heart of the subprime debacle; from
Bearn Stearns to Wachovia. He was so concerned that he wrote a letter, back when everything fell apart. He was 'initiated' into Chicago politics by a Marxistterrorist,
midwifed by a loopy fellow travelling state rep, and his looney preacher. His loopy wife received a raise directly through
a sinecure directed at the local hospital. He is endorsed by every enemy of America on five, six continents, (the Antartica liberation front's check bounced)FARC, Hamas,Putin,Chavez, Al Zawahiri couldn't ask for a better candidate. He opposes all energy exploration, yet he supported subsidies for oil companies not to drill.
He and Biden supported the "bridge to nowhere", over the needs of the suffering citizens of N. Orleans. He's on record for funding the anti gun strategy that lost out in Heller. Opposes aggresive police anti-crime tactics, like those championed by Guiliani, We'll leave out the Herod act for now,

Yet McCain is the freak, because he put his reputation on the line, and even sent his son, to make sure the surge succeeded. Because he married into money; apparently not the daughter of a Luftwaffe ace, Mozambiquan heir to a Ketchup heir; whose foundation is tied to Acorn, and provides bandwith to Islamist and anarchist groups.
He has the sterling track record of reform, that has ticked off the Mark Hannas of our day; Norquist and Rove.

Sarah is the odd ball, because she's not wracked with anguish over the "fact" that "we use a quarter of the world's resources," or the idea that either the arctic ice sheet, or the polar bear is going away soon. She believes in the fight
against Jihadism, without reservations. knows our energy resources are a key to establishing a strong economy. Doesn't think
Czar Putin's 'sawdust caesar' routines should be encouraged any further. And yes she does believe in the right to bear arms, whether against grizzlies, grifters or apparently greedy government agents

[clarice plumber]

PP, Part of that is not the economny, I think so much as it is a change inthe way we dress. Americans wear far more casual clothing (esp in California!) and more of it is washable.

Other changes--there was an enormous watch sale (like 80-90% off) on Amazon a couple of weeks ago which Instapundit noted. One of his readers guessed that the watch market is bad now because younger people all have cell phones and never wear them anymore.

[clarice plumber]

narciso, I adore your last post. First of all I get all the references this time, and second, I am in total agreement. Do you suppose two people could be having the identical bad dream?

[Plumber's Pal]

PP, Part of that is not the economny, I think so much as it is a change inthe way we dress. Americans wear far more casual clothing (esp in California!) and more of it is washable.

That was what I thought 5 years ago, but as it turns out, the dry cleaning business has been very lucrative out here until the last couple of months. I don't understand it either, since one of the big draws of this type of climate is not having to wear clothes that need to be dry cleaned, but apparently there is still a large part of the working population that uses them, even for their lightweight clothes. The 3 stores that Penny manages had more business than they could handle until recently. Now it is dead, except for those who wear uniforms daily. And there used to be up to a 3 week wait on alterations, now Miss Tran can do them while you wait.

[centralcal]

Bravo! Narcisso! For once I got through an entire comment of yours and now wish I had not scrolled on by so many others.

I agree with your vehemence and your remarks.

[centralcal]

Yeah, California is pretty much a warm climate for much of the year, but here in the central valley, home of the tule fogs, it gets mighty cold and damp during the winter. I am sure dry cleaners - well clean up - during those months from November to mid-February or so.

Also, businessmen and women here are like everywhere else. Professionals dress professionally - lotsa suits - and all those need dry cleaning.

However, Sara, I would expect the volume to fall off during the heat wave months, somewhat. Do you think that is part of what your DIL is experiencing?

[centralcal]

Also, Sara, I think if business fell off the last couple of months, it could have been due to the rising cost of gasoline at the time. No?

[Plumber's Pal]

Centracal: You would think the warm months would see a drop off, as I would, but not so much, at least not at Alta Cleaners. What amazes me is how many people bring in clothes and then never pick them up. I have several really nice dresses and pants suits that have come my way because no one ever picked them up. My son wears a beautiful suede jacket that I know had to cost over $1000 new and no one picked it up. At Alta, they hold the clothes 6 months to a year, rather than the standard 90 days. And you would be amazed at the number of memory sticks I've accumulated that end up rolling around loose in the dry cleaning machine, and watches too.

Alta also has a laundry service. Penny says about 95% of the customers for that service are guys and they even bring in their underwear to be washed and pressed. Makes me shudder at how much money people spend in order to avoid doing the menial labor themselves.

[Plumber's Pal]

Here is an example. Last month they had 11 pressers. Now they are down to 2 handling all the work from 3 locations. I think it has more to do with the drop off in the real estate business, since many of the customers were agents or loan people. But that is just a guess.

[DrJ]

And you would be amazed at the number of memory sticks I've accumulated that end up rolling around loose in the dry cleaning machine, and watches too.

That's very true. I lived across the street from a dry cleaner when I lived in Phoenix, and I used them for my slacks and pressed-starched shirts.

In any event, I acquired a number of Mont Blanc pens from that cleaner. They just appeared, and no customer claimed them. So after a while the owner just gave them to me. She knew I liked them.

[narciso]

How is it Noonan, or Fairleigh Dickinson doesn't get (three guesses, the first two don't count), she of the narrative spin,was trapped up in her own. Brooks of the U Chicago; Bloom seems to have taught him nothing, he really did think the bobo's were unpolitical. Hitchens, was the most dissapointing of them all; selling out the country for a mess of pottage, hope he likes hanging with Sidney Blumenthal again; although I suggest he drive this time. In this neck of the woods, my local paper, has
an onbudsman piece; arguing that the coverage against McCain/Palin was unbiased.
Much like that comment by Mary McCarthy about Lillian Hellman 'everything but the
'the' was false' Except for the headlines,
the details and the exculpatory material at the end on the inset page. Leonard Pitts-Garnell argues of the pall of fear, that America lives under due to wait for it. . .
Bush and Cheney, not AQ. There was more idiocy by Carl Hiassen. but I couldn't take it. and the entertainment section had a fawning interview with Oliver Stone about his new piece of slander. Oh and the front page is about the upcoming recession, depression, buy up your guns and canned food.

[centralcal]

Well, dry cleaners, Starbucks, what next? Whole Foods? Arugula?

Hey, maybe Obama's time has passed!

[clarice plumber]

Peggy's an alum of fairly ridiculous? HEH.. I think her last salvo will cost her dearly. I noticed on Lucianne at last count it had inspired three threads and they weren't full of praise for her.

[Luc]

I do not understand why most refer to JtP question as embarrassing. His question was NOT embarrassing, actually it was quite simple and reasonable! Obama's answer proved to be embarrassing to Obama and the Democratic Party!!

[jimrhoads aka vnjagvet]

CaCo:

Thanks for linking that ws article. It is perceptive indeed. Henry James always sounded to me like the folks the author writes about. In the know, doncha know. Fashion arbiters (be they about politics, writing, apparel, music or drama) in NYC are quite stuck on themselves.

Narciso embellishes to great effect as well. Kudos. Especially about Ackroyd's Pitts(Pinth)-Garnell. We'll see how Sarah handles that tonight.

[jimrhoads aka vnjagvet]

ChaCo not CaCo

[Kevin Murphy]

Some day, hopefully soon, politicians will be judged by the day they canceled their NY Times subscription.

Or to quote an opponent of an earlier McCarthyism:

"Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator.... You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"

[jimmyk]

Meanwhile the AP has this bit of "analysis" of the ACORN voter fraud allegations. Aside from brief descriptions of the Republican and Democrat contentions, the article provides one source after another making light of the allegations. The "objective" sources:

1. "This is all just one big head-fake," said Tova Wang of the government watchdog group Common Cause.

2. ACORN spokesman Brian Kettenring retaliated this week in a series of conference calls and interviews. "What we're seeing is the manufacture of a crisis, and attempts to smear Sen. Obama with it."

3. Alex Keyssar, a professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, calls the current controversy "chapter 22 in a drama that's been going on awhile. The pattern is that nothing much ever comes from this. There have been no known cases of people voting fraudulently."

I guess the reporter just could not find a single source outside the Republican party who thinks the charges have some validity. And this Kennedy School professor seems unaware, for example, of all the acknowledged and documented fraudulent voting by felons in Florida the last two elections.

[Ann hearts Joe Plumber]

Just a reminder: Joe the Plumber will be on Huckabee's new show on Fox at 8pm tonight.

Narciso, I love reading your posts. If I don't have to Google something you have written I feel really smart. By the way, that is why I named you our JOM Island Prof. last night. Hope you took that as a compliment, it was. :)

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Tom, we dun bin Instalinked.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

I do not understand why most refer to JtP question as embarrassing. His question was NOT embarrassing, actually it was quite simple and reasonable! Obama's answer proved to be embarrassing to Obama and the Democratic Party!!

Luc, it's embarrassing because it led to a Kinsley Gaffe of the second kind: it led to Obama accidentally telling us what he really thinks.

(The Wiki article doesn't mention the Kinsley Gaffe of the first kind: when a politician slips and says something obviously stupid and insulting. This is also known as "pulling a Biden.")

[Jane Plumber]

Does anyone know how the term "tanning bed media" came about? Somehow I missed that.

[Sue]

Jane,

I think it is referring to how much time they spent going after Palin for buying a tanning bed. It morphed into a JtP type analogy of the media chasing after everything but something that will hurt Obama.

[boris]

Sarah Palin bought a used tanning bed that was "exposed" for a scandal by the tanning bed media.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Because there was a Palin rumor all about how she OMG bought a used tanning bed. The HuffPo reported it saying "tanning beds cost as much as $35,000", which told me I need to get into the business of selling Arianna tanning beds, 'cause they cost about $2500 new everywhere I looked on Google.

[narciso]

It's become shorthand ever since the Jann Wenner media US Weekly, revealed this fact
as to obviate her good looks, allege some impropriety by her buying it with her own funds; not like Michelle Obama's 'piano lessons. And the fact that the state is in darkness six monthes of the year.It's the slightly humorous side of the Jessica Walterish type obsessions of Randi Rhodes,
Andrew Sullivan and Naomi Wolf. But it shows myopia at the Mr. Magoo level.

[Rick Ballard]

Plumber's Pal,

Thank you for the information on the dry cleaning business. That's a major sign of how bad the economy is doing in overbuilt (or overpriced) SoCal. TM mentioned a hope that housing would reflate and kick the economy into low but first he has to turn his economic wizardry to the slight problem concerning county supervisors loading all improvements into upfront developer fees which drive land cost to the point where developers can't build a 4:1 house because the developed lot gives a starting basis of 2:1.

I would imagine that hair salons and nail parlors are seeing a similar situation - once a week appointments are now once every 10 days on their way to once every two weeks. That will kill strip malls in short order.

All because Wall Street economic geniuses figured out how to bury the effect of poor performance by buyers whose credit history should have prevented them from ever buying. Just another in a mountain of well intentioned paving stones used to smooth the express lane to hell.

If an investment banker/economist can figure the way out of that particular two-blocked situation in SoCal then I would be pleased to suggest that his public whipping be ameliorated. I'm not holding my breath though.

[Jane Plumber]

I think it is referring to how much time they spent going after Palin for buying a tanning bed.

That is PERfect!

[Jane Plumber]

oops

[Plumber's Pal]

Saw him Ann. He looks good in a suit, but even better in those tight tee shirts he wears. Single Dad, just won custody of his son. Wonder how many marriage proposals he's getting or will be getting?

[Plumber's Pal]

Does anyone know how the term "tanning bed media" came about? Somehow I missed that.

I just saw it myself for the first time a couple days ago, but I forget where. I remember laughing when I read it. Although, I think the new thing is those spray on tans, a la John Kerry.

[Pagar]

The Real Barrack Obama Blogsite has several stories all surrounding the Whistle blower lawsuit which involves Obama's house/lot deal.
The Washington Times has it too.

"In the latest twist, we learn that, on October 16, 2008, Kenneth J. Conner — “now claiming whistleblower status” — who performed real estate and commercial credit analyst duties at Mutual Bank from May 1999 until involuntarily terminated October 23, 2007, filed a $4.2 million lawsuit for retaliatory discharge against Mutual Bank in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois.

LUN

It really amazes me that a lawyer who can't complete a single family house purchase with out the help of a convicted felon, is considered by some Americans to be capable of running our country.

[Plumber's Pal]

Oh, duh! I never thought of the Palin uproar over her tanning bed when I first read tanning bed media. I was thinking of the narcissistic media going for faux tans and Kerry's orange look after he got that spray on.

You guys are right, I'm sure.

[bad]

I wonder if Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn have as much contempt for Joe the Plumber as they had for Richard Elrod, the Chicago City employee injured during the Weather Underground's Days of Rage riots.

Here is the Weather Underground's song about Elrod, sung to the tune of Bob Dylan's Lay Lady Lay.

Lay Elrod Lay
Lay in the street awhile
Lay Elrod Lay
Stay in your bed for a while

You thought you could stop the Weatherman
But upfront people put you on your can

Stay Elrod Stay
Stay in your Iron Lung
Play Elrod Play
Play with your toes for awhile

For more information on the compassion and love for fellow man exhibited by Obama's friends and neighbors, check out the Link Under Name. (LUN)

[narciso]

That was actually a three point reference. Leonard Pitts, is one of those African American reporters, who made a splash denouncing Obama on Sept 12th; but now seems to think he had a point; by his latest columns; raving about American imperialism in Iraq, the crime of Katrina, yadda yadda. He also seems to have swallowed
the whole 'Sarah Palin is a book burning, polar bear shooting, state trooper abusing'
meme, hook, line and sinker. Pince Garnell was a theatre critic of really bad theatre, which once had Julian Bond, expound on his expertise about "Japanese fear film". At the time, as opposed to later when I saw the skit; he had been the early Georgia version of Barack Obama, articulate anti-war
activist and one time VP candidate for the Democrats; ironic in light of the Palin disdain for her executive experience. As Dennis Miller once ranted 'stop me before I subreference again"

[Mike G in Corvallis]

Every day is a good day to cancel an NYT subscription. That's been true for seventy years and will remain true until it's sold or goes broke. It's almost there and some good analysis of S&P and Moody's lackadaisical approach to cutting NYT debt to pure junk (which it is) might help.

Predictions about the media under an Obama presidency -- remember, you saw them here:

* If you think the media are in the tank now, just wait ...

* The supermajority Democratic Congress will reinstate the Fairness Doctrine. Te rationale will be to protect the public from Unfair Speech. Or maybe it'll be For The Children.

* The supermajority Democratic Congress will enact a strong "shield law" for journalists, ensuring that they will be even less accountable for what they publish than they are now. Of course, it will become necessary to determine who is "qualified" to be a "journalist" under this law, so a select cadre of reporters will become "Certified Journalists" (please don't say "licensed"!) and the shield laws will apply only to them. Evil, prejudiced, anti-American Rethuglikkkan critics will claim that they all seem to share a single point of view.

* Big-city newspapers will continue to decline in circulation and to lose money. Since the Foundation of Democracy is a Vigorous and Active Free Press, the Obama administration will enact a federal bailout of newspapers that Serve the Public Interest. The only ones that will qualify for the bailout will be Patriot newspapers -- those that comply with the Patriot Employer Act. Evil, prejudiced, anti-American Rethuglikkkan critics will claim that they all seem to share a single point of view.

* If you thought the media were in the tank at the beginning of the Obama presidency, just wait ...

[Rick Ballard]

Pagar,

Step back. What's amazing is that the FBI agents working with, if nor for, Patrick Fitzgerald, were gulled like first graders.

Fitz the Ferocious has become Felix the Fitz, a real pussy. Cat.

That suit turns Obama's first six months (should the worst come to pass) into a circus which will make Whitewater look like Moon River. Will HObama fire the Dem butt kissing Fitz out of the chute or will Fitz let it be known that his tummy has been rubbed enough for him to keep purring along?

Now, Andrew McCarthy? has assured us that Fitz is a fine, upstanding low life political whore Federal prosecutor, worthy of our respect and admiration. I'll be curious as to his reaction should Fitz furiously shovel kitty litter over this HObama stink.

[bad]

It really amazes me that a lawyer who can't complete a single family house purchase with out the help of a convicted felon, is considered by some Americans to be capable of running our country.

Pagar, don't be so meeeean....He was very young when he made the purchase and his only other help was Michelle.

[Plumber's Pal]

In any event, I acquired a number of Mont Blanc pens from that cleaner. They just appeared, and no customer claimed them. So after a while the owner just gave them to me. She knew I liked them.

DrJ: Pens are a really big item. Penny has brought home freezer bags full of them and some are very expensive. I have an 18 kt. gold Cross pen that I use every day that was in one of her bags. I looked it up in their catalog and it sells as part of a pen and pencil set for $2600.

My Mother always preferred a fountain pen, but I figured she was just old-fashioned. But in those bags, you could find a dozen fountain pens out of maybe a 100 pens.

We used to get lots of really nice lighters too. But not so much now that smokers are considered worse than terrorists in Calif.

[centralcal]

Aint't it the truth (thing Cowardly Lion, Wizard of Oz), Rick!

[centralcal]

Greta is on with "Obama - The Ties That Bind."

[Charlie (Colorado)]

The supermajority Democratic Congress will reinstate the Fairness Doctrine. Te rationale will be to protect the public from Unfair Speech. Or maybe it'll be For The Children.

This seems like a good time to mention the "Unfair Doctrine" Google Group and blog, both prompted by Steve Green's rant at Vodkapundit.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

I just want to mention that anyone who has those spare fountain pens can send them along to me....

[centralcal]

I think Greta is gonna do a really good job on this special. I hope everyone is watching. She has already started great.

[Plumber's Pal]

Rick: Alta is going to give it 'til the first of Nov. to see if things turn around. They've already told Penny they are planning on closing one store, so she'll only have 2 to worry about.

She has been with them since 2000, but she picked up an application the other day from one of the medical manufacturers in our area to see if she can get on their assembly line. She is worried about how much her hours have been cut back.

My son is both coaching and working security and he told me the other day that he thinks he may have to "go back to flipping cheese steaks" on the weekends to stretch their dollars while things are so slow for Penny.

[Plumber's Pal]

Charlie: I don't know if we threw them away or not, but I'll look and tell Penny to be on the look out too.

I never mastered the art of the fountain pen. I always ended up with ink all over my fingers and sooner or later on my clothes.

[Ann]

I'm watching Centralcal.

[Plumber's Pal]

LOL from Ace:

Breaking, Again: Senator John Kerry Leads By 10 in 13 Swing States with Just 16 Days to Go

[Rick Ballard]

Sara,

If everyone is renting, then I would suggest evaluation of TX, rather than SoCal. I have 8-10 years of grandpa duty left or I'd be on my way to the Hill Country today. I keep telling the kids that's where the future is but I haven't made the sale. Yet. SoCal has a nice climate but as things turn much cooler over the coming years, the Hill Country (which has never had a really bad climate anyway) will be more or less equal.

I've been watching state economies for a very long time and aside from the oil bust (which won't happen again), TX outperforms anywhere else. A nice place for the Second Secession to begin, as well.

'Cause some of us just aren't going to live by rules concocted by NE liberals who don't know their ass from six-bits.

[DrJ]

Sara,

I'm with Chaco: any good ones you want to "share", keep me in mind. I care less about whether it is a fountain, roller ball or traditional ink pen. I just enjoy good writing instruments.

The ones I got from the dry cleaner were of the garden-variety $150-$250 sort. Nothing like the your Cross.

[DrJ]

Rick,

I've thought about hill country in TX. NC too. While the part of CA in which I live is quite nice, the political climate derives from the Coastal areas, where the politics are, well, quite different.

[centralcal]

Ann: It's commercial break - they don't seem to be holding back on the ACORN connections. Next up is his relationship with Bill Ayers.

What do you think so far?

I'm thinking go Fox News!

[clarice plumber]

I think they're doing a great job.

[centralcal]

Greta has a tease for the next segment - the Rev. Wright.

[Ann]

They are making it very easy to understand the connections between Ayers, Obama, Acorn and Terrorists, etc.. Hope alot of people are watching but football is on tonight. There are also over 900 comments at Gretawire.foxnews.com. here

It sure can't hurt and Greta gets my two thumbs up.

[centralcal]

Ann: This is the crunch time in the campaign season, so the timing is good. I am sure they will replay it several times like they do all of their specials.

They were coy on the Wright issue - reminding us about what we know, just in case it was slipping from voters memory banks.

[Rick Ballard]

DrJ,

I've always found it a little ridiculous that retirement in AZ is focused on Phoenix/Mesa when Flagstaff beats the Valley all to pieces. The hill country in NC is actually more pleasant than the Hill Country in TX but not by much. It's interesting to me that people don't recognize that living on hills is much healthier than living on the flat, just as living in a two story house is healthier than living in a rambler.

The same goes for recognition that the fun in being a grandparent comes to an end when the youngest hit 12-13. They move on and your value diminishes (as a source for guidance) and is finished. You've either done your job or you haven't - hopefully you'll live to see whether you've had a positive impact but hanging on close through high school really doesn't affect outcomes.

[Plumber's Pal]

I've been looking for the right place to escape to since I was forced to return to CA in 1999. When I left in '84, I swore I'd never come back. But, my Mother's illness forced me back and now I feel trapped. It takes everything I have every month just to survive, so I can never get ahead enough to pay for a move.

I love the mountains of the East. Not so big on the western ranges with few trees. And I want to live somewhere that isn't in my business every time I turn around nor taxing me to death. But, I also don't want to live in the snow and ice belt and so far, I haven't found the perfect place of libertarians and low cost of living.

I can't find my vision right now. It was so much easier when I was young and saw myself first as Scarlet O'Hara sweeping into a roomful of adoring gentlemen in my beautiful ballgown. Later I thought it would be much more fun to be the Miss Kitty type in the dance hall/saloon. Then I went through my intelligentsia period where I saw myself hosting world-famous salons where the world's great minds came to "hang out" while I sat on my high-backed chair facilitating the exchange of ideas that would change the world. Then I went thru my Mountain Mama period where I wanted to run a camp store and boat and bait business where the locals all hung out around a pot belly stove and exchanged community gossip all day long. :)

Now I'm a broken down seasoned citizen who is really feeling her impotence as far as the world goes and is getting kind of scared of the future. I have nightmares of ending up a toothless old bag lady fighting anyone who tries to take my bag of alum. cans.

[centralcal]

oh gawd - now they have Geraldo - that scumbag and his gutter humor with a Palin wannabe doing sick satire.

[Jane Plumber]

Don't forget the Red Sox Ann!

[Ann]

Geraldo is an ass and I hope his fairly new wife is watching because I think he has a new girlfriend hmmmmmmm.

Jane, I can't find it on T.V. What is the score? Go Red Sox's for Jane.

[jimrhoads aka vnjagvet]

2-1 bottom of the fifth.

[Plumber's Pal]

Rick: I agree on the Grandkids, although I hadn't thought about like that before. Should have though. When the grandkids were here this Summer, the 2 year old made me feel loved and needed every morning when she'd wake me up, tell me she loved me, and then hurry me to get my bathing suit on and go swimming with her.

The 11 year old boy beginning to feel the testosterone, OTOH, was sullen, sulky, mouthy and tended to make me angry several times a day, even though I bit my tongue. Better to leave them with the loving grandma image than someone on their case all the time. And as I found out, what kids will say to their elders to day is a far cry from what was acceptable when I was growing up.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

We've talked off and on about the strange polling results. Here's DJ Drummond making a pretty plausible case that a lot of the polling models have gone wrong, and that the Gallup "traditional model" is likely closer to correct. As Drummond points out, party identification has remained extremely stable over decades; polls which assume the radical changes used in the "new models" have very large variances, which is a strong hint the odel is wrong.

The Gallup Traditional, by the way, has Obama/McCain within the margin of error --- 49/47.

You know, it there's only a 3 percent Bradley/PC effect, that would lead to a complete turnover.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

... what kids will say to their elders to day is a far cry from what was acceptable when I was growing up.

That's because people our age didn't get proper training in the appropriate use of a fast right hand.

[DrJ]

Rick,

I've always found it a little ridiculous that retirement in AZ is focused on Phoenix/Mesa when Flagstaff beats the Valley all to pieces.

That's certainly true, though Flag has snow. I'd opt for a smaller place like Mesa Verde. But heavens does Phoenix continue to grow! And I did not like it much there.

The hill country in NC is actually more pleasant than the Hill Country in TX but not by much.

Right, and NC is very nice. So are parts of TN. I spent quite some time in Kingsport in a former life, and the area is lovely. Low taxes, too, at least back then.

the fun in being a grandparent comes to an end when the youngest hit 12-13.

Mine is now 13, going on 25. In actuality, she needs more guidance now than she ever has. It is just not as gratifying immediately. That does not make it less important.

[Rick Ballard]

Sara,

The memory of a life well lived rarely endures beyond the passing of a persons grandchildren. Mine certainly won't but I do remember, at the age of 58, my grandparent's love and I honor their lives by trying to be a part of the process which keeps good memory alive within my grandchildren.

The rest is circumstance without much meaning. If I thought it worth the effort, I might try penning some missive of enduring value but I am confronted every day with the fact that such missives rarely carry enduring weight. OTOH, I will carry my grandchildren's smiles into the long life which, according to my belief, awaits us all.

If the kids won't move to TX or NC - try Flagstaff.

[Plumber's Pal]

Charlie: Out here you don't dare discipline your kids in public or anywhere some busybody neighbor or eavesdropper might hear you or you'll go to jail for child abuse. And that includes both physical and verbal discipline. And the kids know it. They use it like a hammer over their parents, teachers or any adults who get in their way.

[Ann]

Thanks Jim,

Found It on T.V. HOOOOMMMMMEEEE RRRRUUUUNNNNN!!!!

3to2 Go Red Soxs!!! ( To bad the bases weren't loaded ;))

[Jane Plumber]

3-2 in the 6th. Great game.

[Plumber's Pal]

I like Flagstaff. I always stayed at my favorite Best Western there when I was traveling back and forth from Calif. to the East. Phoenix leaves me cold. Looks just like any So.Calif. city I'm surrounded by now.

I was looking a Laughlin, NV for awhile. Housing is very inexpensive and I figure whenever I was bored I could go down to one of the casinos and catch either one of the free lounge acts or just people watch. I'm not a gambler but I do like a little nightlife excitement once in awhile.

[Jane Plumber]

4-2

[Plumber's Pal]

And Laughlin is the Las Vegas for the Senior Set, so I could blend right in. :)

[24AheadDotCom]

Letters to the NYT certainly do have some sort of an impact; one of their columnists even replied to me once.

However, here's something that would be much, much more effective. Let's say that ten people went to BHO's events and asked him really tough questions, the type of questions that the NYT would never dare to ask him. And, let's say that BHO's responses were many, many times more damning than his response to Joe the Plumber. And, let's say those responses were uploaded to Youtube and millions of people saw them.

Wouldn't that not only knock BHO out of the race but also show millions of people that the NYT has been covering up for him? Wouldn't that pretty much undercut the NYT and the rest of the MSM?

So, why isn't Instapundit helping push that plan? He's glomming on to the JTP fad, yet he's not urging people to take it to the next level. Why is that? Is there something he's not telling us?

[Ann hearts Joe Plumber]

Go Jane! I mean Soxs!

The same goes for recognition that the fun in being a grandparent comes to an end when the youngest hit 12-13.

Rick, I am just finding out that as a parent the same is true.
You are making me sad. I much prefer your odious descriptions of the felons on the left.

Kidding, but I bet you are a father and grandfather everyone wishes they had in their life, young or old. Same for you Sara.