Say Anything Blog

Obama is doing wonders for Rush Limbaugh and Fox News:

So far, the Obama Administration has been great business for Fox News.

Led by the trio of Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and newcomer Glenn Beck, Fox News maintained its hold as the leading cable news network for March, as well as the first quarter of 2009. Fox News’ primetime viewership of 2.3 million was more than the combined total of No. 2 CNN (1.1 million) and No. 3 MSNBC (957,000). HLN, formerly Headline News, is fourth (330,000).

O’Reilly celebrated his 100th consecutive month as the leading cable news program, dating back to 2000. Hannity, sans his former lefty sidekick/punching bag Alan Colmes, is No. 2, up 36% from the same period last year. Overall, Fox News has nine of the top 10 cable news programs in viewership.

The phenomenal growth of Glenn Beck’s 5 p.m. show has been a boost to Fox News. A self-proclaimed “rodeo clown,” Beck switched from HLN to Fox News two months ago and has increased viewership for the same time slot by nearly 100% from a year ago. Beck’s show is now a solid No. 3 overall.

While Fox News’ hold on top is unchallenged, CNN is desperately trying to fend off MSNBC for second place. Among primetime viewers, CNN has fallen behind MSNBC in the most desirable demographic category of 25-54 year-olds, and with only about half of Fox News’ audience.

With the addition of Rachel Maddow in the 9 p.m. slot, MSNBC has siphoned off considerable number of viewers from CNN. Once the dominant cable news show, Larry King Live is on the verge of being pushed into third place for the time slot behind both Hannity and Maddow.

The slide of Larry King may be symptomatic of the struggles at CNN, which is trying to entrench itself as the “middle ground” between Fox News on the right and MSNBC on the left. The problem seems to be that there’s not a lot of audience for that in an increasingly polarized political landscape:

  Over time ... King’s show has become the home of criminal mysteries, and entertainment conversation. For viewers who want political talk, either FNC or MSNBC is the place to go. It is really is only a matter of time until Maddow starts beating King on a nightly basis ... King’s slide is another symptom of CNN’s inability to keep up with the times.

Meanwhile, network news continued its inexorable decline. NBC, with Brian Williams, maintained its hold on first place with modesty growth in the first quarter. ABC’s Charles Gibson came in second while Katie Couric and CBS languished in third, with nearly 3 million fewer viewers than NBC.

The Justice Dept. failed to turn over notes in an election year witch hunt, not that I am a fan of Mr. Bridge to Nowhere.  I am less of a fan of shenanigans designed to rig elections:

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department said Wednesday it would drop corruption charges against former Sen. Ted Stevens because it withheld evidence from the senator’s defense team.

The reversal is an embarrassing black eye for the Justice Department, which won a conviction against the Alaska Republican in October and is now asking to overturn it.

Stevens, 85, the patriarch of Alaska politics since before statehood, lost his re-election bid in November and has been awaiting sentencing. He was the longest serving Republican senator.

He was convicted of seven felony counts of lying on Senate financial disclosure forms to conceal hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts and home renovations from a wealthy oil contractor.

The trial was beset by government missteps, culminating recently when a federal judge took the unusual step of holding the Justice Department in contempt.

In early morning court filings, the Justice Department admitted it never turned over notes from an interview with the oil contractor, who estimated the value of the renovation work as far less than he testified at trial.

“I have determined that it is in the interest of justice to dismiss the indictment and not proceed with a new trial,” Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement released Wednesday.

The Justice Department is investigating the conduct of the prosecutors who tried the Stevens case.

New policy shift from Obama:

WASHINGTON - Attorney General Eric Holder signaled a change on medical marijuana policy Wednesday, saying federal agents will target marijuana distributors only when they violate both federal and state law.

That would be a departure from the Bush administration, which targeted medical marijuana dispensaries in California even if they complied with that state’s law.

“The policy is to go after those people who violate both federal and state law,” Holder said in a question-and-answer session with reporters at the Justice Department.

California law permits the sale of marijuana for medical purposes, though it still is against federal law.

Holder did not spell out exactly who no longer would face the prospect of raids by the Drug Enforcement Administration. But he was quick to add that law enforcement officers will target anyone who tries to “use medical marijuana laws as a shield” for other illegal activity.

“Given the limited resources that we have, our focus will be on people, organizations that are growing, cultivating substantial amounts of marijuana and doing so in a way that’s inconsistent with federal and state law,” the attorney general said.

Advocates and government officials had been waiting since President Barack Obama was sworn into office for a clear signal on what the new president’s drug policy would be toward medical marijuana. As a candidate, he repeatedly promised a change in policy in situations in which state laws allow the use of medical marijuana.

A policy that I agree with wholeheartedly, but on Federalist principles rather than pragmatism about the drug war.  California should be able to set their own tax rates, enact their own laws, and govern the drug war there as they see fit.  That is different from enforcing the borders and preventing pot from entering the country which is a Federal duty—i.e. border security and setting taxes and tariffs.  But I fail to see how me smoking a doob in my living room qualifies as Interstate Commerce.

Q. What does a journalism school grad use his or her BA from the local Liberal Arts College for in a recession?
A. They are going to be the world's most successful subscription only bloggers the world has ever seen. [Good luck with that]

More news for the Print Industry:

SEATTLE - The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which has chronicled the news of the city since logs slid down its steep streets to the harbor and miners caroused in its bars before heading north to Alaska’s gold fields, will print its final edition Tuesday.

Hearst Corp., which owns the 146-year-old P-I, said Monday that it failed to find a buyer for the newspaper, which it put up for a 60-day sale in January after years of losing money. Now the P-I will shift entirely to the Web.

“Tonight will be the final run, so let’s do it right,” publisher Roger Oglesby told the newsroom.

Hearst’s decision to abandon the print product in favor of an Internet-only version is the first for a large American newspaper, raising questions about whether the company can make money in a medium where others have come up short.

David Lonay, 80, a subscriber since 1950, said he’ll miss a morning ritual that can’t be replaced by a Web-only version.

“The first thing I do every day is get the P-I and read it,” Lonay said. “I really feel like an old friend is dying.”

Hearst’s move to end the print edition leaves the P-I’s larger rival, the Seattle Times, as the only mainstream daily in the city.

“It’s a really sad day for Seattle,” P-I reporter Angela Galloway said. “The P-I has its strengths and weaknesses but it always strove for a noble cause, which was to give voice to those without power and scrutiny of those with power.”  [WTF does that mean?]

Seattle follows Denver in becoming losing a daily newspaper this year. The Rocky Mountain News closed after its owner, E.W. Scripps Co., couldn’t find a buyer. In Arizona, Gannett Co.‘s Tucson Citizen is set to close Saturday, leaving one newspaper in that city.

And last month Hearst said it would close or sell the San Francisco Chronicle if the newspaper couldn’t slash expenses in coming weeks.

The newspaper industry has seen ad revenue fall in recent years as advertisers migrate to the Internet, particularly to sites offering free or low-cost alternatives for classified ads. Starting last summer, the recession intensified the decline in advertising revenue in all categories.

Four newspaper companies, including the owners of the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and the Philadelphia Inquirer, have sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in recent months.

Another Lib voice on the Internet trying to employ a bunch of journalism grads off of ad revenue.  Ain’t gonna work as a business model boys.  Time to just throw in the towel.

Folks at Denver’s Rocky Mountain News think they have a chance to save their Liberal Jobs too and demonstrate a fundamental lack of understanding of basic economics:

DENVER - Former Rocky Mountain News staffers plan to start an online newspaper if they can get 50,000 paying subscribers by April 23.

That date would have been the News’ 150th anniversary.

The E.W. Scripps Co. shut down the News last month, citing mounting losses.


The founders of InDenverTimes.com say the site will go live on May 4 if they meet the subscription goal.

The Web site would be free but subscribers who pay $4.99 a month would get interactive chats, columns and other extras.

The site calls the subscriptions an investment “to encourage a bold, creative effort to continue a vision based on a 150-year Denver tradition.”

InDenverTimes.com includes 30 reporters and editors who worked at the Rocky.

Did you know that you can get all the news that you want to read on the Internet already?  Why pay for a local site to employ journalism grads when an average monkey with a typewriter (Rob Port) can do a better job reporting the news?

My wife subscribes to the local fish wrap because they have coupons on Sundays and for $10 a month, the coupons are worth it.  Most days it goes in the recycling without being opened.  The news is available online up to 24 hours earlier and you can get the same AP stories just about everywhere.  I start my day at AZCentral.com for local news before reading national news at SAB or other blogs like Wizbang.  Rob is far more entertaining than most journos. 

Good luck with your websites folks.

New findings on the DC Metro Area’s HIV Rates:

WASHINGTON - At least 3 percent of District of Columbia residents have HIV or AIDS, a total that far surpasses the 1 percent threshold that constitutes a “generalized and severe” epidemic, according to a report scheduled to be released by health officials Monday.

That translates into 2,984 residents per every 100,000 over the age of 12 - or 15,120 - according to the 2008 epidemiology report by the district’s HIV/AIDS office.

“Our rates are higher than West Africa,” said Shannon Hader, director of the district’s HIV/AIDS Administration who once led the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s work in Zimbabwe. “They’re on par with Uganda and some parts of Kenya.”

“We have every mode of transmission (men having sex with men, heterosexual and injected drug use) going up, all on the rise, and we have to deal with them,” Hader said.

This is a travesty.  What we need to do to fix it is ensure that DC gets a Representative in the House.  All of this is because they do not have their own voting Rep and because of “discrimination”.

DC mirrors the problems in many urban centers—particularly that new HIV cases are by far the highest among Black men age 25-44.  Findings are similar in Michigan.

HIV is a completely preventable disease that only occurs when there are high risk behaviors, most particularly sex with multiple partners, anal sex (hetero or homo), prostitution, and IV drug use.  So if Blacks are contracting HIV at higher rates, that means that they are engaging in risky behavior at higher rates and that is problematic for a bunch of reasons.  All of these behaviors have other social consequences besides just HIV.  Other STDs.  Pregnancy.  And so on.

DC is a festering shithole.  And it is run by the same forces of Liberal Black Victimhood that run Detroit and are fixtures of the Democrat race baiting voter model.  A model that voted 95-5% Democrat this last election.

Let’s hope that Barack Obama cares more about Blacks with HIV than he does about his half brother living in the Slums of Africa.  Then again, his father appeared to be a fan of sex with multiple partners and abandoning children too, so maybe BHO can actually make some kind of statement that these habits are bad…  nah, he should just start funding international organizations promoting abortion as a public policy instead.  That will help with the HIV epidemic in the Third World just like Planned Parenthood is helping Detroit and DC.

Latest Newsweek Poll:

The biggest problem for the GOP, according to the poll, may be that 58 percent of Americans believe that Republicans who have opposed Obama’s economic-rescue plans have no plan of their own for turning the economy around. With the Republicans having lost the White House and both houses of Congress, public identification with the party has dropped to a recent low point of 26 percent, after running at or near 30 percent for most of the last 15 years. That’s the lowest level since the Watergate era and a striking loss of stature for the party, considering that self-described conservatives continue to outnumber liberals in the country by nearly two to one (39 percent vs. 20 percent).

Many Republicans express concern about where their party is headed and whether GOP leaders in Congress are in touch with their constituents. Asked about the direction of their party, 45 percent of rank-and-file Republicans say it is moving in the right direction, while more than a third (35 percent) think it is going in the wrong direction. This is in sharp contrast to what a NEWSWEEK Poll found in 1999 after the Clinton impeachment hearings. At that time, 65 percent of Republicans said their party was headed in the right direction.

Some of these results spring from discontent over Republican leadership; other survey respondents indicate the party is ideologically lost. More than half of Republicans today (52 percent) say they don’t think GOP congressional leaders are in touch with what the average Republican thinks. While four in 10 Republicans (39 percent) think the GOP is about right in terms of ideology, another 38 percent believe it is not conservative enough, and only 20 percent think it is too conservative.

It isn’t that conservatism is the problem, it is that Republicans are out of touch with the base.  A point that Limbaugh is making on a daily basis.

Interesting polling data to say the least.  Obama gets 58% approval.  Republicans are in the toilet.  Yet Republicans continue to scramble on policy instead of having a real internal debate on ideology and searching for candidates that bring the kind of Conservative leadership that is missing.

From Rove’s site:

President Obama’s Job Approval Rating in Perspective: While the latest Gallup poll (3/3-3/5) shows 62% of Americans approve of the way President Obama has been doing his job, how does that compare with how other recent presidents fared in their first months in office? Obama’s approval rating is approximately on par with that of several of his predecessors: George W. Bush had a 63% approval rating in a March 5-7, 2001 poll, and George H. W. Bush was also at 63% in a February28-March 2, 1989 poll. But early approval ratings may not offer much information about the rest of a president’s first term. For example, at this point in his presidency, Clinton held a 53% approval rating in a March 12-14 poll and saw his approval-rating fall as low as 37% by early June 1993. But heading into his re-election in October 1996, he was back up to a 58% approval rating. On the other hand, Carter was as high as 75% in March 1977, only to see his approval-rating fall to 31% over the summer of 1980. It’s too soon to say whether Obama will end his first term more like Clinton or Carter, but one thing is clear: Obama may have won the widest electoral victory since 1988, but six weeks into his presidency, his approval rating is average, rather than extraordinary.

Presidents start out with political capital and get to spend it over the course of the presidency.  BHO has started by spending his on trillion dollar bailouts and on DVD boxed sets for foreign leaders.

The Markets are never indicators of the current situation, but are indicators of what investors THINK WILL HAPPEN IN THE FUTURE.  They are bets on what the future holds and usually turn around before the economy actually does.

How does this bode for the first month of President Hope and Change?

Nonetheless, the market’s stats once again showed how troubled Wall Street and the economy are:

— The Dow, at its lowest close since May 1, 1997, is now down 50.1 percent from its record high of 14,164.53 reached in October 2007. It came within 34 points of 7,000, a level it hasn’t fallen below since October 1997.

— The Standard & Poor’s 500 index breached its Nov. 21 trading low of 741.02, which came during the height of the credit crisis. Friday’s finish was the lowest for the index since Dec. 18, 1996.

— The Dow’s 11.7 percent loss in February was its worst since 1933, when it fell 15.6 percent, and its sixth straight monthly drop. The half-year slide totals 38.8 percent, the worst since 1932, when it fell 45 percent.

The S&P 500 index fell 11 percent for the month. It was the second-worst February for the index, topped only by an 18.4 percent slide in 1933. It was the index’s fifth monthly drop in six months; it managed a slender gain of 0.8 percent in December.

Obama actually owns the market since about September when he took the lead for good from McCain.  Admittedly, the economy was sliding but investors bet on what the future holds and clearly the prospects of hope and change were factored into things.

But the markets only affect the 5% of Americans that make over $250,000 per year, so every time he speaks, and the market drops 1-2% in reaction, that doesn’t affect the 95% of Americans that are going to benefit from bank bailouts, stimulus checks, and subsidized cell phones…

Did you know that you are more likely to die from a car accident, heart attack, or other random injury than to die of hostile fire in Iraq in the last half of 2008:

Month---HOST--NON--TOTAL

Jul-08-----8----5---13

Aug-08---12---11---23

Sep-08----8---17---25

Oct-08----7----7---14

Nov-08----7---10---17

Dec-08----7----9---16

TOTAL----49---59--108

Hostile fire deaths are far different from non-hostile fire deaths.  Non-hostile fire deaths result from all kinds of causes.  Suicides, car wrecks, heart attacks, pneumonia, and so on.  And the majority of deaths in Iraq in the second half of 2008 have been of the non-hostile fire variety.  These are deaths that would probably happen in Germany, Korea, Japan, the US, Guam,…

This says something about Iraq.  There are 150,000 troops there right now.  In an average month, less than 10 of them get killed by hostile fire.

It is astounding and probably indicates that Obama’s pledge to bring the troops home and Iraq’s request for us to pack up and start moving home is attainable in the short term.  The war is won.  It was won six months ago.  Now all that remains are victory parades and celebration.  It is too bad that we don’t celebrate victory like we did in WWII.

Results are in:

ATLANTA—Georgia Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss handed the GOP a firewall against Democrats eager to flex their newfound political muscle in Washington, winning a bruising runoff battle Tuesday night that had captured the national limelight.

Chambliss’ victory thwarted Democrats’ hopes of winning a 60-seat filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. It came after a bitter month long runoff against Democrat Jim Martin that drew political luminaries from both parties to the state and flooded the airwaves with fresh attack ads weeks after campaigns elsewhere had ended.

Minnesota—where a recount is under way—now remains the only unresolved Senate contest in the country. But the stakes there are significantly lower now that Georgia has put a 60-seat Democratic supermajority out of reach.

With 70 percent of the precincts reporting, Chambliss captured 60 percent to Martin’s 40 percent. Chambliss’ win is a rare bright spot for Republicans in a year where they lost the White House as well as seats in the House and the Senate.

CNN has it with 99% of votes in at 57-43 with Chambliss winning by 300,000 votes in an election with half as many ballots cast as the original election which Chambliss led by 125,000 votes.

This says something—

Either Republicans were much more successful in a GOTV campaign
—or—
Democrats have a tougher time committing fraud in off cycle elections
—or—
Democrats are not as anxious to have that filibuster proof majority as one might think
—or—
Republicans and Independents are scared shitless by one party having that much power and came out and voted in force

I am not sure which explanation fits, but the reality is that with this race, Minnesota becomes a little less embattled.  Another 200 ballots showed up today, miraculously and we still must wait for Coleman to finally win the damned thing, but 56-42-2 is a little better than 58-40-2.

Seems that CNN was right about Obama needing bad economic news to get back his mojo.

Since Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Obama has enjoyed a 5 pt swing his direction in the Real Clear Politics Average.

Bad news on Iraq or on Wall Street is the only thing left in the playbook and unfortunately for Dems, the former ain’t happening since 2007.

Obama has a narrow lead in the polls, and clearly Wall Street is the blame, despite the fact that Democrats are the beneficiaries of the big money from the Mortgage Industry.  Maybe Obama can get a loan from Countrywide on some more real estate Tony Rezco sells him.

Davinski asks:

If John Edwards’ political career is done, why isn’t John McCain’s?

Let me address that first. The answer is because John McCain didn’t lie about it. And he didn’t continue to lie about it over and over to the press while running for President. But even more so, Edwards has not stopped lying about it even now as evidenced by the real question you don’t want to ask:

If Edwards had had an affair with this woman, but was not the father of her child--

What was he Doing with his Former Mistress in a posh hotel in the middle of the night?

Either he was there to screw her again or he was there to see his kid. I fail to see any alternative to those two possibilities. Which is it? Because thus far, no one has answered that question. What was John doing with her still and did Elizabeth know and approve of the meeting?

Got any answers to this Dave because Edward’s cannot channel some unborn baby to talk his way out of this one.

Starbucks Corp. has named all 600 company-owned stores it plans to close in a bid to boost its business and weed out unprofitable locations.

Only one will close in Arizona—in Eloy.

The company announced 50 stores late last week, saying those stores would be closed by the end of July. Those include four stores in Alabama, seven in Minnesota and eight in California. :

Now the gourmet coffee retailer is detailing all stores slated for closure. Including the eight other stores, California will now lose 88 stores with two each in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and 10 in San Diego.

Florida will lose 59 stores, including three each in Tampa and Palm Beach Gardens. Louisiana will lose 13 stores, nine of them in Baton Rouge.

The company announced earlier this month that it would close 600 company-owned stores in the U.S. starting in July and continuing through the first half of the next fiscal year. But Starbucks didn’t say which locations would be shut down, until now.

The move to close the stores is a turnabout from Starbucks’ aggressive expansion plans. But the company curtailed those plans as it saw traffic and its profits decline recently as the faltering economy has led some consumers to question their spending on pricey coffee.

CALIFORNIA: 88
NEW YORK: 39
MICHIGAN: 18
MINNESOTA: 27
PENNSYLVANIA: 21
ILLINOIS: 25

But I will also add:

TEXAS: 57
FLORIDA: 59

Let me note that Karl Rove and the RNC is behind this happening just before the election.

This will be a brutal impact for many latte loving liberal college kids as they will lose an important place to formulate their Bush=Hitler, No Blood for Oil rallies and be able to talk about conspiracies like the super secret government Brown Note devices that are planned for the Democrat Convention.

Political activists planning protest rallies at the upcoming Democratic Convention in Denver have their stomachs in knots over a rumor about a crowd control weapon - known as the “crap cannon” - that might be unleashed against them.

Also called “Brown Note,” it is believed to be an infrasound frequency that debilitates a person by making them defecate involuntarily.

My dream gay wedding.  Cowboy Style courtesy of the AP and our friends in California:

Unfortunately, I am what is referred to as a “Bear” as is our humble host of the site Rob.  This is more what our weddings will look like.

The USA Today reports that Bank Robberies are going up because of a bad economy:

Bank robberies are up in cities across the United States this year and, although the reason is unclear, the down economy is a suspect.

“The economy is driving some of this,” says Chris Swecker, chief security officer for Bank of America and former assistant director of the FBI’s criminal division. “We’re even getting some anecdotal stuff from bank robbers.”

Swecker said Bank of America analysts study the interplay between the increase in bank heists and foreclosures, credit defaults and unemployment rates.

“We haven’t drawn any conclusions yet, but we are certainly looking at it,” he said.

OK, so what we do is run a headline claiming that the economy is behind bank robberies, but later on, we have the article say “we haven’t drawn any conclusions, but we are looking at it”.

I guess when you can run headlines that say “Murder Rates Up, Lax Gun Control Laws Suspect”, this sort of reporting makes sense. One would assume that there would be detailed statistics that relate foreclosure rates, the unemployment rate, median income, and so on to the number of bank robberies over a period of say 30 years. Graph it out. Create a nice graph like Will does at Willisms.

What you will see though, is that Bank Robberies are committed by individuals. Do the cops interview each criminal and ask them, “How has the economy affected your decision to rob banks for a living? Would you say it is more than your decision to drop out of high school did? More than your decision to use methamphetimine did?, etc.”

I am betting that if the statisticians at the AP dig enough they can find one bank robber in the entire country that did it to pay for his grandmother’s medical bills that her HMO declined to cover or to pay for some new medication that the evil drug companies have priced so expensive that he cannot afford it because his company outsourced his job and he now works at Walmart and cannot get health benefits because he is only part time. Then they can run an article using anecdotal evidence that drug companies, Walmart, and George Bush cause bank robberies.

Try a little harder guys. I am sure you can do it.