While listening to Tammy Bruce filling in for Laura Ingraham, she covered the Mika Brzezinski mugging. The MSNBC host was waiting for a car outside her ”nice” D.C. hotel when someone walked across the street and told her to give him $20 and nothing would happen. She excuses the mugger because he probably “just needed the money.”
On the radio show, Bruce said she felt that type of excuse denegrates poor people, because most poor people, no matter how desperate, would never dream of mugging someone.
I absolutely agree. Poor people don’t mug; criminals do. I wonder what Mika would tell the victims, many of them charities, of Bernard Madoff?
Update: Allahpundit over at Hot Air points out that the “Morning Joe” guest that prompted the mugging retell was D.C. Mayor Fenty.
I joined twitter. I’ve heard so much about it, so I thought I’d give it a whirl. Give me some time to get into it. It took me a while to start blogging, so it might be a while before I get into it. Two people have started following me, and I don’t know who either of them are, but I welcome them. I just joined twitter yesterday, so I’m not sure how they found me so quickly, but it’s very exciting! I assume they’ve read my blog, so it’s cool to see people that might be readers.
Let’s get something straight: Al Sharpton thinks businesses should be unionized to protect workers and prevent jobs from moving overseas (although unions are a lot of why jobs DID move overseas). However, as he discussed on his radio show, he and other African-American business leaders on the show oppose the legislation known as Card Check because 1) the sacred secret ballot is removed and 2) a contract imposed by a federal arbitrator could be imposed on small businesses for two years if talks between a newly-formed union and the business don’t work out.
As Ed over at Hot Air points out, the absence of a secret ballot could be used against the workers by both the union and the employer. However, the employer is the one fighting to keep the secret ballot in place. I’m sure that employers aren’t just thinking of the poor workers.
They know that once unionized, it will be a difficult row to hoe. They will be forced to increase pay and benefits, probably for work rules that will reduce productivity targets for workers. I’m not saying workers will stop working as hard, but when you’re told that productivity levels are X and if you exceed those levels, you make everone look bad, you tend to not do more than minimum so your union “buddies” don’t make it difficult for you. (This has happened to my husband, so it’s not just a worst-case I pulled out my ass.)
Once unionized, employers know it will be difficult to get the union out, so they want to put the brakes on as early as possible. Employers are not looking out for the worker in opposing this legislation; they are clearly looking out for themselves. It doesn’t mean the legislation is right just because the big business lobby is against it.
Looks like someone got their due after the Joe the Plumber scandal. Helen Jones-Kelley “resigned” from her job, and two others were fired, for snooping into Joe Wurzelbacher’s state files. I wonder what position in the Obama administration she will show up in.
Coincidentally, just before the news came out, Michelle Malkin was interviewing Joe about what he’s doing now, which you can see here.
This is why Obama’s ”thoughtfulness” is going to get him in trouble. He takes WAY too much time making decisions, and it’s starting to hurt him. He should have known all of this about his people, and he should have put it out right away. Now, even though he’s been asked to wait to publicize his internal report, connections between his people and Blagojevich keep being discovered. No one is saying anyone has done anything wrong, but not publicizing all the connections sooner makes it look like he’s covering something up.
Obama should have come out right away and said, “Look, we didn’t do anything wrong. However, Emanuel had contact with his office since the election about my Senate seat, and he has worked with him in the past. Holder has worked with him in the past. I have worked with him in the past. However, we DID NOT, I repeat DID NOT, trade anything for preferential appointment. Look at the transcripts! He was not happy with me, to say the least, that I wouldn’t pay so he could play. And that’s all I have to say about that (in a Forrest Gump voice).” OK, I was just joking about that last part. That’s transparency.
And thank goodness the MSM has started questioning him on this. And he’s not happy about it.
Update: Michelle Malkin has more on the background.
While this one doesn’t touch Obama, a House Democrat in Florida has been caught requesting contributions to the party for consideration of committee assignments. This isn’t near the scandal that Blogojevich has created, but it shows that there’s almost no room for merit in politics. If you pay, then maybe you can play.
I’m sure it happens with Republicans, too, but this is the third Democratic pay-for-play scandal in the past week.
Joe Scarborough, MSNBC’s version of a conservative, railed on the MSMfor not investigating Obama’s background more thoroughly, especially the Blagojevichconnection in light of recent events. He questioned the judgment of editors who sent legions of reporters to Alaska to investigate Palin without doing the same for Obama when he burst onto the scene. During the segment, which was a discussion on an article from earlier in the year regarding the Emanuel / Blagojevich / Obama connection, Mike Barnacle had the laughable audacity to suggest that he knows that Obama’s role was overstated by Emanuel based on his “instinct.” Scarborough threw up his hands in frustration over that comment.
I find this rather funny, considering the small amount of questioning Scarborough did during the campaign. He did no more to question The One than others in the MSM did. Granted, he did more than his primetime comrades, but he still went along much more than he should have.
And that’s part of the problem. Shepard Smith, anchor of two hours of daytime programming on FNC, pretends that he’s part of the news team. He’s THE unbiased journalist on the network simply reporting the news, unlike Bill O’Reilly or Sean Hannity. But OF COURSE he has an opinion, and he’s not afraid to share it. Look at the video examples in this interview of Shep conducted back in November.
He thinks himself unbiased because his opinion is different than most of the evening, op-ed talents’ on the network. However, the fact that he was so willing to believe the tall-tale about Palin thinking Africa was a country instead of a continent shows just how far in the liberal tank he is. I saw Obama, on video, tell the world that he believed there were sixty states (many say it’s the 57 states gaffe, but he said he visited 57, had one to go, and AK and HI were off limits — total 60). I, however, did not believe he thought as such — it was a mistake, probably born of fatigue.
I don’t mind the liberals on the network — I welcome them. However, don’t pretend you’re just an unbiased news anchor reporting the news without bent unless you’re really going to be. To Shep’s credit, I have seen him do tough interviews of liberals if they are supporting a cause he doesn’t believe. I see him as kind of a liberal O’Reilly of sorts who doesn’t yet have the prestige, but he’s working on it.
Obama released a statement just a few minutes ago that confirmed he had no inappropriate contact with Gov. Blagojevich or his staff. The statement said the transition office reviewed contacts between the Governor’s office and transition staff, but from what FNC read, the statement only mentioned that Obama’s public statements were true.
The staff won’t release the report until Dec. 22 at the behest of Patrick Fitzgerald, according to the report.
Update: Fitzgerald confirms that he requested the report be held.
Turns out that Gov. Blagojevich isn’t the only one who realizes the Senate seat is a “f****** valuable thing.” Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn wants to make the appointment himself, arguing that a special election would cost more than $30 M. Quinn would likely appoint his biggest rival to succeed Gov. Blagojevich, Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who herself has turned to the IL Supreme Court to get Blagojevich thrown out. With Madigan in the Senate, it would clear the way for Quinn to become Governor because there is little chance Blagojevich will last until the next election scheduled state-wide election date, which is apparently in April.
Many are calling for a special election to reduce the appearance of taint. The Republicans especially want it because then they might have a small chance to gaining the seat. Small — this is IL after all. Lt. Gov. Quinn also wanted it, at first, until he realized just how valuable the seat is. Now, he wants the power of appointment to pull an Obama and get rid of his biggest competition. I think he’s changed his mind, because if a special election were held at some time in the future, there is a chance Madigan won’t win, and worse, a Republican might win. Quinn ensures his choice is made if he gets to do it.
