Why The $92,000 Baseball Card Isn’t Really A Baseball Card
I have been inundated on twitter and even by email for weeks with questions (specifically “did you buy it?”) about a 19th Century baseball photograph that sold at auction yesterday in Maine for $92,000.
No, I didn’t. It’s not really a baseball card.
Before I explain that seemingly odd statement – I mean, it’s a picture of what was then a major league baseball team, it’s on cardboard, and the French term for what it is includes that country’s word for ‘card’ – let me mention that I don’t disrespect anybody who disagrees with my conclusion, and that the idea of which items from the pre-1886 era are cards and which aren’t is very fluid and very open to interpretation.
So that having been said: this ain’t a card:
It is a great image of the 1865 Brooklyn Atlantics, who were then competing in the very loosely organized and intermittently professional National Association of Base Ball Players, which preceded the first semi-organized professional league, the National Association (1871), and the first truly recognizable modern league, the National League (1876).
This is the only second copy of this, er - thing - known to have survived, and the other is in the Library of Congress. That its ‘cardness’ is open to debate is evident even from the quotes provided to the Associated Press by the auctioneer of the thing, David Thibodeau, who said…
“It’s more of a piece of photography than a baseball card, but it’s considered by many to be the first baseball card just by the fact that it was distributed by the team. It kind of set the stage for baseball cards after that.”
But Mr. Thibodeau also said…
“The key piece of this is not only that it’s a baseball card, but that it’s a wonderful piece of Americana.”
I can understand his confusion. I have friends who, like me, are specialists in 19th Century cards who think this is clearly a card, and others who don’t. Obviously I fall into the second category, as does one of the foremost experts in the field who told me last month he certainly would like to have it, but not if it was going to cost very much.
I’ll get to the cost in a moment, but first, the what-is-it part.
In the middle of the 19th Century, if you visited somebody – especially if you went to their home and they were out – you were expected to leave your “calling card.” These were ornate ancestors of the modern business card and while they could be art-like, they were as limited as the business card is today. Then came a big change.
Photographs were cumbersome things to make and distribute until 1854, when French photographer Andre Disderi developed a method to take eight of them on a single plate. Whereas previously if you wanted eight pictures of yourself, you had to pose for eight separate shots and have them developed eight separate times, with Disderi’s system you still had to pose eight times, but they could all be developed and printed simultaneously. Later improvements allowed for those eight poses to be reproduced again and again, cutting the cost and cumbersomeness of production even further.
Soon, the cost of a photographic card of yourself was not much more than the expense of an ordinary calling card. Thus, the French version of the card – the carte de visite - was adorned with an image. If you had any money, you had stacks of picture cards of yourself to hand out on all occasions. Photography studios soon began to clean up not just by custom-producing cards for individuals, but by creating and selling poses of celebrities. The tipping point in France was the Disderi cartes of Emperor Napoleon III, which he began to sell in 1859.
So by the 1860′s – and certainly long before the 1865 Brooklyn Atlantics posed for the photograph that sold for $92,000 on Wednesday – there were cartes de visite that were used like today’s business cards, and others that were collectibles. There are cartes de visite (CDVs) of everybody from the heroes of the Civil War to John Wilkes Booth…to baseball players (I’ll correct myself to the spelling of the day: base ball players).
The nit-picking part here is that the definition of a “baseball card” has always been a card or similar item depicting a player or team that was designed to help sell another product. As late as 1980 there just weren’t many cards made just for the sake of making them. They were means of advertising, they were the stiffeners in the packs of cigarettes, they were sold with slabs of taffy, they were found in boxes of cornflakes, they doubled as tickets, and most recently they were used to raise one particular manufacturer’s bubble gum above all others. There was also always a sense that there had to be at least a couple of different cards, of similar design, sold by or on behalf of one manufacturer and constituting a “set” for a photographic baseball image to be a real “card.”
If these two criteria – multiple cards, advertising intent – were not used and met, it literally meant that anything anybody ever made showing a baseball scene was a baseball card. That would be mean every photograph was a card, and every newspaper engraving, and in theory every drawing done by every kid since the first ball player was mistake for a hero.
So, the 1865 Atlantics carte de visite, while a great item, doesn’t meet the standard definition of a baseball card.
Even if it did it would be far from the earliest known card. There were six different photographic cards issued in 1863 that simultaneously:
A) advertised a tournament featuring the Brooklyn Excelsiors playing the famed New York Knickerbockers in the “Grand Match At Hoboken” along with two cricket competitions;
B) served as admission tickets to the matches; and
C) cost extra because the photographs were designed to be saved as souvenirs.
Those are baseball cards. The records of how many were sold even survives: 150 of future Hall of Famer Harry Wright, 57 of a player named Crossley, 47 of another named Hammond, and 11 of Harry’s father Sam. A fifth card later surfaced showing the Wrights together, and two different poses of Crossley are known.
Cards-as-tickets haven’t been repeated too often in the 150 years since (the White Sox did it in the early ’60s). So if you want something more recognizable, you move to the Peck & Snyder cards, issued over three years to advertise Peck & Snyder Sporting Goods stores (and available for other such enterprises to print their ads on, as well). The “set” begins with the 1868 Brooklyn Atlantics, continues with the first overtly all-professional team, the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, and moves on to the 1870 Troy Haymakers and Chicago White Stockings.
That’s the 1868 Peck & Snyder Brooklyn card, front and back. See that guy “Pearce”? He was essentially baseball’s first shortstop, and he should be in the Hall of Fame. He and first baseman Joe Start – and a couple of the other guys – are also in the 1865 Brooklyn picture about which we’re talking here.
Interestingly, the truly big idea for baseball cards, the seemingly obvious one - make lots of cards of lots of different players - was still nearly 20 years in the future when Mr. Peck let himself be caricatured on the backs of those team cards. 1886 was the breakthrough year, with Goodwin Tobacco (“Old Judge Cigarettes”), the Hall Photography Studio, and an anonymous manufacturer that left room for local cigar stores to stamp their ads on the cards, each made multiple-card sets of players of the New York Giants, and the Charles Gross Company began a marvelous two-year issue featuring the New York Giants and Mets and also both Philadelphia teams, the Athletics and the Phillies. A year later, Goodwin saw the potential bonanza and issued fairly cheap photographic cards of literally hundreds of players in overlapping issues that would see some guys issued on 17 different cards over the 1887-1890 seasons. Goodwin and other tobacco companies also went high-tech with beautiful color lithograph cards of the great players of the time (along with other athletes) later in 1887. The rest, through fits and starts, has been one of the more astonishing industries in American history, still going strong since 1886. Or 1865. Or 1863.
Those who might have thought of making cards of individual players could conceivably have been scared off by the experience of Mort Rogers, a former player who got the idea of selling scorecard/programs at the games of the Boston Red Stockings in 1871. He produced startlingly beautiful folded cards that had photographic portraits of players on the front, an ad on the back, and a scorecard in the middle. He apparently lost his shirt. A similar enterprise was tried almost simultaneously with those Troy, New York Haymakers of 1870 and 1871.
Finally, a note about the $92,000. That’s a lot of money for anything, let alone a baseball card, but it isn’t extraordinary. At least one card has sold for $70,000 in the last month (one of those 1886 Old Judge New York Giants) and prices in that range are not uncommon for the scarcer cards in the 1886-87 Gross set (“Kalamazoo Bats”) and the 1887-90 Goodwin Old Judge series.
mlblogskeitholbermann1
KO that is great article, thanks for showing why you are this generations Murrow. As someone who loves history I love your historical information about the card. You really show why you are a great writer also. Again sorry that you got treated like crap at Current and will not be happy if you do not get the justice you desrve. Keep being yourself and you will always have a fan in me, love you faults and all.
//
Wow
Once again a person that has no idea who KO is, you are stupid on him as the guy on Huffington Post that thinks that when KO does something good it a publicity stunt, were do you subhumans come from again here is who gibson is I really laugh because all those points do not describe KO.
Let’s see point one making excuses wow I did not know having a doctor say that you have throat infection was making an excuse wow, I guess you were in those appointments, By do you live in alternate reality, in KO’s business having thorat infections are career dangerous if you do not get them treated. Wow trying to get what in his contract like control of the news department, wow I did not know that was makng excuses, I did not know that trying to get his studio to work and his set to work was making excuses. So sorry that first one does not describe KO.
What despitful behavior has KO done, wow I love how you show how igorant you are on KO, Ko has never given anyone the silent treatment and do not put out debunk articles that only show that one to be false. Also again love how you show that you are igorant about not being couties or the other. Again you put out made up crap trying to show that KO is something that he not.
So you have shown that KO is neither number one or number two, but those two describe you and Current.
Wow I did not know that wanting your set to work and your studio to work was being selfish, wow I did not know that wanting what was in your contract was being selish. Please keep lying about who KO is and showing that you not KO are the imature one. Also thanks again for describing Current.
Wow again I did not know your set not working your studio falling apart and Current ignoring it was called being hypersentive, wow thanks again for showing that you do not know what those traits look like. You keep showing how mature kO is and how imature Hyatt and Gibson and you are.
Wow were has KO twisted the truth, I did not know that wanting again to have what in your contract, to make sure that your brand is not hurt aka Current making KO do a commerical for AT&T was what twisting truth is. Thanks again for showing that Current, you and Gibson are immature ones.
Wow sorry again that does not describe KO, where has KO defied logic. Wanting to rest your voice so you can give more years to your employer is showing that you are being unlogical and unreasonable, again trying to get your studio to work and your set to work, that is what being unlogical is. Wow you show that you have no idea what logic is.
Also keep showing that BY has no idea what being human is,
here again is who Gibson is KO is not BB, thier is no such thing as bath tub boy that is something that was made up by John Gibson because KO was not allowed to call him worst person. Also anyone that uses that name shows that they have zero clue what being human is. John Gibson thought it was funny to make fun of Stewart’s pain on 911, he thought it was funny to make fun of Lugar’s suicude by his I could never quit you quto, UPDATE: John Gibson has “apologized” for his distasteful comments on Heath Ledger’s death. Though he first defended his statements on his radio show yesterday — there is “no point in passing up a good joke,” he said, and repeated his “Brokeback Mountain” joke saying, “I’m not giving that up” — he eventually caved to pressure to apologize and did so on his television show.
Still, his apology seemed forced, and relatively half-hearted:
Those who knew him say he was a good actor and a loving dad. And what happened to him was terrible, but was evidently an accident. Once again, to anyone offended by my comments, I’m sorry. But I’m also sorry that Heath Ledger is no longer alive and with us.
ThinkProgress has the audio of Gibson’s defense of his comments, and MediaMatters has the video of his “apology.”
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ORIGINAL ITEM: Fox News’ John Gibson found a way to outdo MSNBC’s Courtney Hazlett for the most inappropriate comment on Heath Ledger’s death. ThinkProgress reports that, on his radio show yesterday (which opened with funeral music), Gibson called Ledger a “weirdo” with a “serious drug problem.” Making fun of the famous “I wish I knew how to quit you” line from “Brokeback Mountain,” Gibson said of his death, “Well, he found out how to quit you.”
This is not Gibson’s first time making inappropriate comments in the wake of tragedy. In July 2005, just one day before the 7/7 terrorist bombings in London, Gibson said that “the International Olympic Committee missed a golden opportunity….If they had picked France instead of London to hold the Olympics, it would have been the one time we could look forward to where we didn’t worry about terrorism. They’d blow up Paris, and who cares?” The next day, after the London bombings, Gibson.
Also only people that live in alterante universes think that this is Obama’s Monica lewsinsky. Excuse me, were was the cover up, were was Obama lying, wow were was Obama having a affair with a intern. You really show that you have no idea what you talk about.
Also I love how you put out a made up Special Comment that KO never gave. Showing that you do not know what pardoy is. This story has nothing to do with KO, so keep showing how igonrant you are on KO and that you have zero clue what make believe aka pardoy sketch and reality are.
KO is not BB that is a made up story and anyone that uses it shows that they have zero idea what being human is.
Wow once again you show that you not KO are the immature one, and do not say different because that would be a lie. Only people that are igorant about who KO is and what immature behavior like you would believe those made up talking points, that again are debunked like everything that you say, and again I am someone who would care crap if Ko was that, that is how I know that KO is opposite of immature and that those talking points describe you to a tee.
Keep showing that you do not know what being human means, only people in alternate unvierses would believe the made up lie by Gibson that get’s debunked.
Also thanks for describing Current to a tee, and showing me how mature kO is, and if you say different it would only be a another debunnked lie by a blogger that has zero clue who KO is and only bashes him because KO is not allowed to tell the truth about Fox and republicans, get off the blog and let people talk baseball, all you show is that KO is this generations Murrow and always will be, along with showing how mature he is and how imature you are.
Wow I guess you love to support others that are all about hate like Gibson is. Keep lying about KO and showing how igorant you are on him.
00000
Keep showing how igorant you are about KO, Redeye is a show that only knows how to lie about people including KO, they like all the other shows By on Fox do not know what truth is, abd show over and over again that they love to defend liers and hatemogers and bullies like you. Only people By that live in alternate universes think that Red eye tells the truth, here is what it is x’s Gutfeld: Students Should “Stiff” Their College Loans To Make Schools “Pay” For “Churning Out Lazy, Stupid Marxists”
VIDEO ››› February 8, 2013 10:18 PM EST ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
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From the February 8 edition of Fox News’ The Five:
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Fox’s Gutfeld: Flash Mob Perpetrators Are Just “Liberals In A Hoodie”
VIDEO ››› February 6, 2013 7:00 PM EST ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
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From the February 6 edition of Fox News’ The Five:
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Fox Attacks Obama For Noting Climate Connection To Wildfires
BLOG ››› January 30, 2013 1:06 PM EST ››› SHAUNA THEEL
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Fox News co-host Greg Gutfeld attacked President Barack Obama for connecting wildfires to climate change. But scientists say climate change has increased fire risks in parts of the Western U.S. by promoting warmer and drier conditions, and the number of wildfire acres burned each year is on the rise.
In his second inaugural address, Obama called for action to avoid the destructive impacts of climate change, saying, “Some may deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms.” On the January 29 edition of Fox News’ The Five, Gutfeld criticized Obama for suggesting that wildfires were “somehow linked” to climate change, claiming that there were “a third fewer U.S. wildfires in 2012″:
Gutfeld’s statistic came from a Washington Post column by George Will that compared the number of U.S. wildfires in 2012 to 2006 — a year that saw the most wildfires since 1982. By cherry-picking data from that year, Will obscured the upward trend in acres burned from wildfires. In fact, the number of acres burned by wildfires in 2012 was the third-highest on record in the U.S., and the National Research Council states that “large and long-duration forest fires have increased fourfold over the past 30 years in the American West” as increased temperatures have dried soils and plants and boosted tree-killing beetles. While wildfires are influenced by numerous factors, the U.S. Global Change Research Program stated that “Wildfires in the United States are already increasing due to warming”:
Continue reading ›››
What The Media Should Know About Secretary Clinton And Benghazi
RESEARCH ››› January 23, 2013 6:24 AM EST ››› EMILY ARROWOOD, MELODY JOHNSON, & CHELSEA RUDMAN
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As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton prepares to testify before Congress about the September 11 attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, Media Matters reviews the falsehoods conservative media have pushed regarding Clinton and her response to the attack.
Fox’s Gutfeld: “Liberal Policies … Encouraged The Death Of The Family”
VIDEO ››› January 18, 2013 10:03 PM EST ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
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From the January 18 edition of Fox News’ The Five:
00:00 00:00
Fox Host Shouts Down First Mention On Network Of 2012 Record Heat
BLOG ››› January 9, 2013 7:30 PM EST ››› HANNAH GROCH-BEGLEY
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Fox News’ Bob Beckel was shouted down by his Five co-host Greg Gutfeld for attempting to report that 2012 was the hottest year on record in the contiguous United States. This was the network’s first mention of the record heat, which has been covered by every major news outlet except for Fox.
As The New York Times reported, the National Climatic Data Center announced this week that the average temperature in 2012 was 55.3 degrees, which broke the previous record by over a degree.
Reporting the news on The Five, Beckel started to say “For all the global warming deniers, 2012 was the hottest year on record,” before Gutfeld interjected by shouting: “Lies.”
Beckel’s attempt to discuss the record heat announcement was the first time it earned a mention on Fox News, though all other major news outlets, including all the network news, PBS, CNN, and MSNBC, reported on the worrying milestone. His co-host’s attempt to silence him is just the latest example by Fox figures to downplay climate change and its consequences.
Fox’s Gutfeld: “The Biggest Myth Of All Time Is That Sweatshops Are Bad”
“Sweatshops For Emerging Economies Are For Workers With No Skills”
VIDEO ››› January 8, 2013 6:15 PM EST ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
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From the January 8 edition of Fox News’ The Five:
00:00 00:00
Fox Hides Danger Of Guns In Homes Behind Rare Instances Of Self-Defense
BLOG ››› January 7, 2013 7:16 PM EST ››› CHELSEA RUDMAN
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Fox News has repeatedly hidden the danger of keeping guns in homes behind a handful of anecdotes about home owners who frightened off criminals with their own firearms. Research actually shows that guns kept in homes are far more likely to kill or injure those living there than deter crime.
On Monday’s edition of America Live, host Megyn Kelly juxtaposed reports that the White House may push for laws to prevent gun violence with a story about a homeowner near Atlanta who successfully repelled a burglar with her gun. Kelly said that the home invasion “could have ended tragically for a family, but for the fact that the mother had a .38 revolver and knew how to use it.”
As correspondent Mike Emanuel gave a report on the White House’s interest in gun-violence legislation, text aired on-screen that read: “Mom’s Shooting of Intruder Puts New Twist On Gun Control Debate.”
On the December 5 edition of The Five, the co-hosts recited two stories of homeowners who had repelled invading criminals with firearms in the first five minutes of the show. Co-host Andrea Tantaros concluded that “burglars are less apt to break in if they think they might have their brains blown out.”
Yet Fox’s emphasis on these reports hides the fact that such successful self-defense stories are extremely rare. In a 2011 report summarizing scientific literature about the health risks and benefits of having a gun in the home, David Hemenway, director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, found that one study in Atlanta determined victims of break-ins used firearms in self-defense 1.5 percent of the time. Hemenway cited a second study that found guns were used in self-defense by victims of sexual assault in fewer than 0.1 percent of incidents. He concluded that “genuine self-defense gun use is rare” and that “the evidence does not indicate that having a gun reduces the risk of being a victim of a crime or that having a gun reduces the risk of injury during the commission of a crime.”
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Fox’s Gutfeld: “One Of His Cats Or Maybe One Of His Multiple Personalities” Nominated Paul Krugman For Treasury Secretary
Adds: “I Was Also Nominated For Secretary Of Defense … But I’m Not A Secretary, It’s Demeaning. It’s A Step Down”
VIDEO ››› January 7, 2013 7:06 PM EST ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
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From the January 7 edition of Fox News’ The Five:
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Fox’s The Five Tries To Defend Its Mockery Of Clinton’s Concussion
BLOG ››› January 5, 2013 12:14 AM EST ››› HANNAH GROCH-BEGLEY
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The co-hosts of Fox News’ The Five attempted to defend their mockery of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent concussion by dismissing their remarks as mere “skepticism.”
On December 15, The Washington Post reported that Clinton sustained a concussion after she fainted due to dehydration. After the incident, the State Department explained that due to the concussion, Clinton would have to postpone her testimony on the attack in Benghazi, Libya.
On Friday, The Five co-host Greg Gutfeld asked why it was considered “offensive to question the odd timing of an illness,” and insisted that he and his Fox colleagues were simply “exercising of our First Amendment right to ask questions.” He accused journalists of “ginning up fake hatred, or outrage, towards skeptics,” and claimed “skepticism” was on “life support.”
Co-host Andrea Tantaros further accused Clinton of “a history” of “being a professional victim.” Tantaros concluded that though some want her and others to apologize for their Clinton remarks, she does not think it’s necessary.
However, the previous remarks from The Five co-hosts on Clinton’s concussion were not merely skepticism, but outright mockery. They suggested Clinton faked her condition to avoid giving testimony on the Benghazi attack. On December 19, The Five co-host Kimberly Guilfoyle accused Clinton of a “duck and cover,” and Gutfeld asked, “How could she get a concussion when she’s been ducking everything [related to Benghazi]?”
These remarks were echoed by other Fox figures, who accused Clinton of having “Benghazi allergy” and faking a “diplomatic illness.”
Discussing Record Number Of Women In Congress, Fox’s Gutfeld Asks: “Do You Want Your Government Run By The View?”
VIDEO ››› January 4, 2013 6:13 PM EST ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
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From the January 4 edition of Fox News’ The Five:
00:00 00:00
Fox’s Gutfeld On Tax Deal: Obama “Wants To Transform This Country Into A Non-America Of His Dreams”
VIDEO ››› January 2, 2013 6:21 PM EST ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
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From the January 2 edition of Fox News’ The Five:
00:00 00:00
VIDEO: For Right-Wing Media, “Greece” Is The Word
BLOG ››› January 2, 2013 5:24 PM EST ››› ALAN PYKE
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In response to a compromise on tax policy, conservative media are again comparing the United States to Greece. According to right-wing logic, the deal brings America even closer to the violence and discord in Greece, Italy, Ireland, France, and just about every European country whose citizens have protested austerity measures.
Of course, conservative media figures have spent at least three years ringing this same alarm. Economic experts have spent just as much time dismissing this panicked comparison, but to little avail. This Media Matters video, drawing on three years of television coverage of deficits and spending, shows the prevalence and longevity of the Greece talking point:
Right-Wing Media Falsely Compare U.S. With Greece To Support Spending Cuts
RESEARCH ››› January 2, 2013 4:25 PM EST ››› ALBERT KLEINE
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In an effort to push for federal spending cuts, right-wing media figures have repeatedly claimed that the U.S. is on the path to becoming Greece, which is facing a severe debt crisis. However, the comparison between the two countries is wholly misleading, and sharp spending cuts in Greece have exacerbated the country’s economic contraction.
Fox’s Gutfeld On Cutting Live To Obama: “I Would Rather See Dana Riding A Bull Than Listen To The President Giving Bull”
VIDEO ››› December 21, 2012 6:28 PM EST ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
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From the December 21 edition of Fox News’ The Five:
Also again you show that you are igorant when it comes to KO, OW is a hate site that lies about KO, they have never called KO out on a lie and do not say different because that would be another lie out of you.
I have to laugh that you would put a dishonest show and a dishonest website that only lie about KO and shown why he this generations Murrow because all it shows is how igorant by is when it comes to who KO is, it also shows that BY does not what facts and journalism are.
Keep embarrassing yourself with your made up posts about KO, only showing that you are igonrant about who KO is and always will be.
You really show why KO is this generations Murrow and make me love and respect him more and more show why he on to bigger and better things. Keep lying about KO and supporting dishonest websites and news channels that cannnot tell the truth about anything and like you only care about protecting liers and bullies and hate speech and if you say different you will be lying.
KO keep being yourself and you will always have a fan in me, love you faults and all.
Now get off the blog and go to we are igonrant about KO blogs and love to protect dishonest blogs and news channels like Fox and OW and let people talk baseball.
Wow By love how you show that you so igorant when it comes to honesty and facts, only people that live in alternate universes like you do would believe anything that comes out of a Fox show. You really show why KO is this generations Murrow and that you are hypocrite when you even talk about him, because you support a channel that has been know to lie and use hate speech, and if you say different you will caught in another lie. I know what Fox was when Bush cousin worked there and it called the election for Bush in 2000, I have known what Fox was when it repeated Bush’s lies about Iraq over and over again, and had no problem scaring the American people, I knew this all before i knew who KO was. If you say anything different you will be lying. You really show that you hate KO because he telling the truth about Koch Brothers and showing how made up the lies are about Soros that you love to put out, sorry those are lies about Soros, so if you repeat them all you will show is that you have no idea what honesty and facts are. You have to believe that government is bad and corporations are good, and if you say different you will only show that you hate facts and honesty.
Keep posting crap like this and showing why KO is this generations Murrow and why he has no idea how to lie. Moderators take this troll off and let people talk baseball.
Pingback: Why The $92,000 Baseball Card Isn’t Really A Baseball Card - Unofficial Network
Well, Keith, if you say it isn’t a baseball card, then it isn’t a card. I’ll take your word on it. You’re the expert. I wouldn’t have a clue. But it is a piece of baseball history. That alone would make me think that you would want to own it. But I can’t blame you for not wanting to spend that much money on something you don’t consider a card. Fascinating article. It amazes me just how much knowledge you possess every time I read one of your blogs. Each time I read one, I think to myself, “How does he know all this stuff?” Mind-boggling. So once again I will say “Well done as always”.
It amazes me also, he also makes the sport intersting, would love if he had a baseball show. I know that I would watch.
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This was utterly brilliant. The history behind the beginning of what is now called baseball cards is quite intriguing. To find that its beginnings from a concept of a calling card to grow into such a business today is fascinating to see. BTW, I’ve applied to Topps for a job so this information is of value to me.
What I feel is happening here, everyone stating it’s a baseball card, is that this photo on cardboard is the first ‘concept’ of a baseball card. It’s like the draft copy of a future model but not actually the final product that eventually evolved over time. It may be construed as the pilot or blueprint of the baseball card. It has gone through modifications to end up in the current state. It reminds me of a happenstance that someone created at the time and others began to grow the idea of baseball cards recording pictures of players and finding an advertising avenue with it. It has value and significance as recording history, but $92,000? I could pay off my mortgage with that and still have some to spare! I take it that it is worth the special value to the person who now owns it. History is very important to make note of as much as possible and reflect the persona of the day. It can be very educational to see the roots of something in order to understand the present.
Today I saw the design of the future Tappan Zee Bridge and it knocked me over. The New NY Bridge project got its launch today. See the actual presentation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9RzTWlIp9k&feature=player_embedded …
Its amazing to see a design that will eventually become a reality. Thank you for this view into history.
Mary
That is really cool, hope you get the job.
Once again a person that has no idea who KO is, you are stupid on him as the guy on Huffington Post that thinks that when KO does something good it a publicity stunt, were do you subhumans come from again here is who gibson is I really laugh because all those points do not describe KO.
Let’s see point one making excuses wow I did not know having a doctor say that you have throat infection was making an excuse wow, I guess you were in those appointments, By do you live in alternate reality, in KO’s business having thorat infections are career dangerous if you do not get them treated. Wow trying to get what in his contract like control of the news department, wow I did not know that was makng excuses, I did not know that trying to get his studio to work and his set to work was making excuses. So sorry that first one does not describe KO.
What despitful behavior has KO done, wow I love how you show how igorant you are on KO, Ko has never given anyone the silent treatment and do not put out debunk articles that only show that one to be false. Also again love how you show that you are igorant about not being couties or the other. Again you put out made up crap trying to show that KO is something that he not.
So you have shown that KO is neither number one or number two, but those two describe you and Current.
Wow I did not know that wanting your set to work and your studio to work was being selfish, wow I did not know that wanting what was in your contract was being selish. Please keep lying about who KO is and showing that you not KO are the imature one. Also thanks again for describing Current.
Wow again I did not know your set not working your studio falling apart and Current ignoring it was called being hypersentive, wow thanks again for showing that you do not know what those traits look like. You keep showing how mature kO is and how imature Hyatt and Gibson and you are.
Wow were has KO twisted the truth, I did not know that wanting again to have what in your contract, to make sure that your brand is not hurt aka Current making KO do a commerical for AT&T was what twisting truth is. Thanks again for showing that Current, you and Gibson are immature ones.
Wow sorry again that does not describe KO, where has KO defied logic. Wanting to rest your voice so you can give more years to your employer is showing that you are being unlogical and unreasonable, again trying to get your studio to work and your set to work, that is what being unlogical is. Wow you show that you have no idea what logic is.
Also keep showing that BY has no idea what being human is,
here again is who Gibson is KO is not BB, thier is no such thing as bath tub boy that is something that was made up by John Gibson because KO was not allowed to call him worst person. Also anyone that uses that name shows that they have zero clue what being human is. John Gibson thought it was funny to make fun of Stewart’s pain on 911, he thought it was funny to make fun of Lugar’s suicude by his I could never quit you quto, UPDATE: John Gibson has “apologized” for his distasteful comments on Heath Ledger’s death. Though he first defended his statements on his radio show yesterday — there is “no point in passing up a good joke,” he said, and repeated his “Brokeback Mountain” joke saying, “I’m not giving that up” — he eventually caved to pressure to apologize and did so on his television show.
Still, his apology seemed forced, and relatively half-hearted:
Those who knew him say he was a good actor and a loving dad. And what happened to him was terrible, but was evidently an accident. Once again, to anyone offended by my comments, I’m sorry. But I’m also sorry that Heath Ledger is no longer alive and with us.
ThinkProgress has the audio of Gibson’s defense of his comments, and MediaMatters has the video of his “apology.”
–
ORIGINAL ITEM: Fox News’ John Gibson found a way to outdo MSNBC’s Courtney Hazlett for the most inappropriate comment on Heath Ledger’s death. ThinkProgress reports that, on his radio show yesterday (which opened with funeral music), Gibson called Ledger a “weirdo” with a “serious drug problem.” Making fun of the famous “I wish I knew how to quit you” line from “Brokeback Mountain,” Gibson said of his death, “Well, he found out how to quit you.”
This is not Gibson’s first time making inappropriate comments in the wake of tragedy. In July 2005, just one day before the 7/7 terrorist bombings in London, Gibson said that “the International Olympic Committee missed a golden opportunity….If they had picked France instead of London to hold the Olympics, it would have been the one time we could look forward to where we didn’t worry about terrorism. They’d blow up Paris, and who cares?” The next day, after the London bombings, Gibson.
Also only people that live in alterante universes think that this is Obama’s Monica lewsinsky. Excuse me, were was the cover up, were was Obama lying, wow were was Obama having a affair with a intern. You really show that you have no idea what you talk about.
Also I love how you put out a made up Special Comment that KO never gave. Showing that you do not know what pardoy is. This story has nothing to do with KO, so keep showing how igonrant you are on KO and that you have zero clue what make believe aka pardoy sketch and reality are.
KO is not BB that is a made up story and anyone that uses it shows that they have zero idea what being human is.
Wow once again you show that you not KO are the immature one, and do not say different because that would be a lie. Only people that are igorant about who KO is and what immature behavior like you would believe those made up talking points, that again are debunked like everything that you say, and again I am someone who would care crap if Ko was that, that is how I know that KO is opposite of immature and that those talking points describe you to a tee.
Keep showing that you do not know what being human means, only people in alternate unvierses would believe the made up lie by Gibson that get’s debunked.
Also thanks for describing Current to a tee, and showing me how mature kO is, and if you say different it would only be a another debunnked lie by a blogger that has zero clue who KO is and only bashes him because KO is not allowed to tell the truth about Fox and republicans, get off the blog and let people talk baseball, all you show is that KO is this generations Murrow and always will be, along with showing how mature he is and how imature you are.
Wow I guess you love to support others that are all about hate like Gibson is. Keep lying about KO and showing how igorant you are on him.
“…that thinks that when KO does something good it a publicity stunt…”
BB’s done something good before?
good read!
moderators we have a troll on the loose, please come and take them back to we are igorant about KO blogs.
So we can come back and talk baseball.
They haven’t listened to anything you’ve said in the last seven months. Why would they start now?
Wow By
Keep lying about KO and showing that you are beyond igorant on who he is, as you are about everything else. You keep showing that you are the immature one along with being excatrly what you want KO to be.
You need to get off this blog and let people talk baseball.
I started watching Keith on MSNBC in 2004 or 2005 (I can’t remember the exact year). I needed something to watch while eating dinner when there wasn’t a baseball game on. I just liked the format of “Countdown” and Keith’s sense of humor. I remember him spending the last segment doing an “American Idol” story and saying how he hated it– I agreed with him on that too! I couldn’t wait to get home from work and listen to the opening with that techno-Beethoven’s 9th (a tribute to NBC’s early days, I think, if not a sacrilege to Ludwig). Keith got me through the Bush years. But after he wasn’t on MSNBC anymore I stopped watching politics. Then a couple months ago I started watching MSNBC again– and I found it funny that the network that was once called liberal, even though Keith was the only liberal with a show (I don’t count Chris Matthews), has now gone all-out liberal. Keith put that network on the map when it used to be mostly “Lockdown” and “Headliners & Legends.” He got Rachel her show. Now everybody has a show– except Keith. Ed has his heart in the right place but he ain’t quite Keith. His text polls are a joke. “A: do you think Republicans are great? B: do you think Republicans are absolutely awful beyond words”– 99% of you say awful beyond words. I just find it somewhat ironic that the network Keith made relevant and entertaining no longer has Keith. (history– I know I’m being long-winded but the trolls have me throwing caution to the wind.) So what’s my point? I don’t have one. I work for CNN. No, seriously, my point is I have nothing to say about baseball cards so I just want to say how much I miss watching “Countdown” and how MSNBC (while still sort of fun to watch, especially Lawrence who can get on a roll) owes Keith big-time for making them who they are. Meanwhile, Rupert (I miss Keith’s Aussie accent impression) is buying a big chunk of the YES Network and next he’ll buy the Yankees and I’ll become an even bigger fan of the Mets.
I hear you Sam
I will tell you that when it comes to Shulz, I have no respect for him, I start disliking him when he was telling people not to vote in the 2010 election because of what Obama was doing. It got worse when he was thier for all of Wisconsin, but was not thier from the start on Occupy Wall Street, and not I care crap about how many times he was down there. Anyone can go down and talk to people, Shultz always says he for the people and Occupy is a working man’s movement and he should have been there from the start. He was not even there when MSNBC started the coverage, that was Odonell.
I cannot watch MSNBC not because of KO, as I said I have lost all trust in Shultz when it comes to what is right, wish that was not the case, because I loved the books that he wrote about the what was happening to the 99%, but also I hate the way he and Lawerence handle guests. They only embarrassing themselves and it hard to watch, because I not getting informed or hearing different sides all I hear is agruing and people talking over each other, I hated that kind of format before I knew who KO was, the way that he interviewed was what made me start watching.
As for the MSNBC mangement i have no respect for them, they act espically Griffen like he was the one that made MSNBC what it is today, when he and other’s at mangement had to be pressured by Maddow. They did not even give her a contract to be a guest or contributor when Tucker went off the air. KO was the one that picked her up as a guest and took the time to help her learn the Tv business, and they want to take the credit and re-write thier history, makes me want to scream, one reason why I do not listen to mangement when it comes to how they betray KO, because they always end up with ungrateful hypocrites aka campaign donations by others in thier network.
Agree with you on all, and do not mind the windness, again the troll needs to leave.
You are correct Keith, it isn’ a card, it’s a photo and an overpriced one at that. Whoever found it was a genius in hyping it as the “first card.”
I just think the debate that KO was having with people on twitter about the card was intersting in itself.
Again KO keep being yourself and you will always have a fan in me, love you faults and all, sorry you got unjustily fired at Current and love that you are on to bigger and better things. Keep shoiwng why I will always call you this generations Murrow.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Obama – My God, where do I begin?
We’re a little over two months into the reign of Obama The Immaculate. The changes being forced onto our country by Obama and his koolaid crowd are frightening. The fact that 51% of Americans like what he is doing is downright scary.
I’ve got a lot to say about Obama, Reid, Peolsi, et al ….
But for this post, I’ll just say this. The political ignorance of the majority of our population is allowing these idiots to get away with murdering our country. People who do not follow politics, who don’t have any education in the government of the United States except what is force fed them by liberal teachers, are taken advantage of by the Democrat party. Those people, who for the most part are minorities, the poor, illegal immigrants, and the far left kook fringe, take for gospel whatever the Democrats tell them. Lemmings … Obama could tell them to walk into a volcano, and they’d do it.
How many of you have seen the Alec Baldwin TV commercial for hudu (or something like that)? How Freudian … one of the country’s most outspoken far left liberals hawking a media content company – but how many of you see how it perfectly fits the Democrat Party? “We’re turning your brains into jelly … Mmmm, jelly ….” … I can’t see anyone more perfect for delivering that line than maybe Howard Dean.
A pliable, politically ignorant population is a perfect platform for their plan to socialize this country. Historical precedent … Germany in the early ’30s, during Hitler’s rise to power. A charismatic, well spoken leader whipping a pliable populace into a frenzy, allowing him to curtail freedoms, institute government control over more and more of everyday life, nationalizing business and commerce, and cowering those who oppose him. Hitler … or Obama?
Americans need to wake up and see what is happening. Educate yourselves as to what is being force fed to you, and the historical precedents. If you still like it, then so be it – but PLEASE make informed decisions – not blind obedience.
Wow
In a new book meant as a prescription for the sluggish U.S. economy, former President Clinton says Democrats and President Obama bungled their response to the country’s debt and deficit crisis, leaving the U.S. looking “weak and confused.”
The book, “Back to Work,” will be published Tuesday. The details of Clinton’s analysis come from The Associated Press, which obtained an advance copy.
Clinton maintains that Obama could have averted this summer’s politically damaging debt ceiling standoff if he’d pushed for for an increase when Democrats controlled Congress, or through a unilateral show of executive power.
Instead, he says, the deal brokered with Republicans does little to address unemployment or curb long-term debt, leaving Obama with a “tough hand to play” in the months ahead.
Clinton also says Obama and Democrats could now be more effective in making their case for higher taxes on wealthier Americans by not emphasizing the class divide.
“I didn’t attack them for their success,” Clinton says, citing his economic record during eight years in office that included raising new tax revenue.
Clinton, who has largely supported Obama’s handling of the economy under difficult circumstances, expresses misgivings over his messaging, reported the AP.
By Cllinton’s telling, Obama and the Democrats lost control of Congress in 2010 in large part because they didn’t make a convincing case — “in plain language” — aimed at countering assaults by the Tea Party.
Clinton says he and Vice President Joe Biden personally pushed Democratic activists to develop a unified set of talking points on the Recovery Act, auto bailout and financial regulatory reform – all to no avail.
“We couldn’t persuade the decision makers to do so,” Clinton said.
Wow By here is Clinton critizing Obama
Sun coverage
More political news
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is a gun man, always has been.
And although the Nevada native has welcomed the call by President Barack Obama to respond to the Newtown, Conn., massacre with action, Reid has yet to endorse — or even utter the phrase — “gun control.”
Obama expects Reid to get the gun control legislation he’ll announce in January through Congress. Polls show a majority of Americans want Congress to act to regulate firearms after the Dec. 14 killings of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
But before Reid can whip up votes on measures to scale back access to guns, he has to wrestle with the issue himself.
“He’s a gun guy,” one of Reid’s closest confidants said. “But I think he recognizes that times have changed.”
Reid said he grew up with a gun in his hands.
“Growing up as I did in Searchlight, we didn’t go on vacations, we didn’t do things I guess a lot of other people around the country did … but I can remember all four Reid brothers, we took a ride out to Paiute Springs and we shot doves,” Reid told a Nevada audience at a 2010 ribbon-cutting for a shooting range he had secured federal funds to build. “We had such a wonderful, wonderful time. … People who criticize this probably would criticize baseball or football or soccer.”
Reid’s childhood shooting birds for sport and hunting jackrabbits his grandmother used in stew is a common narrative among Westerners.
JUSTIN M. BOWEN
Sen. Harry Reid prepares to shoot his personal 12-gauge shotgun during the grand opening of the Clark County Shooting Park in Las Vegas Saturday, March 27, 2010.
Guns played an important and recurring role in his adult life, too. Reid carried a gun for work as a Capitol Police officer while he was in law school. He carried a gun for protection while he was chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission and while working as a prosecutor trying to put mob bosses behind bars.
Guns, their role in everyday life and the extent to which that right is protected by the Second Amendment were matters Reid simply didn’t question, according to those who worked with him — not after Columbine; not when the assault weapons ban expired (he’d voted against it); and not after Virginia Tech, the country’s deadliest single-shooter assault, happened in the first year of his majority leadership in the Senate.
“I haven’t seen him spend a lot of time wrestling with this issue over the years,” said a former aide who was close with Reid. “In years past he’s largely ended up toeing the NRA line. But I’m not convinced that’s going to happen this time.”
Twenty dead 6- and 7-year-olds, killed by a high-capacity semiautomatic rifle, are making many lawmakers who never thought twice about gun laws revisit the issue.
Adam Lanza, 20, went to the school after having shot his mother to death at her home. At the school, he killed 20 first-graders and six of the women who taught them before turning his guns on himself.
As the stunned New England town has buried its dead in the days since, some lawmakers in Washington have, for the first time, called for a conversation about gun control.
The shift started with long-silent supporters such as the president, who said he believed in gun control during his 2008 campaign but has eschewed any official conversation about it while in office.
“A majority of Americans support banning the sale of military-style assault weapons. A majority of Americans support banning the sale of high-capacity ammunition clips. A majority of Americans support a law requiring background checks before all gun purchases so that criminals can’t take advantage of legal loopholes,” Obama said just days after the killings. “I urge the new Congress to hold votes on these measures next year in a timely manner.”
But voices for gun control also included avid hunters and National Rifle Association members, such as Sen. Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, and Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat.
“I’m a proud outdoorsman and huntsman, like many Americans, and I like shooting, but this doesn’t make sense,” Manchin told MSNBC. “I don’t know anyone in the sporting and hunting arena who goes out with an assault rifle; I don’t know anyone who needs 30 rounds in the clip to go hunting.”
Even where staunchly pro-gun lawmakers have refused to support regulation, something unusual is happening: public distancing from the NRA, which has called for placing armed guards in schools in response to Newtown.
Reid has maintained a mixed relationship with the NRA, the gun industry’s strong lobbying arm that wields considerable influence in Washington through generous campaign donations and ideological appeals.
Reid has maintained a “B” average NRA rating, pretty high for a Democrat, and although he has never received the NRA’s endorsement in a Senate race, he usually receives its money — even rarer for a Democrat.
Reid voted against the assault weapons ban; applauded the Supreme Court’s recent pro-gun decisions in District of Columbia v. Heller and McDonald v. Chicago; and worked closely with the NRA to promote gun sports, such as securing federal funding for the Clark County Shooting Range.
But Reid hasn’t drawn a hard line in the sand on gun control like other advocates: He worked hard to promote Obama’s nominations of Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court despite the fact that both thought the Second Amendment allowed for greater regulation of guns than Reid. Reid also is waging a one-man fight for the federal court nomination of Elissa Cadish, whom Nevada Republican Sen. Dean Heller has prevented from being considered because he takes issue with her written opinions about gun control and the Second Amendment.
Reid also staunchly supports Obama’s call to move toward a comprehensive response to recent mass shootings in Newtown; Portland, Ore.; Aurora, Colo.; and Oak Creek, Wis., that includes gun control, but he has resisted invitations to express his opinion on any changes in firearm regulation.
His office turned down a request to interview Reid for this article and did not respond to questions about Reid’s stance or current relationship to guns — not even to clarify how many he owns, whether he keeps any in D.C. and how often he shoots.
J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE / AP
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., speaks with reporters following a Democratic strategy session at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2012.
But former aides said there’s a reason for all the hush-hush.
“Reid’s got a responsibility as a majority leader to not get ahead of the (Senate Democratic) caucus,” a close former aide said. “It doesn’t mean that he can’t change, but he’s got to do it more carefully than most.”
Reid has many Democratic colleagues with pro-gun records and “A” ratings from the NRA. Among them are at least three who are facing tough re-election races in states where a change of heart on guns could cost them: Mark Begich of Alaska, Max Baucus of Montana and Tim Johnson of South Dakota. Another four with unfavorable NRA ratings — Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Kay Hagan of North Carolina and Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia — are facing close races where a vote for gun control could be turned into a negative campaign issue. The political challenges they face are part of what is driving Reid’s nonspecificity on gun control.
If Reid were to shift his gun-control stance, it wouldn’t be his first behind-the-scenes change of heart on an issue.
Most recently, Reid became a supporter of gay rights.
In the 1990s, Reid voted for establishing the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy banning public disclosure of homosexuality and voted to define marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman in the Defense of Marriage Act. For years since, Reid’s official position was to defer to the Mormon church on matters of equality for gays.
But in 2010, Reid was the chief force behind a successful push to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and this year he said he would vote to legalize gay marriage if it were ever presented to him on a ballot.
Before that, Reid had a full conversion on immigration.
Twenty years ago, Reid was a dogged opponent of immigration reform, waging an unsuccessful battle to end birthright citizenship, which he likened to “offering a reward” for breaking the country’s immigration laws.
“Is it any wonder that two-thirds of the babies born at taxpayer expense at county-run hospitals in Los Angeles are born to illegal alien mothers?” Reid said in a scathing 1993 Senate speech.
His wife, Landra, later told him he was wrong. Six years later, in an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Reid characterized his speech and the bill behind it as “short-sighted,” a “mistake,” and said he was “embarrassed that he made such a proposal.”
Reid is now one of the leading voices for immigration reform. He won the 2010 race for Senate largely because of the confidence Nevada Hispanics had in him for pushing so hard to pass the Dream Act.
In each of those matters, former aides said, an event, a person or an outside force Reid encountered changed his mind.
On gay rights, former aides said, Lt. Dan Choi, an Iraq war veteran who was discharged from the Army National Guard after he revealed his homosexuality, played a significant role in Reid’s change of heart. Choi gave Reid his West Point graduation ring in mid-2010 to hold onto until “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was repealed. Reid returned it to him that December.
On immigration, it was Landra Reid and the growing Hispanic community in Nevada who made him rethink his stance.
“He’s a superior listener, reader and observer of truth. … He takes it all in, he hears and processes everything usually before a person is done speaking,” one close confidante said. “He doesn’t weigh it all equally; he has his own internal scale and an unbelievable ability to balance a lot of incoming information.
“From there he decides. It’s not an emotionless process. In fact, I believe nearly all his decisions are rooted in core human dignities. And sometimes, one individual can have a lot of impact.”
Or in some cases, 20. If Reid changes his well-established opinion on gun control, former aides said, it will almost certainly be because of the children who perished in Newtown. here is KO eith Olbermann excoriated President Obama on his Friday show for halting the impending toughening of environmental regulations against smog.
The announcement from the White House that it would keep widely criticized 2006 regulations in place until at least 2013 did not sit well with Olbermann. In the voiceover introduction to his show, he thundered, “what the hell is going on in the White House?”
Olbermann said that Obama had given a huge gift to polluters and corporations, and had delivered an equally large “whack across the knees” to his base.
“It seems, in short, to reduce his campaign logic to ‘what are you going to do, vote for Rick Perry?’” Olbermann said. He noted that Obama’s EPA administrator had called the 2006 standards “not legally defensible,” and scoffed at the president’s stated excuse for not updating them — that, since the standards were going to be reviewed in 2013, he did not want to ask states and businesses to undergo two rounds of tinkering with their environmental policies.
“So, if you’re having trouble breathing, or if you just occasionally do breathe, kindly help the president out and hold your breath until the year 2013 or later,” Olbermann said. Later, speaking to a guest about the issue, he was equally scornful.
“Who on earth in the White House thinks this is a positive for them and in which delusional parallel universe do they live?” he asked. Also here is
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Matt Taibbi: Obama’s Wall Street Reforms Likely To Be Lame Again In Second Term
Posted: 11/08/2012 11:20 am EST
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The Obama administration in its first four years didn’t take a hard line on Wall Street reform, and that probably won’t change, according to Rolling Stone writer and infamous Wall Street hater Matt Taibbi.
The administration might “keep sitting on their ass,” Taibbi told The Huffington Post in a phone interview late Wednesday. Taibbi said he believes that the president could have won in a landslide if only he’d called the financial industry to account for the mistakes that brought on the mortgage meltdown, financial crisis and recession.
“They kept the status quo,” Taibbi said. “The bailouts and policies were totally continuous with Bush’s.”
Those affected by the foreclosure crisis, which many blame on Wall Street, would have been more likely to vote for a president who went straight for the institutions that threw the housing market and economy into a tailspin, Taibbi said.
“They could have said, ‘Look, this segment of society really abandoned all of America economically, and we’re going to take your side, and we’re going to clean this up, and we’re going to make this better,’” Taibbi said. “They didn’t do that.”
Obama signed the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill into law in 2010, after leaving it mostly to Congress to hash out the details. Dodd-Frank includes many regulations that bother Wall Street — such as requiring big banks to carry more capital and (mostly) banning proprietary trading. But critics say the 848-page law is full of potential loopholes and does not address the true causes of the financial crisis.
The Obama administration has not criminally prosecuted any Wall Street executives for contributing to the financial crisis. The administration also decided not to break up big banks. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac still are under government control; they have cost taxpayers $150 billion as of May 2012. Wall Street donated heavily to Mitt Romney and lost.
But Obama’s team shouldn’t feel complacent, Taibbi said, since Romney was not a strong candidate anyway.
“Here’s a guy who’s the face of Wall Street. He’s running for president four years after Wall Street blew up the universe,” Taibbi said. “That’s a pretty big monkey to have on your back.”
Taibbi said that the Obama administration needs to stop worrying that it might appear anti-business if it cracks down on Wall Street.
“If they had made that argument clearly — that we have to clean up Wall Street, we have to do the right thing — then people would have gotten it, and he would have gotten more support than he got last night,” Taibbi said.
The White House did not respond to a request to comment on Taibbi’s statements.
Also democrats do not vote lock step on bills that Obama puts out, Five House Democrats Wednesday bucked their party and voted with Republicans to repeal Obamacare.
The vote, 244 to 185 with no Republicans voting against a repeal, was mostly symbolic, given that House Republicans have orchestrated at least 30 prior votes to fully or partially kill or defund the president’s health care law. All passing efforts have died in the Democratic-controlled Senate and Wednesday’s legislation will befall the same fate. But the vote did offer politically-vulnerable members a new opportunity to take sides on the president’s health care law.
Larry Kissell and Mike McIntyre, both of North Carolina, were the only two Democrats to publicly announce prior to Wednesday’s vote their plans to side with the Republicans and back a repeal. Both congressmen face difficult re-election bids in districts that have become markedly more Republican following the latest round of redistricting.
Additionally, Oklahoma Rep. Dan Boren and Arkansas Rep. Mike Ross, both of whom voted to fully repeal the law in 2011, voted the same way Wednesday. Both Democrats are retiring, which frees them from worrying about the electoral ramifications of their decisions.
That leaves one surprise vote for repeal from Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson of Utah. Matheson had offered no firm confirmation of his position prior to the vote and did not vote for full repeal in Jan. 2011.
“We must scrap this flawed effort once and for all, start over, and do it right,” Matheson said in a statement Wednesday. “The goal we all share is bipartisan reform that ensures access to quality care and addresses continued rising costs that affect every Utah family and small business…It is time for Congress to repeal this law and replace it with new legislation. As a member of the Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee, I stand ready to work with both parties to achieve bipartisan, sustainable solutions to meet this challenge.”
Matheson said in his statement that he has “voted against the health care bill at every opportunity in the legislative process,” though he voted with Democrats in Jan. 2011 to oppose a full repeal.
Matheson, his state’s only Democratic congressman, is running for re-election in the newly-drawn 4th District where he faces a significant challenge from national tea party rising star Mia Love, who is seeking to become the first African-American Republican woman in Congress.
Love, mayor of Saratoga Springs, recently received an endorsement from Mitt Romney’s wife, Ann, and has garnered many additional high-profile supporters eager to see this seat switch parties.
Wow please continue to show how igorant you are about Obama and democratic party and kool aid. You really are hypocrite and everything that you claim KO is.
Noe get off the blog and let people talk baseball.
Why don’t you PULL YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS and open your eyes and ears to reality? Oh, I forgot, folks like you abhor reality.
History, I was not referring to you. Was referring to the RIGHT WING HATER. Somehow it came under your post
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Apologies to Outlaw13
I wish to apologize to a good friend, known in the blogging world as Outlaw13. He’s been running “Guidons, Guidons, Guidons” for quite a while now, letting us into his world of Army rotorheads.
Reading “Guidons, Guidons, Guidons” was my introduction to the world of blogging. I watched him mature his site over the months (and years) into a format I very much like – that’s why I borrowed it (or stole, if you prefer).
If you haven’t had the opportunity to visit “Guidons, Guidons, Guidons”, you ought to – it’s good, cheap entertainment!
Wow
Love that you write BS and show that you have no idea what you are talking about. No one By has drunk any kool aid on a Obama and we are not robots, that is pure BS as is all your posts.
Reid and Polesi are not Obama’s suggoies espically when it came to the republicans and BUsh.
Reid has stood up to Obama on guns, in that he does not want legislation like bannin assult riflies like Obama has asked for that is how BS your post is.
BY where was Mcain and the GOP leadership when it came to Iraq and saying why we need to not go there, where was republican leadership when the Patriot Act was being passed and when taking liberties away.
So you need to shut up about robots and kool aid, beacaue I bet you never said anything that was against the republicans, you are showing that you are hypocrite and are igorant on what is walking in lock step and what drinking the Kool Aid is.
You show that you are igorant about who Obama is and what he has done and who Polesi and Reid are.
Get off the blogs and go to we are igorant about the Presient and minority leader and Senate majority leader blogs.
Keep lying that is all By does and do not say different becuase that would be a lie.
Emerson
I knew that when you said Rightwing Hater that you were not refering to me, because I am not right wing and never will be.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
This Man Wants Your Money
Timothy Geithner, Obama’s Secretary of the Treasury, announced that the IRS, under his direction, will vigorously pursue tax cheats in order to recover revenue due to the government.
This statement comes from the man who was caught cheating on his income taxes over a period of three years to the tune of $34,000, a sum he only paid after it came to light during his confirmation process (all penalties and interest were forgiven by the IRS – you think they’d do that for an ordinary citizen?). Think of that – the boss of the IRS admitted cheating on his taxes.
This man will oversee the largest increase in taxes in the history of the world. Legislation buried in the porkulus bill and the bloated budget will see the following:
•- President Bush’s tax cuts will be allowed to lapse in 2010.
•- Social Security taxes will be based on all income, rather than the current cap, meaing that anyone earing over $100K will see an additional 7% tax levied on all income over that level.
•- Top bracket income tax rates will increase to 42%. Anyone making over $250K will see an additional 3% of their income taken away above what they would lose, even after the Bush cuts expire.
•- Lower wage earners will receive ‘tax refunds’, even though they have not paid any income tax.
•- Capital gains taxes will be increased over their post Bush tax cut levels, though by how much depends upon who you talk to. Figures I’ve heard vary from 30-45%.
And much, much more …..
Obama The Immaculate has decried that the top 2% of wage earners in this country will be responsible for funding all of his liberal iniatives, and that those 2% are responsible for supporting and paying for the benefits to be given to lower wage earners.
Geithner is the chief finiancial officer of this country. His policies, statements, and willingness to drink the Obama koolaid shows he has a second grader’s understanding of economics. He is overseeing and directing not only the largest tax increase in the world’s history, but he’s also overseeing the largest destruction of personal and corporate wealth in the world’s history.
Gee, I really feel good about my money under his control …..
WOw
Keep putting up debunked crap that anyone with a brain knows is not true.
By you have no idea what honesty is, all this that you wrote about Geither has been debunked and shown that you do not even know what research is, and do not put the lying blogs that you got this info at. My money is more safe with Obama than it is with Bush because republicans By only care about helping thier corporate masters. I guess you care nothing about having to pay more taxes and letting the coroorations get away with running this country. That is how BS and crap your post is.
You show that you have no idea what Obama’s Presidency is doing, is not prefect no, but it unlike Bush who was just giving tax breaks for the rich and was letting this economy go in gutter with his trickle down ecomoics, you complain about Obama who has brought jobs and is getting the economy out of the gutter Bush and Repulicans put it in.
BY keep showing how igorant you are when it comes to this president and that you all you care about is bashing Obama because corporations have to get away with murder.
Keep putting up igorant piece, truth is alot of that stuff Geither has done has helped the economy, but you once again lie instead of listen to truth.
Get off the blog and go to we are igorant about Obama and Geither blogs and let people talk baseball.
Once again By
You show that you do not know what drinking the kool aid means, you also show that you are a hypocrite, where you critizing Bush and his trickle down economic policies that got in this mess, where you critizing the housing bubble. I guess you were there praising Bush and reapeating what all the websites and Fox news where saying that Bush could do on wrong. You By are a hypocrite and show that you do not know what hypocricies mean. Also I have seen people from KO to other progressives critize Obama, on all kinds of things including the economy, where was Borhner and Mcain and other republicans getting on Bush’s case with his tax cuts that only helped the rich.
This is how BS and hypocritcal your posts are,you show once again that you have no idea what honesty is, you are so igorant about what this president has done, is he prefect no but he has done more to help this ecomony than republicans every have with thier tax cuts for the rich.
Also were the republicans helping Obama, all they did was make it hard for him to pass agenda with thier gridlock, so keep bashing Obama and Geither that is all you do.
No one By has walked with Obama lock step not even Polesi or Reid that is and always will be a made up talking point that like everything else you put out gets debunked.
Keep bashing democrats that is all you know how to do.
Wow you are also clueless on Geither During the 2008 Presidential election, Geithner was one of three people tipped to be nominated for Treasury Secretary regardless of whether John McCain or Barack Obama won.[1] On November 24, 2008, President-elect Barack Obama announced his intention to nominate Geithner to be Treasury Secretary.[28][29]
During his confirmation, it was disclosed that Geithner had not paid $35,000 in Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes from 2001 through 2004 while working for the International Monetary Fund.[30] The IMF, as an international agency, did not withhold payroll taxes, but instead reimbursed the usual employer responsibility of these taxes to employees. Geithner received the reimbursements and paid the amounts received to the government, but had not paid the remaining half which would normally have been withheld from his pay. The issue, as well as other errors relating to past deductions and expenses, were noted during a 2006 audit by the Internal Revenue Service[31][32][33][34] Geithner subsequently paid the additional taxes owed,[35] and was charged $15,000 interest, but was not fined for late payment.[36] In a statement to the Senate Finance Committee, Geithner called the tax issues “careless,” “avoidable,” and “unintentional” errors.[35] Geithner testified that he used software to prepare his 2001 return, but that the tax errors were his own responsibility.[37][38]
Geithner was sworn in as Treasury Secretary on January 26, 2009
On January 26, 2009, the U.S. Senate confirmed Geithner’s appointment by a vote of 60–34.[39][40] Geithner was sworn in as Treasury Secretary by Vice President Joe Biden and witnessed by President Barack Obama.[41]
[edit]Bank bailout
Geithner has the authority to decide what to do with the second tranche of $350 billion from the $700 billion banking bailout bill passed by Congress in October 2008. He is not mandated to seek Congressional approval, but went to Congress on February 10–11, 2009 to explain his plans. He proposes to create one or more “bad banks” to buy and hold toxic assets, using a mix of taxpayer and private money. He also proposes to expand a lending program that would spend as much as $1 trillion to cover the decline in the issuance of securities backed by consumer loans. He further proposes to give banks new infusions of capital with which to lend. In exchange, banks would have to cut the salaries and perks of their executives and sharply limit dividends and corporate acquisitions.[42][43] The plan has been criticized by Nobel-prize winning economist Paul Krugman[44] as well as fellow Nobel laureate and former World Bank Chief Economist Joseph Stiglitz.[45]
[edit]AIG bonuses
Main article: AIG bonus payments controversy
Although President Obama expressed strong support for Geithner, the outrage over the AIG bonuses has undermined public support. AIG paid bonuses to executives in its Financial Services division after receiving more than $170 billion in federal bailout aid.[46] Even prior to the election, senior aides to Timothy Geithner have closely dealt with American International Group Inc. on compensation issues including bonuses, both from his time as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and as Treasury secretary. In early November, 2008, a committee concluded that the bonuses, which were in contracts signed before the government takeover, couldn’t be legally blocked. On March 3, 2009, appearing at a hearing of the House Ways and Means Committee Rep. Joseph Crowley, a New York Democrat, asked him about the bonuses that AIG would be paying to financial-products employees “in the coming weeks.” On March 11, Geithner called Mr. Edward Liddy, AIG chief, to protest the bonus payouts. Mr. Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke attended a hearing by Congress on March 24, 2009.[47]
[edit]AIG payments to banks
In November 2009, Neil Barofsky, the Treasury Department Inspector General responsible for oversight of TARP funds, issued a report critical of the use of $62.1 billion of government funds to redeem derivative contracts held by several large banks which AIG had insured against losses. The banks received face value for the contracts although their market value at the time was much lower. In the report, Barofsky said the payments “provided [the banks] with tens of billions of dollars they likely would have not otherwise received”. Terms for use of the funds had been negotiated with the New York Federal Reserve Bank while Geithner was president.
In January 2010, Rep. Darrell Issa released a series of e-mails between AIG and the New York Fed. In these e-mails, the Fed urged AIG not to disclose the full details of the payments publicly or in its SEC filings. Issa pushed for an investigation of the matter, and for records and e-mails from the Fed to be subpoenaed. Rep. Edolphus Towns, Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, issued subpoenas for the records and scheduled hearings for late January. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the Fed would welcome a full review of its actions regarding the AIG payments.[48][49][50][51]
Geithner and his predecessor, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, both appeared before the Committee on January 27. Geithner defended the bailout of AIG and the payments to the banks, while reiterating previous denials of any involvement in efforts to withhold details of the transactions. His testimony was met with skepticism and angry disagreement by House members of both parties.[52][53][54][55]
[edit]China
Wikinews has related news: Obama’s choice for Treasury issues warning on China
Geithner with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at the opening session of the first U.S.–China Strategic and Economic Dialogue on July 27, 2009.
In written comments to the Senate Finance Committee during his confirmation hearings, Geithner stated that the new administration believed China was “manipulating” its currency and that the Obama administration would act “aggressively” using “all the diplomatic avenues” to change China’s currency practices.[56] The Obama administration would pressure China diplomatically to change this practice more strongly than the George W. Bush Administration had done.[57] The United States maintained that China’s actions hurt American businesses and contributed to the financial crisis.[58]
Shortly after assuming his role as Secretary of the Treasury, Geithner met in Washington with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi. He told Yang that the U.S. attached great importance to its relations with China and that U.S.–China cooperation was essential in order for the world economy to fully recover.[59]
On June 1, 2009, during a question-and-answer session following a speech at Peking University, Geithner was asked by a student whether Chinese investments in U.S. Treasury debt were safe. His reply that they were “very safe” drew laughter from the audience.[60][61]
Geithner co-chaired the high-profile U.S.–China Strategic and Economic Dialogue from July 27 to 28 in Washington, D.C. and led the Economic Track for the U.S. side.
[edit]Opposing extension of tax cuts
In summer 2010, The New York Times said Geithner “is President Obama’s point man in opposing the extension of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy after their Dec. 31 expiration. … [Geithner] has cited the projected $700 billion, 10-year cost of the tax cuts, and nonpartisan analyses that they do not stimulate the economy because the wealthy tend to save the additional money rather than spend it. ‘I believe there is no credible argument to be made that the purpose of government is to borrow from future generations of Americans to finance an extension of tax cuts for the top 2 percent,’ [he] said in a recent speech.”[62]
[edit]Fiscal cliff and debt limit negotiations
Geithner is Obama’s lead negotiator about the fiscal cliff and the increase in the 2013 debt limit.[63][64]
[edit]Criticism
Geithner weathered criticism early in the Obama presidency, when Congressman Connie Mack (R-FL) suggested he should resign over the AIG bonus scandal, and Alabama Senator Richard Shelby said that Geithner was “out of the loop”. Democrats largely joined Obama in supporting Geithner, and there was no serious talk of him losing his job.[65]
In November 2009, Geithner again came under fire from members of both the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the Republican Party. Oregon Representative Peter DeFazio suggested that both Geithner and Lawrence Summers, the director of the National Economic Council, should be fired in order to curtail unemployment and signal a new direction for the Obama administration’s fiscal policy. “We think it is time, maybe, that we turn our focus to Main Street,” said DeFazio, speaking for himself and some fellow members of the Progressive Caucus.[66] When Geithner appeared in front of the Congressional Joint Economic Committee, the ranking House Republican, Kevin Brady of Texas, said to the secretary, “Conservatives agree that, as point person, you’ve failed. Liberals are growing in that consensus as well. Poll after poll shows the public has lost confidence in this president’s ability to handle the economy. For the sake of our jobs, will you step down from your post?” Geithner defended his record, suggesting Brady was misrepresenting the situation and overestimating popular disapproval of his job performance.[67]
In June 2011, The New Republic criticized Geithner from the left, arguing that he was and is overly concerned with the deficit at a time, following the Great Recession, the government should be pursuing stimulus; and as a result, it is possible that the stimulus was smaller than it could have been.[68] Wow I guy that got his tax problems solved so, sorry but what happened did not show that he was cheating. BURLINGTON, Vt., Dec. 2 – U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) issued the following statement today after Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, the White House’s chief deficit negotiator, said Social Security was off the table:
“I applaud the Obama administration. This is good news for more than 55 million Americans who have earned Social Security benefits today and every working American who will receive Social Security benefits in the future. The fact is that Social Security has not contributed a nickel to the national debt so it makes no sense for it to be part of deficit negotiations.
“The American people have been clear that Social Security should not be cut and that the wealthy and large corporations must play a significant role in reducing the deficit.”
Sanders, a member of the Senate Budget Committee, also is the founder of the Defending Social Security Caucus. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Wednesday a U.S. growth rate of 2 percent is not enough to get Americans back to work and that the country had a long way to go to repair damage to the economy.
CNBC.com
Timothy Geithner
He said the most helpful thing Washington can do to spur growth is to extend middle-class tax cuts and take the threat of default off the table.
“We need to … force this town to confront and take on the things that divide us on these long term fiscal reforms, so that we can go ahead and govern, and start to address the many other problem this country faces,” the Treasury secretary said.
Geithner made his comments in an interview with NBC’s Andrea Mitchell and in a subsequent question-and-answer session at the Council on Foreign Relations. The discussion came a day before President Barack Obama is to give a major speech on the economy.
In the interview, Geithner said it was unfair to look at Germany as the sole source of the problem in resolving the euro zone debt crisis.
He also put pressure on the European leaders to provide some clarity in coming weeks ahead of the June 28-29 EU summit on the contours of a banking union, its growth strategy and how the region will use its bailout funds to protect vulnerable countries.
“Germany is saying make monetary union work. We are prepared to be behind this broader endeavor, you need to be in support of reforms,” Geithner said, adding that other countries needed to move toward Germany’s position.
Reuters reported Wednesday that draft conclusions for the summit calls for stronger banking and fiscal integration and enhanced governance.
“Recent developments have demonstrated the need to take the EMU (Economic and Monetary Union) to a further stage,” said the draft conclusions, obtained by Reuters.
“The new stage will build on deeper policy integration and coordination. There is a need for more specific building blocks centered around a much stronger banking and fiscal integration, underpinned by enhanced euro governance,” the draft said.
Also that BY is how you get the ecomony back going, do you not get that trickle down economics does not work.
You By are the one that drinks the right wing kool aid and believes the lies they tell you that cutting taxes for the rich and corporations are bad,
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama and Republican congressional leaders reached historic agreement Sunday night on a compromise to permit vital U.S. borrowing by the Treasury in exchange for more than $2 trillion in long-term spending cuts.
The Senate emphatically passed emergency legislation Tuesday to avoid a first-ever government default, rushing the legislation to President Barack Obama for his signature just hours before the deadline. The vote capped an extraordinarily difficult Washington battle pitting Tea Party Republican forces in the House against Obama and Democrats controlling the Senate.
Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid said that both his party and opposition Republicans gave more ground than they wanted to. He said it’ll take members of both political parties to pass the measure.
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said that the pact “will ensure significant cuts in Washington spending” and he assured the markets that a first-ever default on U.S. obligations won’t occur.
Check back here for the latest developments.
LIVE BLOGOldestNewest
4:13 PM – 08/ 2/2011
Pelosi: Democrats ‘Saved The Day’ On Debt, Now Time For Jobs
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) praised Democratic lawmakers for bringing the country “back from the brink of default” and said now is the time to shift attention to jobs.
“We just completed a very lively leadership meeting of the House Democrats, where we talked about … the necessity of Democrats to save the day yesterday, pulling our country back from the brink of default,” Pelosi said during a Tuesday press conference.
“It was a bitter pill for us to swallow, but we did,” Pelosi said of the final debt deal. “And as we did, we saved Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.”
With that bridge crossed, the next step is refocusing Congress on job creation, she said.
“Jobs, jobs, job, jobs, jobs. You cannot say it enough,” Pelosi said. “I really liked what Willie Nelson said, or at least he was quoted as saying — the American people are more concerned about a ceiling over their head than raising the debt ceiling. We know we need to do both.”
The Minority Leader ducked questions about when she would announce her picks for the newly created “Super Congress,” a 12-member panel of lawmakers who will decide where to make up to $1.5 trillion in spending cuts. Pelosi also wouldn’t say if she will require her picks to insist on new revenues in addition to cuts. The goal, she said, is to strike a balance in cuts and spending while preserving entitlement benefits.
“Whoever is at that table will be someone who will fight to protect those benefits,” she said.
– Jennifer Bendery
2:42 PM – 08/ 2/2011
AARP Alarmed By Secretive Super Congress
AARP is relieved that the debt deal did not hack into Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security, but the lobby for older Americans is worried all those programs could get whacked by a secretive super committee that’s supposed to find an extra $1.5 trillion in deficit cutting.
The super committee — made up of 12 lawmakers who will bypass the normal legislative process and produce a bill that cannot be amended — will have to work quickly, coming up with a massive cutting plan by Thanksgiving.
“We are concerned that a fast-track committee process will deny Americans a voice in the discussion about critical tax, health and retirement issues,” said AARP President Barry Rand in a statement.
“AARP believes that the American public deserves a seat at the table in any forum, including the newly created super committee, that discusses potential changes to these critical programs,” Rand added. “We believe that our nation’s leaders should work together to strengthen health and retirement security for current and future generations.”
– Michael McAuliff
2:01 PM – 08/ 2/2011
Top House Democrat Laments That Congress Can’t Do Its Job
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), one of the only Democratic leaders to vote against the debt bill, lamented on Tuesday that the new law includes the creation of an all-powerful “Super Congress” of 12 hand-picked lawmakers who can decide where to make up to $1.5 trillion in future spending cuts.
“I think you’ve asked a very important question,” DeLauro said, when asked why lawmakers created a special committee to do what should be Congress’ job. “My preference obviously would be to have Congress take on these responsibilities. But clearly there’s a view that there’s an impasse and therefore, hopefully, a commission can do that.”
DeLauro, a co-chair of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, split from other Democratic leaders in voting against the debt bill, which increases the government’s spending power by $2.4 trillion through 2013 while imposing as much as $1.5 trillion in cuts, mostly from non-defense spending. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Assistant Minority Leader James Clyburn (D-S.C.) all voted for the bill.
“For me, voting against the bill yesterday was about, given what is in this piece of legislation, it makes these opportunities for economic investments and economic growth all the more difficult,” DeLauro said. “If we choke off all of our opportunities for investment, we will take this nation backwards instead of forward.”
– Jennifer Bendery
1:04 PM – 08/ 2/2011
Obama Signs Debt Deal
@ CNNPolitics : WH says President Obama has now signed the debt ceiling bill into law
12:47 PM – 08/ 2/2011
AARP ‘Relieved,’ ‘Pleased’ With Debt Deal
Senior citizens lobbying force AARP is happy that Social Security checks will not be interrupted by a debt ceiling standoff and that future benefits won’t get automatically clobbered if the 12-member so-called super Congress fails to reach an agreement on deficit reduction.
“We are relieved that Congress has acted on a bipartisan agreement to address the debt ceiling and prevent default to ensure that seniors will continue to receive their Social Security checks and have access to health care,” AARP CEO A. Barry Rand said in a statement. “Going forward, we are pleased that Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare benefits are protected if the so-called ‘super committee’ fails to reach an agreement later this fall, but we will remain vigilant in our efforts to protect the health and retirement security of seniors and future retirees. We are concerned that a fast-track committee process will deny Americans a voice in the discussion about critical tax, health and retirement issues. We also are concerned about the potential use of a trigger that would arbitrarily cut provider payments under Medicare, which could unfairly shift costs to seniors.”
– Arthur Delaney
12:44 PM – 08/ 2/2011
Obama: Let The Pivot To Jobs Begin
Speaking just minutes after the Senate passed legislation to raise the debt ceiling — removing the last political hurdle for that bill’s passage – President Obama delivered a speech in the Rose Garden in which he once again pleaded for a renewed focus on jobs.
Sounding at times exasperated that the political conversation had veered so swiftly to the topic of austerity, Obama urged Congress to present him with job-creating bills as soon as it returned from its August recess. The specifics were pretty much the same as the White House has pushed for weeks if not months: free trade agreements, patent reform, an infrastructure bank, regulatory changes and the extension of the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits.
“Growing the economy isn’t just about cutting spending, it is not about rolling back regulations that protect our air and water and keep people safe. That is not how we are going to get past this recession. We are going to have to do more than that,” he said.
“There already is a quiet crisis going on in the lives of a lot of families and a lot communities all across the country. They are looking for work and they have been for a while … that ought to compel Washington to cooperate, that ought to compel Washington to compromise and that ought to compel Washington to act.”
Coming so soon after both the president and a large portion of the Democratic party signed off on a bill that takes roughly $2.4 trillion out of the economy in the next 10 years, it was hard to imagine that the remedies being offered would have much of a cumulative effect. Moreover, a “pivot” to jobs was already tried unsuccessfully after the tax cut debate at the end of 2010 and the government shut down debate in the spring of 2011.
But Obama’s speech was more about establishing the proper tone than it was about forging out new legislative remedies. With the debt ceiling debate now over until after the 2012 election, the major discussion shifts back to what, if anything, government can do to spur economic growth. One portion of that argument will come when Congress must pass a budget to fund the government by the end of September. But the White House will likely try and create some sort of defining contrast between the president and his Republican critics well before then.
– Sam Stein
12:42 PM – 08/ 2/2011
Bill Heads To Obama’s Desk
HuffPost’s Michael McAuliff and Elise Foley report on the Senate vote:
The Senate did its part Tuesday to end a months-long standoff and raise the debt ceiling, passing a bill that dramatically cuts spending and creates a new “super committee” that will slash budgets even more.
The Senate approved the measure 74 to 26. The bill will go to President Obama’s desk with little time to spare; Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has said that the country would begin to default on its obligations at midnight if a bill was not passed by then.
Although Democrats had many complaints about the bill, they supported it overwhelmingly, with 45 voting “yes” and six voting “no.” Twenty-eight Republicans voted in favor of the bill, meanwhile, while 19 voted against it. The Senate’s two Independents, Sens. Joe Lieberman (Conn.) and Bernie Sanders (Vt.) voted “yes” and “no,” respectively.
Click here to read more.
12:02 PM – 08/ 2/2011
Harry Reid Speaks After Debt Deal Vote
“Neither side got what they wanted. … That’s the way our system works. That’s what compromise is all about.”
11:31 AM – 08/ 2/2011
Senate Passes Debt Ceiling Deal
The final vote is 74-26, more than the 60-vote majority required for passage.
11:00 AM – 08/ 2/2011
Debt Deal Polls: Leaders Behaving ‘Like Spoiled Children’
HuffPost’s Mark Blumenthal reports:
An overnight poll conducted by CNN and ORC International finds more Americans disapprove (52 percent) than approve (44 percent) of what the pollsters described as “an agreement between Barack Obama and the Republicans and Democrats in Congress [that] would raise the federal government’s debt ceiling through the year 2013 and make major cuts in government spending over the next few years.”
The poll delved deeper into specific aspects of the agreement and found support for spending cuts but opposition to the lack of tax increases for wealthy Americans. Specifically,
65 percent approve of $1 trillion in cuts in government spending over the next 10 years (30 percent opposed)
60 percent disapprove of the fact that the agreement does not include any tax increases for businesses or higher-income Americans
The survey also included an unusual question that dramatizes the way Americans feel about the overall debate. More than three out of four respondents said elected officials in Washington that have dealt with the debt ceiling debate have behaved “mostly like spoiled children” (77 percent) rather than “responsible adults” (17 percent).
Click here to read more.
10:27 AM – 08/ 2/2011
Obama Addresses Dispirited Union Members
Hours before he is set to sign legislation to raise the nation’s debt ceiling, President Obama met with the AFL-CIO’s Executive Council whose members are more than a bit worried and upset about the direction of the bill.
Union officials had stayed largely silent in the day or so since the final debt ceiling deal was reached. The ones who did speak out were either already out of office or saved their blistering remarks for near, or after, Monday night’s House vote.
The AFL-CIO, which is the largest union federation in the country, has not yet formally commented at all -– in part because Obama’s appearance was on the schedule for Tuesday morning. And in a statement put out after that meeting, a federation spokesman was short on specifics and decidedly forward-looking.
“This morning’s meeting with the General Board of the AFL-CIO was a conversation about the urgent need to focus on job-creating policies that will propel working people and our economy forward,” said Alison Omens, an AFL-CIO spokesperson. “AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and other union leaders talked with President Obama about working together for solutions that will put people back to work. Working people are desperate to hear how we’re going to focus on the real economy and the jobs crisis and President Obama conveyed his own feeling of urgency around dealing with the jobs crisis.”
Wow so maybe you should get on republican leaderships case for putting out this bill, that you hate, you really are hypocrite BY and show that you do not know what honesty is.
Get off the blog and let people talk baseball.
Atlantics and semantics. Thibodeau and Boudreaux. Eh ban, etre ou non etre. J’aime le nerd de baseball! Un homme Cajun dit, “C’est un carte,” mais il pense autour d’argent! Mais, oui! N’oubliez pas!
Love the french that you put in there.
Politics is where you are needed. Baseball is a hobby.
Jack
To me KO would be great anywhere is all up to him, would watch if he came back to news, he’s the only one that will get me to watch news, but would watch if he gets a baseball show. It all up to him and what he wants to do. The sky’s the limit for him and always will be.
WTF! Baseball talk getting drowned out, once again, by OFF TOPIC B.S. from F—ing TROLLS. GET A LIFE and stay off this blog.
Trust me, I wish they would leave also, so we could keep things with the baseball.
Now that I have gotten that off my chest, I really enjoyed the discussion about the ” Precursor” to Baseball cards. Was very interested when the news broke about it going up for sale, etc. Keith, thank you for the thoroughly thought out examination. I have to agree it is not an actual baseball card, but very interesting piece of baseball history; hence, my referencing it as a Precursor.
Agree with on all of it. As someone who a history buff, I love learning all kinds of history, including baseball, and KO makes it fancinating.
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Keep showing how igorant you are about KO, Redeye is a show that only knows how to lie about people including KO, they like all the other shows By on Fox do not know what truth is, abd show over and over again that they love to defend liers and hatemogers and bullies like you. Only people By that live in alternate universes think that Red eye tells the truth, here is what it is x’s Gutfeld: Students Should “Stiff” Their College Loans To Make Schools “Pay” For “Churning Out Lazy, Stupid Marxists”
VIDEO ››› February 8, 2013 10:18 PM EST ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
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From the February 8 edition of Fox News’ The Five:
00:00 00:00
Fox’s Gutfeld: Flash Mob Perpetrators Are Just “Liberals In A Hoodie”
VIDEO ››› February 6, 2013 7:00 PM EST ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
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From the February 6 edition of Fox News’ The Five:
00:00 00:00
Fox Attacks Obama For Noting Climate Connection To Wildfires
BLOG ››› January 30, 2013 1:06 PM EST ››› SHAUNA THEEL
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Fox News co-host Greg Gutfeld attacked President Barack Obama for connecting wildfires to climate change. But scientists say climate change has increased fire risks in parts of the Western U.S. by promoting warmer and drier conditions, and the number of wildfire acres burned each year is on the rise.
In his second inaugural address, Obama called for action to avoid the destructive impacts of climate change, saying, “Some may deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms.” On the January 29 edition of Fox News’ The Five, Gutfeld criticized Obama for suggesting that wildfires were “somehow linked” to climate change, claiming that there were “a third fewer U.S. wildfires in 2012″:
Gutfeld’s statistic came from a Washington Post column by George Will that compared the number of U.S. wildfires in 2012 to 2006 — a year that saw the most wildfires since 1982. By cherry-picking data from that year, Will obscured the upward trend in acres burned from wildfires. In fact, the number of acres burned by wildfires in 2012 was the third-highest on record in the U.S., and the National Research Council states that “large and long-duration forest fires have increased fourfold over the past 30 years in the American West” as increased temperatures have dried soils and plants and boosted tree-killing beetles. While wildfires are influenced by numerous factors, the U.S. Global Change Research Program stated that “Wildfires in the United States are already increasing due to warming”:
Continue reading ›››
What The Media Should Know About Secretary Clinton And Benghazi
RESEARCH ››› January 23, 2013 6:24 AM EST ››› EMILY ARROWOOD, MELODY JOHNSON, & CHELSEA RUDMAN
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As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton prepares to testify before Congress about the September 11 attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, Media Matters reviews the falsehoods conservative media have pushed regarding Clinton and her response to the attack.
Fox’s Gutfeld: “Liberal Policies … Encouraged The Death Of The Family”
VIDEO ››› January 18, 2013 10:03 PM EST ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
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From the January 18 edition of Fox News’ The Five:
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Fox Host Shouts Down First Mention On Network Of 2012 Record Heat
BLOG ››› January 9, 2013 7:30 PM EST ››› HANNAH GROCH-BEGLEY
117
Fox News’ Bob Beckel was shouted down by his Five co-host Greg Gutfeld for attempting to report that 2012 was the hottest year on record in the contiguous United States. This was the network’s first mention of the record heat, which has been covered by every major news outlet except for Fox.
As The New York Times reported, the National Climatic Data Center announced this week that the average temperature in 2012 was 55.3 degrees, which broke the previous record by over a degree.
Reporting the news on The Five, Beckel started to say “For all the global warming deniers, 2012 was the hottest year on record,” before Gutfeld interjected by shouting: “Lies.”
Beckel’s attempt to discuss the record heat announcement was the first time it earned a mention on Fox News, though all other major news outlets, including all the network news, PBS, CNN, and MSNBC, reported on the worrying milestone. His co-host’s attempt to silence him is just the latest example by Fox figures to downplay climate change and its consequences.
Fox’s Gutfeld: “The Biggest Myth Of All Time Is That Sweatshops Are Bad”
“Sweatshops For Emerging Economies Are For Workers With No Skills”
VIDEO ››› January 8, 2013 6:15 PM EST ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
165
From the January 8 edition of Fox News’ The Five:
00:00 00:00
Fox Hides Danger Of Guns In Homes Behind Rare Instances Of Self-Defense
BLOG ››› January 7, 2013 7:16 PM EST ››› CHELSEA RUDMAN
77
Fox News has repeatedly hidden the danger of keeping guns in homes behind a handful of anecdotes about home owners who frightened off criminals with their own firearms. Research actually shows that guns kept in homes are far more likely to kill or injure those living there than deter crime.
On Monday’s edition of America Live, host Megyn Kelly juxtaposed reports that the White House may push for laws to prevent gun violence with a story about a homeowner near Atlanta who successfully repelled a burglar with her gun. Kelly said that the home invasion “could have ended tragically for a family, but for the fact that the mother had a .38 revolver and knew how to use it.”
As correspondent Mike Emanuel gave a report on the White House’s interest in gun-violence legislation, text aired on-screen that read: “Mom’s Shooting of Intruder Puts New Twist On Gun Control Debate.”
On the December 5 edition of The Five, the co-hosts recited two stories of homeowners who had repelled invading criminals with firearms in the first five minutes of the show. Co-host Andrea Tantaros concluded that “burglars are less apt to break in if they think they might have their brains blown out.”
Yet Fox’s emphasis on these reports hides the fact that such successful self-defense stories are extremely rare. In a 2011 report summarizing scientific literature about the health risks and benefits of having a gun in the home, David Hemenway, director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, found that one study in Atlanta determined victims of break-ins used firearms in self-defense 1.5 percent of the time. Hemenway cited a second study that found guns were used in self-defense by victims of sexual assault in fewer than 0.1 percent of incidents. He concluded that “genuine self-defense gun use is rare” and that “the evidence does not indicate that having a gun reduces the risk of being a victim of a crime or that having a gun reduces the risk of injury during the commission of a crime.”
Continue reading ›››
Fox’s Gutfeld: “One Of His Cats Or Maybe One Of His Multiple Personalities” Nominated Paul Krugman For Treasury Secretary
Adds: “I Was Also Nominated For Secretary Of Defense … But I’m Not A Secretary, It’s Demeaning. It’s A Step Down”
VIDEO ››› January 7, 2013 7:06 PM EST ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
52
From the January 7 edition of Fox News’ The Five:
00:00 00:00
Fox’s The Five Tries To Defend Its Mockery Of Clinton’s Concussion
BLOG ››› January 5, 2013 12:14 AM EST ››› HANNAH GROCH-BEGLEY
100
The co-hosts of Fox News’ The Five attempted to defend their mockery of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent concussion by dismissing their remarks as mere “skepticism.”
On December 15, The Washington Post reported that Clinton sustained a concussion after she fainted due to dehydration. After the incident, the State Department explained that due to the concussion, Clinton would have to postpone her testimony on the attack in Benghazi, Libya.
On Friday, The Five co-host Greg Gutfeld asked why it was considered “offensive to question the odd timing of an illness,” and insisted that he and his Fox colleagues were simply “exercising of our First Amendment right to ask questions.” He accused journalists of “ginning up fake hatred, or outrage, towards skeptics,” and claimed “skepticism” was on “life support.”
Co-host Andrea Tantaros further accused Clinton of “a history” of “being a professional victim.” Tantaros concluded that though some want her and others to apologize for their Clinton remarks, she does not think it’s necessary.
However, the previous remarks from The Five co-hosts on Clinton’s concussion were not merely skepticism, but outright mockery. They suggested Clinton faked her condition to avoid giving testimony on the Benghazi attack. On December 19, The Five co-host Kimberly Guilfoyle accused Clinton of a “duck and cover,” and Gutfeld asked, “How could she get a concussion when she’s been ducking everything [related to Benghazi]?”
These remarks were echoed by other Fox figures, who accused Clinton of having “Benghazi allergy” and faking a “diplomatic illness.”
Discussing Record Number Of Women In Congress, Fox’s Gutfeld Asks: “Do You Want Your Government Run By The View?”
VIDEO ››› January 4, 2013 6:13 PM EST ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
74
From the January 4 edition of Fox News’ The Five:
00:00 00:00
Fox’s Gutfeld On Tax Deal: Obama “Wants To Transform This Country Into A Non-America Of His Dreams”
VIDEO ››› January 2, 2013 6:21 PM EST ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
44
From the January 2 edition of Fox News’ The Five:
00:00 00:00
VIDEO: For Right-Wing Media, “Greece” Is The Word
BLOG ››› January 2, 2013 5:24 PM EST ››› ALAN PYKE
27
In response to a compromise on tax policy, conservative media are again comparing the United States to Greece. According to right-wing logic, the deal brings America even closer to the violence and discord in Greece, Italy, Ireland, France, and just about every European country whose citizens have protested austerity measures.
Of course, conservative media figures have spent at least three years ringing this same alarm. Economic experts have spent just as much time dismissing this panicked comparison, but to little avail. This Media Matters video, drawing on three years of television coverage of deficits and spending, shows the prevalence and longevity of the Greece talking point:
Right-Wing Media Falsely Compare U.S. With Greece To Support Spending Cuts
RESEARCH ››› January 2, 2013 4:25 PM EST ››› ALBERT KLEINE
25
In an effort to push for federal spending cuts, right-wing media figures have repeatedly claimed that the U.S. is on the path to becoming Greece, which is facing a severe debt crisis. However, the comparison between the two countries is wholly misleading, and sharp spending cuts in Greece have exacerbated the country’s economic contraction.
Fox’s Gutfeld On Cutting Live To Obama: “I Would Rather See Dana Riding A Bull Than Listen To The President Giving Bull”
VIDEO ››› December 21, 2012 6:28 PM EST ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
356
From the December 21 edition of Fox News’ The Five:
Also again you show that you are igorant when it comes to KO, OW is a hate site that lies about KO, they have never called KO out on a lie and do not say different because that would be another lie out of you.
I have to laugh that you would put a dishonest show and a dishonest website that only lie about KO and shown why he this generations Murrow because all it shows is how igorant by is when it comes to who KO is, it also shows that BY does not what facts and journalism are.
Keep embarrassing yourself with your made up posts about KO, only showing that you are igonrant about who KO is and always will be.
You really show why KO is this generations Murrow and make me love and respect him more and more show why he on to bigger and better things. Keep lying about KO and supporting dishonest websites and news channels that cannnot tell the truth about anything and like you only care about protecting liers and bullies and hate speech and if you say different you will be lying.
KO keep being yourself and you will always have a fan in me, love you faults and all.
Now get off the blog and go to we are igonrant about KO blogs and love to protect dishonest blogs and news channels like Fox and OW and let people talk baseball.
00
Keep showing how igorant you are about KO, Redeye is a show that only knows how to lie about people including KO, they like all the other shows By on Fox do not know what truth is, abd show over and over again that they love to defend liers and hatemogers and bullies like you. Only people By that live in alternate universes think that Red eye tells the truth, here is what it is x’s Gutfeld: Students Should “Stiff” Their College Loans To Make Schools “Pay” For “Churning Out Lazy, Stupid Marxists”
VIDEO ››› February 8, 2013 10:18 PM EST ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
229
From the February 8 edition of Fox News’ The Five:
00:00 00:00
Fox’s Gutfeld: Flash Mob Perpetrators Are Just “Liberals In A Hoodie”
VIDEO ››› February 6, 2013 7:00 PM EST ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
55
From the February 6 edition of Fox News’ The Five:
00:00 00:00
Fox Attacks Obama For Noting Climate Connection To Wildfires
BLOG ››› January 30, 2013 1:06 PM EST ››› SHAUNA THEEL
57
Fox News co-host Greg Gutfeld attacked President Barack Obama for connecting wildfires to climate change. But scientists say climate change has increased fire risks in parts of the Western U.S. by promoting warmer and drier conditions, and the number of wildfire acres burned each year is on the rise.
In his second inaugural address, Obama called for action to avoid the destructive impacts of climate change, saying, “Some may deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms.” On the January 29 edition of Fox News’ The Five, Gutfeld criticized Obama for suggesting that wildfires were “somehow linked” to climate change, claiming that there were “a third fewer U.S. wildfires in 2012″:
Gutfeld’s statistic came from a Washington Post column by George Will that compared the number of U.S. wildfires in 2012 to 2006 — a year that saw the most wildfires since 1982. By cherry-picking data from that year, Will obscured the upward trend in acres burned from wildfires. In fact, the number of acres burned by wildfires in 2012 was the third-highest on record in the U.S., and the National Research Council states that “large and long-duration forest fires have increased fourfold over the past 30 years in the American West” as increased temperatures have dried soils and plants and boosted tree-killing beetles. While wildfires are influenced by numerous factors, the U.S. Global Change Research Program stated that “Wildfires in the United States are already increasing due to warming”:
Continue reading ›››
What The Media Should Know About Secretary Clinton And Benghazi
RESEARCH ››› January 23, 2013 6:24 AM EST ››› EMILY ARROWOOD, MELODY JOHNSON, & CHELSEA RUDMAN
279
As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton prepares to testify before Congress about the September 11 attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, Media Matters reviews the falsehoods conservative media have pushed regarding Clinton and her response to the attack.
Fox’s Gutfeld: “Liberal Policies … Encouraged The Death Of The Family”
VIDEO ››› January 18, 2013 10:03 PM EST ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
103
From the January 18 edition of Fox News’ The Five:
00:00 00:00
Fox Host Shouts Down First Mention On Network Of 2012 Record Heat
BLOG ››› January 9, 2013 7:30 PM EST ››› HANNAH GROCH-BEGLEY
117
Fox News’ Bob Beckel was shouted down by his Five co-host Greg Gutfeld for attempting to report that 2012 was the hottest year on record in the contiguous United States. This was the network’s first mention of the record heat, which has been covered by every major news outlet except for Fox.
As The New York Times reported, the National Climatic Data Center announced this week that the average temperature in 2012 was 55.3 degrees, which broke the previous record by over a degree.
Reporting the news on The Five, Beckel started to say “For all the global warming deniers, 2012 was the hottest year on record,” before Gutfeld interjected by shouting: “Lies.”
Beckel’s attempt to discuss the record heat announcement was the first time it earned a mention on Fox News, though all other major news outlets, including all the network news, PBS, CNN, and MSNBC, reported on the worrying milestone. His co-host’s attempt to silence him is just the latest example by Fox figures to downplay climate change and its consequences.
Fox’s Gutfeld: “The Biggest Myth Of All Time Is That Sweatshops Are Bad”
“Sweatshops For Emerging Economies Are For Workers With No Skills”
VIDEO ››› January 8, 2013 6:15 PM EST ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
165
From the January 8 edition of Fox News’ The Five:
00:00 00:00
Fox Hides Danger Of Guns In Homes Behind Rare Instances Of Self-Defense
BLOG ››› January 7, 2013 7:16 PM EST ››› CHELSEA RUDMAN
77
Fox News has repeatedly hidden the danger of keeping guns in homes behind a handful of anecdotes about home owners who frightened off criminals with their own firearms. Research actually shows that guns kept in homes are far more likely to kill or injure those living there than deter crime.
On Monday’s edition of America Live, host Megyn Kelly juxtaposed reports that the White House may push for laws to prevent gun violence with a story about a homeowner near Atlanta who successfully repelled a burglar with her gun. Kelly said that the home invasion “could have ended tragically for a family, but for the fact that the mother had a .38 revolver and knew how to use it.”
As correspondent Mike Emanuel gave a report on the White House’s interest in gun-violence legislation, text aired on-screen that read: “Mom’s Shooting of Intruder Puts New Twist On Gun Control Debate.”
On the December 5 edition of The Five, the co-hosts recited two stories of homeowners who had repelled invading criminals with firearms in the first five minutes of the show. Co-host Andrea Tantaros concluded that “burglars are less apt to break in if they think they might have their brains blown out.”
Yet Fox’s emphasis on these reports hides the fact that such successful self-defense stories are extremely rare. In a 2011 report summarizing scientific literature about the health risks and benefits of having a gun in the home, David Hemenway, director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, found that one study in Atlanta determined victims of break-ins used firearms in self-defense 1.5 percent of the time. Hemenway cited a second study that found guns were used in self-defense by victims of sexual assault in fewer than 0.1 percent of incidents. He concluded that “genuine self-defense gun use is rare” and that “the evidence does not indicate that having a gun reduces the risk of being a victim of a crime or that having a gun reduces the risk of injury during the commission of a crime.”
Continue reading ›››
Fox’s Gutfeld: “One Of His Cats Or Maybe One Of His Multiple Personalities” Nominated Paul Krugman For Treasury Secretary
Adds: “I Was Also Nominated For Secretary Of Defense … But I’m Not A Secretary, It’s Demeaning. It’s A Step Down”
VIDEO ››› January 7, 2013 7:06 PM EST ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
52
From the January 7 edition of Fox News’ The Five:
00:00 00:00
Fox’s The Five Tries To Defend Its Mockery Of Clinton’s Concussion
BLOG ››› January 5, 2013 12:14 AM EST ››› HANNAH GROCH-BEGLEY
100
The co-hosts of Fox News’ The Five attempted to defend their mockery of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent concussion by dismissing their remarks as mere “skepticism.”
On December 15, The Washington Post reported that Clinton sustained a concussion after she fainted due to dehydration. After the incident, the State Department explained that due to the concussion, Clinton would have to postpone her testimony on the attack in Benghazi, Libya.
On Friday, The Five co-host Greg Gutfeld asked why it was considered “offensive to question the odd timing of an illness,” and insisted that he and his Fox colleagues were simply “exercising of our First Amendment right to ask questions.” He accused journalists of “ginning up fake hatred, or outrage, towards skeptics,” and claimed “skepticism” was on “life support.”
Co-host Andrea Tantaros further accused Clinton of “a history” of “being a professional victim.” Tantaros concluded that though some want her and others to apologize for their Clinton remarks, she does not think it’s necessary.
However, the previous remarks from The Five co-hosts on Clinton’s concussion were not merely skepticism, but outright mockery. They suggested Clinton faked her condition to avoid giving testimony on the Benghazi attack. On December 19, The Five co-host Kimberly Guilfoyle accused Clinton of a “duck and cover,” and Gutfeld asked, “How could she get a concussion when she’s been ducking everything [related to Benghazi]?”
These remarks were echoed by other Fox figures, who accused Clinton of having “Benghazi allergy” and faking a “diplomatic illness.”
Discussing Record Number Of Women In Congress, Fox’s Gutfeld Asks: “Do You Want Your Government Run By The View?”
VIDEO ››› January 4, 2013 6:13 PM EST ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
74
From the January 4 edition of Fox News’ The Five:
00:00 00:00
Fox’s Gutfeld On Tax Deal: Obama “Wants To Transform This Country Into A Non-America Of His Dreams”
VIDEO ››› January 2, 2013 6:21 PM EST ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
44
From the January 2 edition of Fox News’ The Five:
00:00 00:00
VIDEO: For Right-Wing Media, “Greece” Is The Word
BLOG ››› January 2, 2013 5:24 PM EST ››› ALAN PYKE
27
In response to a compromise on tax policy, conservative media are again comparing the United States to Greece. According to right-wing logic, the deal brings America even closer to the violence and discord in Greece, Italy, Ireland, France, and just about every European country whose citizens have protested austerity measures.
Of course, conservative media figures have spent at least three years ringing this same alarm. Economic experts have spent just as much time dismissing this panicked comparison, but to little avail. This Media Matters video, drawing on three years of television coverage of deficits and spending, shows the prevalence and longevity of the Greece talking point:
Right-Wing Media Falsely Compare U.S. With Greece To Support Spending Cuts
RESEARCH ››› January 2, 2013 4:25 PM EST ››› ALBERT KLEINE
25
In an effort to push for federal spending cuts, right-wing media figures have repeatedly claimed that the U.S. is on the path to becoming Greece, which is facing a severe debt crisis. However, the comparison between the two countries is wholly misleading, and sharp spending cuts in Greece have exacerbated the country’s economic contraction.
Fox’s Gutfeld On Cutting Live To Obama: “I Would Rather See Dana Riding A Bull Than Listen To The President Giving Bull”
VIDEO ››› December 21, 2012 6:28 PM EST ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
356
From the December 21 edition of Fox News’ The Five:
Also again you show that you are igorant when it comes to KO, OW is a hate site that lies about KO, they have never called KO out on a lie and do not say different because that would be another lie out of you.
I have to laugh that you would put a dishonest show and a dishonest website that only lie about KO and shown why he this generations Murrow because all it shows is how igorant by is when it comes to who KO is, it also shows that BY does not what facts and journalism are.
Keep embarrassing yourself with your made up posts about KO, only showing that you are igonrant about who KO is and always will be.
You really show why KO is this generations Murrow and make me love and respect him more and more show why he on to bigger and better things. Keep lying about KO and supporting dishonest websites and news channels that cannnot tell the truth about anything and like you only care about protecting liers and bullies and hate speech and if you say different you will be lying.
KO keep being yourself and you will always have a fan in me, love you faults and all.
Now get off the blog and go to we are igonrant about KO blogs and love to protect dishonest blogs and news channels like Fox and OW and let people talk baseball.
000
Wow
Keep showing how igorant you are about KO, Redeye is a show that only knows how to lie about people including KO, they like all the other shows By on Fox do not know what truth is, abd show over and over again that they love to defend liers and hatemogers and bullies like you. Only people By that live in alternate universes think that Red eye tells the truth, here is what it is x’s Gutfeld: Students Should “Stiff” Their College Loans To Make Schools “Pay” For “Churning Out Lazy, Stupid Marxists”
VIDEO ››› February 8, 2013 10:18 PM EST ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
229
From the February 8 edition of Fox News’ The Five:
00:00 00:00
Fox’s Gutfeld: Flash Mob Perpetrators Are Just “Liberals In A Hoodie”
VIDEO ››› February 6, 2013 7:00 PM EST ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
55
From the February 6 edition of Fox News’ The Five:
00:00 00:00
Fox Attacks Obama For Noting Climate Connection To Wildfires
BLOG ››› January 30, 2013 1:06 PM EST ››› SHAUNA THEEL
57
Fox News co-host Greg Gutfeld attacked President Barack Obama for connecting wildfires to climate change. But scientists say climate change has increased fire risks in parts of the Western U.S. by promoting warmer and drier conditions, and the number of wildfire acres burned each year is on the rise.
In his second inaugural address, Obama called for action to avoid the destructive impacts of climate change, saying, “Some may deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms.” On the January 29 edition of Fox News’ The Five, Gutfeld criticized Obama for suggesting that wildfires were “somehow linked” to climate change, claiming that there were “a third fewer U.S. wildfires in 2012″:
Gutfeld’s statistic came from a Washington Post column by George Will that compared the number of U.S. wildfires in 2012 to 2006 — a year that saw the most wildfires since 1982. By cherry-picking data from that year, Will obscured the upward trend in acres burned from wildfires. In fact, the number of acres burned by wildfires in 2012 was the third-highest on record in the U.S., and the National Research Council states that “large and long-duration forest fires have increased fourfold over the past 30 years in the American West” as increased temperatures have dried soils and plants and boosted tree-killing beetles. While wildfires are influenced by numerous factors, the U.S. Global Change Research Program stated that “Wildfires in the United States are already increasing due to warming”:
Continue reading ›››
What The Media Should Know About Secretary Clinton And Benghazi
RESEARCH ››› January 23, 2013 6:24 AM EST ››› EMILY ARROWOOD, MELODY JOHNSON, & CHELSEA RUDMAN
279
As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton prepares to testify before Congress about the September 11 attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, Media Matters reviews the falsehoods conservative media have pushed regarding Clinton and her response to the attack.
Fox’s Gutfeld: “Liberal Policies … Encouraged The Death Of The Family”
VIDEO ››› January 18, 2013 10:03 PM EST ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
103
From the January 18 edition of Fox News’ The Five:
00:00 00:00
Fox Host Shouts Down First Mention On Network Of 2012 Record Heat
BLOG ››› January 9, 2013 7:30 PM EST ››› HANNAH GROCH-BEGLEY
117
Fox News’ Bob Beckel was shouted down by his Five co-host Greg Gutfeld for attempting to report that 2012 was the hottest year on record in the contiguous United States. This was the network’s first mention of the record heat, which has been covered by every major news outlet except for Fox.
As The New York Times reported, the National Climatic Data Center announced this week that the average temperature in 2012 was 55.3 degrees, which broke the previous record by over a degree.
Reporting the news on The Five, Beckel started to say “For all the global warming deniers, 2012 was the hottest year on record,” before Gutfeld interjected by shouting: “Lies.”
Beckel’s attempt to discuss the record heat announcement was the first time it earned a mention on Fox News, though all other major news outlets, including all the network news, PBS, CNN, and MSNBC, reported on the worrying milestone. His co-host’s attempt to silence him is just the latest example by Fox figures to downplay climate change and its consequences.
Fox’s Gutfeld: “The Biggest Myth Of All Time Is That Sweatshops Are Bad”
“Sweatshops For Emerging Economies Are For Workers With No Skills”
VIDEO ››› January 8, 2013 6:15 PM EST ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
165
From the January 8 edition of Fox News’ The Five:
00:00 00:00
Fox Hides Danger Of Guns In Homes Behind Rare Instances Of Self-Defense
BLOG ››› January 7, 2013 7:16 PM EST ››› CHELSEA RUDMAN
77
Fox News has repeatedly hidden the danger of keeping guns in homes behind a handful of anecdotes about home owners who frightened off criminals with their own firearms. Research actually shows that guns kept in homes are far more likely to kill or injure those living there than deter crime.
On Monday’s edition of America Live, host Megyn Kelly juxtaposed reports that the White House may push for laws to prevent gun violence with a story about a homeowner near Atlanta who successfully repelled a burglar with her gun. Kelly said that the home invasion “could have ended tragically for a family, but for the fact that the mother had a .38 revolver and knew how to use it.”
As correspondent Mike Emanuel gave a report on the White House’s interest in gun-violence legislation, text aired on-screen that read: “Mom’s Shooting of Intruder Puts New Twist On Gun Control Debate.”
On the December 5 edition of The Five, the co-hosts recited two stories of homeowners who had repelled invading criminals with firearms in the first five minutes of the show. Co-host Andrea Tantaros concluded that “burglars are less apt to break in if they think they might have their brains blown out.”
Yet Fox’s emphasis on these reports hides the fact that such successful self-defense stories are extremely rare. In a 2011 report summarizing scientific literature about the health risks and benefits of having a gun in the home, David Hemenway, director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, found that one study in Atlanta determined victims of break-ins used firearms in self-defense 1.5 percent of the time. Hemenway cited a second study that found guns were used in self-defense by victims of sexual assault in fewer than 0.1 percent of incidents. He concluded that “genuine self-defense gun use is rare” and that “the evidence does not indicate that having a gun reduces the risk of being a victim of a crime or that having a gun reduces the risk of injury during the commission of a crime.”
Continue reading ›››
Fox’s Gutfeld: “One Of His Cats Or Maybe One Of His Multiple Personalities” Nominated Paul Krugman For Treasury Secretary
Adds: “I Was Also Nominated For Secretary Of Defense … But I’m Not A Secretary, It’s Demeaning. It’s A Step Down”
VIDEO ››› January 7, 2013 7:06 PM EST ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
52
From the January 7 edition of Fox News’ The Five:
00:00 00:00
Fox’s The Five Tries To Defend Its Mockery Of Clinton’s Concussion
BLOG ››› January 5, 2013 12:14 AM EST ››› HANNAH GROCH-BEGLEY
100
The co-hosts of Fox News’ The Five attempted to defend their mockery of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent concussion by dismissing their remarks as mere “skepticism.”
On December 15, The Washington Post reported that Clinton sustained a concussion after she fainted due to dehydration. After the incident, the State Department explained that due to the concussion, Clinton would have to postpone her testimony on the attack in Benghazi, Libya.
On Friday, The Five co-host Greg Gutfeld asked why it was considered “offensive to question the odd timing of an illness,” and insisted that he and his Fox colleagues were simply “exercising of our First Amendment right to ask questions.” He accused journalists of “ginning up fake hatred, or outrage, towards skeptics,” and claimed “skepticism” was on “life support.”
Co-host Andrea Tantaros further accused Clinton of “a history” of “being a professional victim.” Tantaros concluded that though some want her and others to apologize for their Clinton remarks, she does not think it’s necessary.
However, the previous remarks from The Five co-hosts on Clinton’s concussion were not merely skepticism, but outright mockery. They suggested Clinton faked her condition to avoid giving testimony on the Benghazi attack. On December 19, The Five co-host Kimberly Guilfoyle accused Clinton of a “duck and cover,” and Gutfeld asked, “How could she get a concussion when she’s been ducking everything [related to Benghazi]?”
These remarks were echoed by other Fox figures, who accused Clinton of having “Benghazi allergy” and faking a “diplomatic illness.”
Discussing Record Number Of Women In Congress, Fox’s Gutfeld Asks: “Do You Want Your Government Run By The View?”
VIDEO ››› January 4, 2013 6:13 PM EST ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
74
From the January 4 edition of Fox News’ The Five:
00:00 00:00
Fox’s Gutfeld On Tax Deal: Obama “Wants To Transform This Country Into A Non-America Of His Dreams”
VIDEO ››› January 2, 2013 6:21 PM EST ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
44
From the January 2 edition of Fox News’ The Five:
00:00 00:00
VIDEO: For Right-Wing Media, “Greece” Is The Word
BLOG ››› January 2, 2013 5:24 PM EST ››› ALAN PYKE
27
In response to a compromise on tax policy, conservative media are again comparing the United States to Greece. According to right-wing logic, the deal brings America even closer to the violence and discord in Greece, Italy, Ireland, France, and just about every European country whose citizens have protested austerity measures.
Of course, conservative media figures have spent at least three years ringing this same alarm. Economic experts have spent just as much time dismissing this panicked comparison, but to little avail. This Media Matters video, drawing on three years of television coverage of deficits and spending, shows the prevalence and longevity of the Greece talking point:
Right-Wing Media Falsely Compare U.S. With Greece To Support Spending Cuts
RESEARCH ››› January 2, 2013 4:25 PM EST ››› ALBERT KLEINE
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In an effort to push for federal spending cuts, right-wing media figures have repeatedly claimed that the U.S. is on the path to becoming Greece, which is facing a severe debt crisis. However, the comparison between the two countries is wholly misleading, and sharp spending cuts in Greece have exacerbated the country’s economic contraction.
Fox’s Gutfeld On Cutting Live To Obama: “I Would Rather See Dana Riding A Bull Than Listen To The President Giving Bull”
VIDEO ››› December 21, 2012 6:28 PM EST ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
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From the December 21 edition of Fox News’ The Five:
Also again you show that you are igorant when it comes to KO, OW is a hate site that lies about KO, they have never called KO out on a lie and do not say different because that would be another lie out of you.
I have to laugh that you would put a dishonest show and a dishonest website that only lie about KO and shown why he this generations Murrow because all it shows is how igorant by is when it comes to who KO is, it also shows that BY does not what facts and journalism are.
Keep embarrassing yourself with your made up posts about KO, only showing that you are igonrant about who KO is and always will be.
You really show why KO is this generations Murrow and make me love and respect him more and more show why he on to bigger and better things. Keep lying about KO and supporting dishonest websites and news channels that cannnot tell the truth about anything and like you only care about protecting liers and bullies and hate speech and if you say different you will be lying.
KO keep being yourself and you will always have a fan in me, love you faults and all.
Now get off the blog and go to we are igonrant about KO blogs and love to protect dishonest blogs and news channels like Fox and OW and let people talk baseball.
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Anybody know where I might be able to find page after page of almost completely irrelevant commentary? I’d especially like it if it offered piles of redundant links to Gutfeld videos…a little help here?
Seriously, cool and thought-invoking article.
Sorry about that, the troll thinks that bashing KO is better than talking baseball, and I have hardtime ignoring when people are getting bullied. Trust me, I hope that the troll is done with and we can start talking baseball again.
Could not help but notice that these TROLLS are big FOX NEWS FANS. Referencing what I said before; watching Fox News is equivalent to having your head up your ass!
@Emerson #FOX FANS:
… plenty doubtful they’d see the irony in your comment though: in fact probably would think ’twas in reference to someone else altogether… who’d just happen to be particularly au courant or preoccupied with said station’s content, to say nothing of believing themselves mired in some endless, tiresome crusade… is it for freedom of speech? Or against it? I can’t tell anymore.
Emmet I have noticed that too,
You are so right when it comes to that, I amazed that people still think that station is news, it not all it is lies and hate and proganda. Again knew what fox was when I found out that Bush’ cousin worked for them during the 2000 election and they were first to call Florida, than when they just told the lies about the Iraq war and kept putting out fear to people. They are have been a disgusting station in my eyes.
Always loved that KO called them out on thier lies, and to the trolls do not say different or that will be another lie.
Sorry I meant Emerson, I hate when I make stupid mistakes like this.
Well then, you must be angry ALL THE TIME.
Turk
You are right on point on all of it, this one troll saw a post that I did telling the truth about Fox, and thinks that makes me angry all the time, I really have to laugh with how igorant they are, they think that telling the truth about something makes someone angry espically all the time.
I someone that it hard to get angry with, I just go after By and the other trolls because I hate bullying and ingorance which they show all the time. Also By do not say different because that would be a lie.
By
We are not angry, we just want you and your igorance about who KO is and about stuff in general to go away.
We want to be able to talk baseball here. Now go and let people talk baseball.
Also By telling the truth does not make you angry all the time. You show that you are even igorant about who I am and what I feel. By I not angry all the time, truth is I am rarely angry, I just hate when you come on here and bully people including KO, and do not say different By because that would be a lie.
You really show how igorant you are, you cannot tell someone telling the truth about Fox and what they do, and what angry is, wow keep showing why you have no idea what honesty and facts are.
Now get off this blog and let people talk baseball.
moderators thier is a troll on the loose if you could get rid of them it would be most appericated.
BY me telling the truth about Fox is not what angry looks like, you really amaze with how igorant you are about life and facts.
Now get off this blog and let people talk baseball.
The hour 30 specail on ESPN website about this card was facinating. KO again you are great at what you do and could watch you do anything, including baseball. Again keep being yourself and you will always have a fan in me. To me the history of this card is real intersting.
I follow you on twitter (and love your sunset photos!!) and thought of you when I saw this: http://www.vintag.es/2013/03/posed-portraits-of-19th-century.html
Those are cool baseball cards. I think that you should send them to KO via twitter also, specially since you follow him, he would love it.
Can you tell me about this card? It is a Nolan Ryan baseball card. Solid blue front with 2 pictures of him. On the back it has a border made of multiple baseballs, and gives his 1989 stats. There is no number, no company logo