Thomas Paine - Common Sense - 2008 video

This is a great piece of video. Nothing earth shattering to those that have been scratching your heads over the direction of our country, but well done and to the point. Share it.

Journalism - R.I.P 2008

Orson Scott Card is a democrat, journalist, and winner of 4 Hugo and 2 Nebula Awards for his popular novels. This essay is a passionate plea to the editors of local newspapers and media to be honest, and to put the integrity of their profession above personal bias.

This article first appeared in The Rhinoceros Times of Greensboro, North Carolina, but due to the amount of traffic they have received it was moved to a static html file. It is not the only fine article they have published, and I encourage you to visit them at the link above.

I also encourage you to read the full article and send a copy or link to the editors of your local media, or email national media outlets from this Media Contact List.

Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights?
by Orson Scott Card

October 20, 2008
An open letter to the local daily paper -- almost every local daily paper in America:

I remember reading All the President's Men and thinking: That's journalism. You do what it takes to get the truth and you lay it before the public, because the public has a right to know.

This housing crisis didn't come out of nowhere. It was not a vague emanation of the evil Bush administration.

It was a direct result of the political decision, back in the late 1990s, to loosen the rules of lending so that home loans would be more accessible to poor people. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were authorized to approve risky loans.

What is a risky loan? It's a loan that the recipient is likely not to be able to repay.

The goal of this rule change was to help the poor -- which especially would help members of minority groups. But how does it help these people to give them a loan that they can't repay? They get into a house, yes, but when they can't make the payments, they lose the house -- along with their credit rating.

They end up worse off than before.

This was completely foreseeable and in fact many people did foresee it. One political party, in Congress and in the executive branch, tried repeatedly to tighten up the rules. The other party blocked every such attempt and tried to loosen them.

Furthermore, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were making political contributions to the very members of Congress who were allowing them to make irresponsible loans. (Though why quasi-federal agencies were allowed to do so baffles me. It's as if the Pentagon were allowed to contribute to the political campaigns of congressmen who support increasing their budget.)

Isn't there a story here? Doesn't journalism require that you who produce our daily paper tell the truth about who brought us to a position where the only way to keep confidence in our economy was a $700 billion bailout? Aren't you supposed to follow the money and see which politicians were benefiting personally from the deregulation of mortgage lending?

I have no doubt that if these facts had pointed to the Republican Party or to John McCain as the guilty parties, you would be treating it as a vast scandal. "Housing-gate," no doubt. Or "Fannie-gate."

Instead, it was Sen. Christopher Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank, both Democrats, who denied that there were any problems, who refused Bush administration requests to set up a regulatory agency to watch over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and who were still pushing for these agencies to go even further in promoting subprime mortgage loans almost up to the minute they failed.

As Thomas Sowell points out in a TownHall.com essay entitled "Do Facts Matter?" (http://snipurl.com/457to): "Alan Greenspan warned them four years ago. So did the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to the President. So did Bush's Secretary of the Treasury."

These are facts. This financial crisis was completely preventable. The party that blocked any attempt to prevent it was ... the Democratic Party. The party that tried to prevent it was ... the Republican Party.

Yet when Nancy Pelosi accused the Bush administration and Republican deregulation of causing the crisis, you in the press did not hold her to account for her lie. Instead, you criticized Republicans who took offense at this lie and refused to vote for the bailout!

What? It's not the liar, but the victims of the lie who are to blame?

Now let's follow the money ... right to the presidential candidate who is the number two recipient of campaign contributions from Fannie Mae.

And after Fred Raines, the CEO of Fannie Mae who made $90 million while running it into the ground, was fired for his incompetence, one presidential candidate's campaign actually consulted him for advice on housing.

If that presidential candidate had been John McCain, you would have called it a major scandal and we would be getting stories in your paper every day about how incompetent and corrupt he was.

But instead, that candidate was Barack Obama, and so you have buried this story, and when the McCain campaign dared to call Raines an "adviser" to the Obama campaign -- because that campaign had sought his advice -- you actually let Obama's people get away with accusing McCain of lying, merely because Raines wasn't listed as an official adviser to the Obama campaign.

You would never tolerate such weasely nit-picking from a Republican.

If you who produce our local daily paper actually had any principles, you would be pounding this story, because the prosperity of all Americans was put at risk by the foolish, short-sighted, politically selfish and possibly corrupt actions of leading Democrats, including Obama.

If you who produce our local daily paper had any personal honor, you would find it unbearable to let the American people believe that somehow Republicans were to blame for this crisis.

There are precedents. Even though President Bush and his administration never said that Iraq sponsored or was linked to 9/11, you could not stand the fact that Americans had that misapprehension -- so you pounded us with the fact that there was no such link. (Along the way, you created the false impression that Bush had lied to them and said that there was a connection.)

If you had any principles, then surely right now, when the American people are set to blame President Bush and John McCain for a crisis they tried to prevent, and are actually shifting to approve of Barack Obama because of a crisis he helped cause, you would be laboring at least as hard to correct that false impression.

Your job, as journalists, is to tell the truth. That's what you claim you do, when you accept people's money to buy or subscribe to your paper.

But right now, you are consenting to or actively promoting a big fat lie -- that the housing crisis should somehow be blamed on Bush, McCain and the Republicans. You have trained the American people to blame everything bad -- even bad weather -- on Bush, and they are responding as you have taught them to.

If you had any personal honor, each reporter and editor would be insisting on telling the truth -- even if it hurts the election chances of your favorite candidate.

Because that's what honorable people do. Honest people tell the truth even when they don't like the probable consequences. That's what honesty means. That's how trust is earned.

Barack Obama is just another politician, and not a very wise one. He has revealed his ignorance and naivete time after time -- and you have swept it under the rug, treated it as nothing.

Meanwhile, you have participated in the borking of Sarah Palin, reporting savage attacks on her for the pregnancy of her unmarried daughter -- while you ignored the story of John Edwards' own adultery for many months.

So I ask you now: Do you have any standards at all? Do you even know what honesty means?

Is getting people to vote for Barack Obama so important that you will throw away everything that journalism is supposed to stand for?

You might want to remember the way the National Organization of Women (NOW) threw away their integrity by supporting Bill Clinton despite his well-known pattern of sexual exploitation of powerless women. Who listens to NOW anymore? We know they stand for nothing; they have no principles.

That's where you are right now.

It's not too late. You know that if the situation were reversed, and the truth would damage McCain and help Obama, you would be moving heaven and earth to get the true story out there.

If you want to redeem your honor, you will swallow hard and make a list of all the stories you would print if it were McCain who had been getting money from Fannie Mae, McCain whose campaign had consulted with its discredited former CEO, McCain who had voted against tightening its lending practices.

Then you will print them, even though every one of those true stories will point the finger of blame at the reckless Democratic Party, which put our nation's prosperity at risk so they could feel good about helping the poor, and lay a fair share of the blame at Obama's door.

You will also tell the truth about John McCain: that he tried, as a senator, to do what it took to prevent this crisis. You will tell the truth about President Bush: that his administration tried more than once to get Congress to regulate lending in a responsible way.

This was a Congress-caused crisis, beginning during the Clinton administration, with Democrats leading the way into the crisis and blocking every effort to get out of it in a timely fashion.

If you at our local daily newspaper continue to let Americans believe -- and vote as if -- President Bush and the Republicans caused the crisis, then you are joining in that lie.

If you do not tell the truth about the Democrats -- including Barack Obama -- and do so with the same energy you would use if the miscreants were Republicans -- then you are not journalists by any standard.

You're just the public relations machine of the Democratic Party, and it's time you were all fired and real journalists brought in, so that we can actually have a daily newspaper in our city.

The Collectivist President

At FreeColorado.com, they pose that the next president will be a collectivist, no matter which one wins! Excerpt and link below.

The Collectivist President

"Tragically, for the better part of a century, America has been moving away from the individualist ideals of the Founders and toward collectivism. Just consider the crushing tax burden we all suffer under to fuel an endless list of welfare entitlements in the name of the "public good." ... None of this is compatible with the individual's right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Instead of leaders who "put country first" we need leaders who will put freedom first."

And in the spirit of photoshop-politics, check out this graphic from Titanic Deck Chairs:

Mainstream Media Contact List

The Mainstream Media has been on the sidelines watching others do their job this election season, and in some cases hoping no one else would do that job, lest it showcase for all to see just how little value they bring.

They have neglected serious and responsible investigative journalism on the background of candidate Barack Obama. Maybe he is the Messiah, but never in our history could a presidential candidate go without scrutiny of a relationship with someone (Bill Ayers) who perpetrated arguably one of the top 10 domestic terrorist acts in our nation's history. Nor a candidate who donated $800,000 to a group being investigated for voter fraud in 5 key states. Nor a candidate who was given a $300K discounted land deal through the efforts of a fundraiser (Tony Rezko) who is now convicted for inflence peddling. A $300K discount in the middle of the hottest real estate market in 30 years!

I don't blame Obama, and if you agree with his ideology, do your thing, but I'm completely disgusted with the Mainstream Media for ignoring their stated role in society. If they had done their job even a little bit at the start of the elections, Hillary would have easily won the democratic nomination. Everyone knew Obama was running a year in advance of the primaries, Oprah was doing tours with him, but the media just fell all over themselves trying not to check his background. It was left to bloggers, with no real resources, to start sharing with the American people some of who the man is. John McCain's campaign, in the final month, has been blasted for pointing out some of the information about Obama that nobody heard in January of 2008. But I would imagine his campaign was completely hung out to dry, assuming that journalists would do what they've loved doing for a century, finding the dirt, checking the backgrounds, etc. They did nothing, and it is affecting our country's future.

Here's a recent study of media bias this election season.

If you feel that the media has been negligent or incompetent on any front this election season, I implore you to let them know about it through the contacts below. I do believe they will listen if enough people are upset about it.

Mainstream Media Contact List

---

Network/Cable Television

ABC News
77 W. 66 St., New York, NY 10023
Phone: 212-456-7777
General
e-mail: netaudr@abc.com
Nightline: nightline@abcnews.com
20/20: 2020@abc.com

CBS News

524 W. 57 St., New York, NY 10019
Phone:
212-975-4321
Fax: 212-975-1893
Email forms for all CBS news programs
CBS Evening News:
evening@cbsnews.com
The Early Show:
earlyshow@cbs.com
60 Minutes II:
60minutes@cbsnews.com
48 Hours:
48hours@cbsnews.com
Face The Nation:
ftn@cbsnews.com

CNBC
900 Sylvan Avenue, Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632
Phone: (201) 735-2622
Fax: (201) 583-5453
Email:
info@cnbc.com

CNN
One CNN Center, Box 105366, Atlanta, GA 30303-5366
Phone: 404-827-1500
Fax: 404-827-1784
Email forms for all CNN news programs

Fox News Channel
1211 Ave. of the Americas, New York, NY 10036
Phone: (212) 301-3000
Fax: (212) 301-4229
comments@foxnews.com

List of Email addresses for all Fox News Channel programs
Special
Report with Brit Hume:
Special@foxnews.com
FOX Report with Shepard Smith:
Foxreport@foxnews.com
The O'Reilly Factor:
Oreilly@foxnews.com
Hannity & Colmes:
Hannity@foxnews.com,
Colmes@foxnews.com
On the Record with Greta:
Ontherecord@foxnews.com
MSNBC/NBC

30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10112
Phone: (212) 664-4444

Fax: (212) 664-4426

List of Email addresses for all MSNBC/NBC news programs
Dateline
NBC: dateline@nbc.com
Hardball
with Chris Matthews: hardball@msnbc.com

MSNBC Reports with Joe Scarborough:
joe@msnbc.com
NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams:
nightly@nbc.com
NBC News Today:
today@nbc.com

PBS
2100 Crystal Drive, Arlington VA 22202
Phone:
703-739-5000
Fax: 703-739-8458

The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer:
newshour@pbs.org

---

National Radio Programs

National Public Radio
635 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, DC
20001-3753
Phone: 202-513-3232
Fax: 202-513-3329

E-mail: Jeffrey
A. Dvorkin, Ombudsman ombudsman@npr.org

List of Email addresses for all NPR news programs

---

National Newspapers

The Los Angeles
Times
202 West First Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Phone:
800-528-4637 or 213-237-5000
Fax: 213-237-4712

L.A. Times Contact Information by Department
Letters to the Editor:
letters@latimes.com
Readers' Representative:
readers.rep@latimes.com

The New York Times
620
8th Ave., New York, NY 10018
Phone: 212-556-1234
D.C. Bureau
phone: 202-862-0300
Fax: 212-556-3690

Letters to the
Editor (for publication):
letters@nytimes.com
Write to the news editors:
news-tips@nytimes.com
Corrections:
senioreditor@nytimes.com

New York Times Contact Information by Department
How to
Contact New York Times Reporters and Editors

USA Today
7950 Jones Branch Dr., McLean, VA 22108
Phone:
703-854-3400
Fax: 703-854-2078

Letters to the Editor:
editor@usatoday.com

Give feedback to USA Today

The Wall Street Journal

200 Liberty St., New York, NY 10281
Phone: 212-416-2000
Fax:
212-416-2658

Letters to the Editor:
wsj.ltrs@wsj.com
Comment on News Articles:
wsjcontact@dowjones.com

The Washington Post
1150
15th St., NW, Washington, DC 20071
Phone: 202-334-6000
Fax:
202-334-5269

Letters to the Editor:
letters@washpost.com
Ombudsman:
ombudsman@washpost.com
Contact Washington Post
Writers and Editors

---

Magazines

Newsweek
251 W
57th Street, New York, NY 10019
Phone: 212-445-4000
Fax:
212-445-5068

Letters to the Editor:
letters@newsweek.com

Time
Time & Life Bldg.,
Rockefeller Center, 1271 6th Ave., New York, NY 10020
Phone:
212-522-1212
Fax: 212-522-0003

Letters to the Editor
letters@time.com

U.S. News & World Report
1050
Thomas Jefferson St., Washington, DC 20007
Phone: 202-955-2000

Fax: 202-955-2049

Letters to the Editor
letters@usnews.com

---

News Services / Wires

Associated
Press
450 West 33rd St., New York, NY 10001
Phone: 212-621-1500

Fax: 212-621-7523

General Questions and Comments:
info@ap.org
Partial
Contact Information for the Associated Press by Department and Bureau

Reuters
Three Times Square, New York, NY 10036
Telephone:
646-223-4000

Reuters
Editorial Feedback

United Press
International
1133 19th Street, NW, Suite 800, Washington, DC 20036

Telephone: 202-898-8000
FAX: 202-898-8048

Comments and Tips:
tips@upi.com

---

For more media contacts, including local contacts, visit Fairness & Accuracty in Reporting (FAIR). Portions of content on this page used per a
Creative Commons license.

Dems Lied, Economy Died

Video lays out the path of the mortgage crisis...

Obama, Acorn, and Radical Connections Website

An very visual site creates a map of Obama-ACORN-Radical connections, and lists others that are waking up to the trajectory and goals of the man.

http://justsaynodeal.com/acorn.html

Barack and the Cloward-Piven Strategy

This article explains the Cloward-Piven Strategy, how it has potentially manifested itself since its inception. Barack's career has coursed all through the same events, with key associations with the mortgage industry, ACORN, and related matters. This is a very interesting piece for those that would prevent collectivism and a drive to outright socialism. From the article:

"The Strategy was first elucidated in the May 2, 1966 issue of The Nation magazine by a pair of radical socialist Columbia University professors, Richard Andrew Cloward and Frances Fox Piven. David Horowitz summarizes it as:


The strategy of forcing political change through orchestrated crisis. The "Cloward-Piven Strategy" seeks to hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse."

Full article from American Thinker:
Barack Obama and the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis