The content of the RRStar (online Rockford Register Star) blogs have an overwhelmingly liberal slant in both content, links, and quantity.
I established this blog in an attempt to provide Rockford with political balance and to demonstrate the type and quality of content the RRStar could offer to its readers.
Checking the stats of their political blogs it is clear that they need more of a balanced portfolio of political blogs.
Again, here are the political blogs available at the RRStar:
Applesauce is a prolific far left blog that addresses national issues. The content is mainly composed of links to the left wing of the blogosphere along with a short quips, photo, and video content. Occasionally there are longer posts that include opinions on the items linked. Comments are quickly answered, often with another quip.
In Chambers is a blog that covers Illinois state politics. It appears to be right of center but that could be the result of its adversarial nature to the current state administration. There is no real interaction in the comments.
Sweeny Report is a blog written by the Political Editor of the Register Star. Postings are sporadic, concentrating on local, state and national issues and are mainly short thoughts on events with few links.
Why We Vote is a group blog consisting of the thoughts of the members of the Register Star's voters opinion panel. The posts are mostly left of center (including those from the independents to date). The conservative member who was posting, sadly, passed away recently.
The Stats for May 25, 2008 through June 1, 2008:
* Applesauce 22 posts with 19 out links 7 YouTube. * In Chambers 5 posts with 11 out links 0 YouTube. * Sweeny Report 5 posts with 0 out links 0 YouTube. * Why We Blog 1 posts (0 left, 0 right, 1 center) 0 out links 0 YouTube.
Totals since I started counting March 27, 2008 through June1, 2008:
* Applesauce 233 posts with 308 out links 57 YouTube. * In Chambers 39 posts with 271 out links 1 YouTube. * Sweeny Report 52 posts with 20 out links 0 YouTube. * Why We Blog 32 posts (28 left, 1 right, 4 center) 1 out links 0 YouTube.
If your interested in balance in the RRStar blogs keep coming back and let the RRStar know. DKK
One of the problems with government-run healthcare is that faceless, bureaucratic rulemakers prescribe courses of treatment instead of doctors in consultation with patients. If the bureaucracy decides that a drug isn't cost-effective, it simply will not be provided, no matter what the doctors or patients want. It's not about saving lives or easing suffering. It's about plotting life-expectancy graphs and rationing finite taxpayer-provided resources. (...)
A grandmother died from cancer after her free NHS treatment was withdrawn because she had paid privately for a drug that could extend her life.
Linda O'Boyle, 64, had been receiving state-funded care including chemotherapy after she was diagnosed with bowel cancer.
But her local health trust made her pay for her treatment after she started a course of cetuximab, which is available on the NHS in Scotland but not in England and Wales.
Yea, yea, I can hear the arguments now about that girl that didn't get a liver transplant -- but here is the difference --
The company that denied that girl a liver suffered extremely bad PR that already led to them reevaluating their medical approval procedures. In addition the customers of that company currently have the right to switch to another carrier. That wasn't possible for the victim of the NHS bureaucracy and that unaccountability and loss of freedom of choice can mean the difference between life and death.
With oil at record-high prices, Paulson said there is "no quick fix" because it is an issue of supply and demand. Global demand remains strong while "production capacity has not seen new development," Paulson said.
"I don't see a lot of short-term answers," he added.
He said he would like to see "increased investment throughout the world in oil and gas and alternative sources of energy."
BREAKING NEWS: Michelle’s Whitey Problem (Thread #2) New and dramatic developments. This is a heads up. I’ll post the news Monday morning by 0900 hours. Now I know why people who have seen the videotape say it is stunning. Barack’s headaches are only starting.
Earlier I posted about a rumored video of Michelle Obama giving a talk at Trinity Church. Well, here is an update with more to come this AM.
I don't know, this is the same guy who said Rove was getting indicted and we can see how that worked out. DKK
Update: I think this longer post is it, it includes this nugget: Barack may have quit his church but his religious problems are not over. Barack Obama has a Nation of Islam problem that will receive more attention in the coming days. Before Barack came on the scene, THE MAN in his political district was Louis Farrakhan DKK
He did express curiosity about the filming of a chase scene in “North by Northwest,” Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 classic starring Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint that included a death-defying scramble over Rushmore’s presidential faces.
“How did they get up there in the first place?” he asked ranger Wesley Jensen.
“They didn’t. It was a movie set,” Jensen told him.
(...)
How many times did Quayle misspell potato before the American media and popular culture proclaimed him an idiot? We can add this to Obama’s existing list of gaffes and blunders:
Conservative pundits have made this complaint ever since the beginning of the surge, but now the editorial board of the Washington Post adds its voice to the protest. They note the “odd” lull in reporting and debate on Iraq over the last few weeks, but fail to draw the obvious conclusion. The American media and the Democrats became so invested in American defeat that they have decided to ignore the collapse of their position as Iraq stabilizes
The culture I was brought up in, taught me to respect dangerous objects and situations. To be an adult, one was expected to be adult-like around such things as bandsaws, punch presses, moving belts, and firearms. Anyone who was not trusted, was not an adult.
Somewhere between 1975 and now, the culture I was promised, was changed.
U.S. troop deaths in Iraq fell to their lowest level last month since the 2003 invasion and officials said on Sunday improved security also helped the country boost oil production in May to a post-war high.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Iraq's oil minister credited better security for the two milestones, which illustrated a dramatic turnabout in the fortunes of a country on the brink of all-out sectarian civil war just 12 months ago.
"We've still got a distance to go but I think lower casualty rates are a reflection of some real progress," Gates told reporters in Singapore. "The key will be to continue to sustain the progress we have seen."
Again I ask, Mr. Obama -- If you can reevaluate your 20 year membership at Trinity Church when the circumstances change, why can't you do the same thing with something as important as Iraq? DKK
I have talked about The Copenhagen Consensus since their last meeting in 2004. It has now released its 2008 Consensus report:
Eight leading economists, including five Nobelists, were asked to prioritize 30 different proposed solutions to ten of the world's biggest problems. The proposed solutions were developed by more than 50 specialist scholars over the past two years and were presented as reports to the panel over the past week. Since we live in a world of scarce resources, not all good projects can be funded. So the experts were constrained in their decision making by allocating a budget of an "extra" $75 billion among the solutions over four years.
The number one solution was:
Supplying the micronutrients vitamin A and zinc to 80 percent of the 140 million children who lack them in developing countries is ranked as the highest priority by the expert panel at the Copenhagen Consensus 2008 Conference. The cost is $60 million per year, yielding benefits in health and cognitive development of over $1 billion.
Nancy Stokey explained,"Trade reform is not just for the long run, it would make people in developing countries better off right now. There are large benefits in the short run and the long run benefits are enormous."
Where was Anthropogenic Global Warming?
So what proposed solutions are at the bottom of the list? At number 30, the lowest priority is a proposal to mitigate man-made global warming by cutting the emissions of greenhouse gases. This ranking caused some consternation among the European journalists at the press conference. Nobelist and University of Maryland economist Thomas Schelling noted that part of the reason for the low ranking is that spending $75 billion on cutting greenhouses gases would achieve almost nothing. In fact, the climate change analysis presented to the panel found that spending $800 billion until 2100 would yield just $685 billion in climate change benefits.
Obama will speak to this decision later today. My bet is he will attempt to do the same thing he did with Reverend Wright and make it about how the Church has changed recently.
If that is the case then Obama needs to explain how he can change his mind about his church of 20 years when facts on the ground change but is unwilling reevaluate or even visit Iraq or General Petraeus to see how the facts on the ground there have changed!
Is this really the judgment of a leader? DKK
Afterthought: The timing of Obama's change of mind about Trinity is quite interesting -- now that the nomination is pretty well locked up and he is no longer being called, "not black enough," by black leaders .
British pensioners who cannot afford to heat their homes. European hauliers and fishermen whose livelihoods are under threat. Palestinians forced to fill up their cars with olive oil. Americans asked to go down to a four-day week.
All around the world, in a multitude of ways, the soaring price of oil is hurting rich and poor alike.
Congress are sitting on enough oil and coal to fuel America for decades and they are allowing the world to go cold and hungry by preventing its use! (A preview of An Obama Nation?)
Those resources would help feed and heat the world!
Why does Congress hate the world? Why do they want to starve the poor? Is the Polar Bear more important then a poor child?
Imagine the damage to our reputation when the world discovers how much oil the Democrats have hoarded for ourselves! It is irresponsible as citizens of the world to hoard these resources when we know it is there and could be used safely! The Independent UK -- Shocked! How the oil crisis has hit the world! It has already begun:
A new report out today on the worldwide food shortage castigates the west and especially the United States for their biofuels policies which the report says has exacerbated the crisis without much of a savings in crude oil: American Thinker Blog -- Food Report Critical of Biofuels
Congress has made us look like selfish fools and has damaged our reputation in the long run far more then the Bush administration ever could!
For the record, I don't believe there is an oil crisis, but I do think it is extremely irresponsible to not use the known resources while realistic alternatives are developed to replace them.
A homeless woman in Japan managed to sneak into a man's house and lived undetected in his closet for a year - and was only arrested after he became suspicious when food mysteriously began disappearing.
As of right now, 85% of the U.S. coastline is off-limits to energy production because of (anti-capitalist) environmentalists. Most of this includes huge reserves off the Florida coast. The problem is that the politicians (Mel Martinez and Bill Nelson in particular) are not willing to become a part of the solution. But here's an idea that is so logical, there is no way in hell Florida politicians will ever consider it.
Representative Sue Myrick of the House Energy and Commerce panel wants to let coastal states decide whether drilling would be environmentally risky. In other words, don't let drilling be stopped on a national level ... let the individual states decide. It would essentially give coastal states that want offshore drilling the power to opt out of the federal Interior Department's offshore restrictions. There's only one problem with that ... what if coastal state don't want to drill. What if they are most concerned about the view their residents will have from their beach condos than actually becoming part of the solution?
Of course, there are incentives in Myrick's bill. She proposed letting states in on federal revenues from leases. It would also give states the ability to control energy production up to 100 miles off their shores and extend their territorial waters.
Less than one one-thousandth of a percent (0.001%) of the 7 billion-plus barrels of oil that Washington has allowed to be produced offshore over the past 25 years has been spilled, according to the Interior Department.
A whopping 63% of petro pollution in North American seas comes not from offshore rigs, but from natural seepage from the sea floor. Source: National Academy of Sciences.
There hasn't been a major oil spill from an offshore well since 1969 even though rigs since then have been lashed by Katrina and other major hurricanes.
Chinese hackers pose a clear and present danger to U.S. government and private-sector computer networks and may be responsible for two major U.S. power blackouts.
As smart and credentialed as he is, Sen. Obama is often an indifferent speaker without a teleprompter. He has large gaps in his knowledge base, and is just as likely to dig in and embrace a policy misstatement as abandon it. ABC reporter Jake Tapper calls him "a one-man gaffe machine." (...) Over the years, reporters have tagged a long list of conservative public figures, from Barry Goldwater to Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush, as dim and uninformed. The reputation of some of these men has improved over time. But can anyone name a leading liberal figure who has developed a similar media reputation, even though the likes of Al Gore, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have committed substantial gaffes at times? No reporter I've talked to has come up with a solid example.
Read the list and why they were gaffes! It makes you wonder if he really has core beliefs? DKK WSJ -- The Obama Gaffe Machine
On MSNBC today, David Axelrod said that Barack Obama "never disputed the fact that if you throw a surge of American soldiers in an area that you can make a difference."
Oh really? Here's what Obama said on January 14, 2007: "We can send 15,000 more troops, 20,000 more troops, 30,000 more troops: I don't know any expert on the region or any military officer that I've spoken to privately that believes that that is going to make a substantial difference on the situation on the ground."
Responding to Kerry's claim, RNC spokesman Danny Diaz said: "It’s absolutely critical that the next Commander in Chief understands the challenges America faces. Yet it’s clear that Barack Obama has a thin understanding of history and fails to grasp the threat of terrorism."
"After a week’s worth of examples demonstrating Obama’s lack of preparedness to serve as president, his campaign is understandably desperate to shift the focus. Considering it’s now been 873 days since Obama visited Iraq, any suggestion that he even understands what’s happening on the ground is laughable."
McCain campaign's response to John Kerry's assertion that on 9/11 we were basically at peace forgetting that Osama had declared war and attacked the USS Cole just the previous October as part of their long line of attacks.
I have pretty much avoided dealing with the videos of Obama's Church, but then I saw this video of Father Michael Pfleger -- it's not the one about Hillary, it is the one about whites abusing people of color and having to pay for that abuse.
I have attended many different services at many different houses of worship and they have all left me with feelings of love and hope.
Not one left me with the feeling that I was oppressed, or that there were a group of people whose desire was to do me harm -- people I should resent, hate, and oppose. Yet that is what I have seen from both Pfleger and Reverend Wright.
Almost every service I have attended left me with a passionate desire to love God, myself, and my fellow man.
"America has been raping people of color and America has to pay the price!"
Hearing Pfleger give a sermon would leave me with a different type of passion. He is a powerful speaker and I have no doubt those in attendance had a desire to take action, I'm just not sure what that action would be when hate is the message.
Watching this clip reminded me of the undercover radical mosque special in the UK, or in a sense of the mosques that stir up riots and to a milder degree the Friday Tehran services you see on the news every now and then.
This is hatred. This is the type of message that causes resentment and hatred toward those who are different then you are. The listener is resolved of their actions because they are a victim, in Pfleger and Wright's mind it is white America. In Iran and radical Muslim's case it is Israel and America, the Jews and Christians!
The similarities are striking and I just can't imagine hearing that every week or every few weeks and not absorbing and believing some of it.
Obama has to explain why he attended for 20 years, why his wife believes America is mean and not worthy of pride, and what he took from the services if it is different then what his wife appears to have taken from this church.
Things just don't add up, there is a big piece of information still missing about Barack Obama.
Here are a couple of videos that show some of the radicals I am thinking of. Some of the messages are far more extreme then those of Trinity and some seem on par with Wright and Pfleger.
Glen Beck, Extreme Agenda Exposed: Radical Islam: Terror in its own words: Dispatches - Undercover Mosque DKK
