Networks blamed shutdown on GOP in 41 stories --- 0 for Dems

Republicans never expected to get a fair shake in the Big Three networks' coverage of the 16-day government shutdown, but the final tally of stories blaming the GOP is stunning: 41 stories blamed Republicans and zero blamed Democrats.

Nightly, 20 million Americans heard “a version of the shutdown story that could easily have emanated from Barack Obama's own White House,” said the new report from the Media Research Center.

The report, provided to Secrets, found that a total of 41 stories blamed Republicans for the shutdown. None blamed the Democrats. Another 17 blamed both sides.

In addition, those interviewed by the night news broadcasts by ABC, CBS and NBC whacked the Republicans by a six-to-one ratio, said the report.

“The broadcast networks invariably blamed Republicans for the impasse; spotlighted dozens of examples of how Americans were being victimized; and ran scores of soundbites from furloughed federal workers and others harmed by the shutdown — even as they ignored examples of how the Obama administration and Senate Democrats were working to make the shutdown as painful as possible,” said the report.

Via: Washington Examiner

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[VIDEO] CHRIS MATTHEWS: ‘GROUP PRESSURE’ AT MSNBC FORCES PARTISANSHIP ON TALENT

AND THE PLANIS WORKING S WELL A YOU CONTINUE TO BLED VIEWERS TO REAL NEWS SOURCES (FOX)

In an interview on “Larry King Now,” MSNBC’s Chris Matthews said that internal pressure at MSNBC (as well as other cable channels) forces on-air talent to be more politically partisan.

“I’m watching Fox [News],” Matthews said. “Will [new primetime anchor] Megyn Kelly be able to stay in the middle or will she move over? Will she have to move over? Look at Greta [Van Susteren]. Greta was more center left now she’s moved over. There’s a lot of group pressure in those places. In any place you work.”

Asked by Larry King if there’s specifically any pressure to be partisan at MSNBC, Matthews said yes. “Oh, I feel it,” he said. “I think it’s there. I think you know your audience. You know who you’re talking to. I always know who I’m talking to. But I always want to keep a chunk of Republicans as well as Democrats.”

Matthews’ admission came as part of a larger discussion about the evolution of cable news into an evermore opinionated medium. ”The viewer comes home and they have an attitude,” Matthews said, “and they want to enjoy that attitude. They want somebody else to voice it.”

Watch the full episode…

Via: The Blaze

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ANTI-INCUMBENT SENTIMENT AT RECORD HIGH

BUT WILL THEY CARRY THIS SENTIMENT INTO THE BALLOT BOX?  ANSWER:  NOT USUALLY!!!

Anti-incumbent sentiment is at an all-time high as Americans become more disgusted with a Congress that is setting records for low approval ratings. 

According to a Pew Research survey, "a record-high 74% of registered voters now say that most members of Congress should not be reelected in 2014," and only 18% say that most lawmakers in Congress should be reelected. 

Pew notes "at similar points in both the 2010 and 2006 midterm cycles only about half of registered voters wanted to see most representatives replaced." In addition, though "voters have been more positive about reelecting their own members of Congress than members as a whole... only 48% of voters say their own member of Congress should be reelected" while "38% say he or she should be replaced."

"That is as negative a balance on this question as at any point in the last two decades," Pew notes. 

In 2010, Pew notes that only 29% wanted their own Representative defeated in an election, in which 58--the most in more than a half-century--ultimately lost. Today, 36% want their own Representative defeated. 

Democrats (54%) are slightly more likely than Republicans (47%) "to say that their own representative should be reelected." According to the survey, only 43% of self-identified independent voters want their own Representative to be elected.

Via Breitbart

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Design Firm Removes All Reference To Its Work On Obamacare From Its Website

Teal Media was founded by a former member of Obama’s campaign design team.The firm says it took down all reference to its work on HealthCare.gov “in consultation” with the administration.

WASHINGTON — Visit the website of Michigan-based design firm Teal Media today and you’d never know designers there helped create HealthCare.gov, the troubled online portal for Obamacare.

Just a few days ago, the site looked very different. Teal Media’s homepage featured its work on Obamacare prominently, placing a link to the firm’s work on one of the most well-known websites in America front and center. Now that link, as well as the page devoted to Teal’s work on HealthCare.gov, have been removed.

Here’s a cached version of what the homepage used to look like. And here’s a cached version of Teal’s page devoted just to its work on HealthCare.gov. That page has been deleted.

Teal Media doesn’t seem interested in talking about its work on HealthCare.gov. A woman who answered the phone at the company’s headquarters immediately referred BuzzFeed to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) at the Department of Health And Human Services (HHS) before a single question was asked. CMS is listed as Teal’s client on the firm’s now-erased HealthCare.gov page.

When asked about the changed content on the Teal Media site, the woman said that was done ‘in consultation with HHS,” and again referred a reporter to CMS.

A CMS spokesperson declined to comment on the record.

Via: Buzzfeed

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Obama administration expected half a million to enroll in exchanges in first month

The Obama administration expected nearly half a million people to enroll in the Obamacare exchanges in the first month, according to a Sept. 5 internal memo obtained by The Associated Press.

The memo reportedly lists enrollment goals for each state and, as the AP notes, if the glitches with the exchange website continue, the targets might end up out of reach.

While the Obama administration has said it will not be releasing enrollment numbers until mid-November, its nationwide sign-up estimate for Oct. 31 was 494,620. According to the report, that nearly half million figure was seen as a “low.”

By Dec. 31, the administration expected 3.3 million would have enrolled. The administration projected 7 million enrollees in the program’s first year.

The Obamacare exchanges opened on Oct. 1. The primary sign-up location online, however, opened to myriad problems and glitches that have continued throughout the month — with many would-be consumers unable to sign up.

The administration has been working since the launch to hammer out the issues. However, the surge in initial interest has waned, with web traffic to the site dropping 88 percent Oct 1 – Oct. 13, according to The Washington Post.

According to an analysis by Millward Brown Digital, a division of the market research company Kantar group, while the federal exchange website received 9.47 million unique visits, just 36,000 completed enrollment in the first week. The numbers do not include the states running their own exchanges or people who signed up offline.

The Atlantic estimates that at least 115,000 people completed applications through the state-based exchanges in the first two weeks of the exchange.

Via: Daily Caller
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Mitch McConnell defends deal, slams Obamacare tactics

McConnell says his ability to cut a deal wasn’t hamstrung by his campaign. | John Shinkle/POLITICO

At the end of the day, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says he had no good option in the 16-day government shutdown fight.

House Speaker John Boehner’s strategy collapsed. Ted Cruz’s push to use a shutdown to defund Obamacare was “not a smart play” and a “tactical error,” he said. And the country was staring at the threat of a prolonged shutdown and a potentially disastrous default on a nearly $17 trillion national debt.

Using a football analogy, McConnell said he got the ball on his own two-yard-line with a “shaky” offensive line and had to cut a last-ditch deal with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to end the crisis, no matter how unappealing to many in his party. Despite acting as a chief deal-maker in recent years during government crises, it was unclear the role McConnell would play until the final days of the bitter fight.

(WATCH: Who won the shutdown? Top 5 quotes)

“Given the card I was dealt at that point, what I had hoped to have achieved was to punt the ball to a better place on the field without raising taxes or busting the [spending] caps,” McConnell told POLITICO in a phone interview Thursday.

Via: Politico

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NFL is a despicable league that we should say goodbye to, but won't

Hall of Fame linebacker Harry Carson speaks during the PBS' "League of Denial: The NFL's Concussion Crisis" session at the Television Critics Assn. summer press tour in Los Angeles on Aug. 6. (Rahoul Ghose / Associated Press)

There are dozens of reasons why the NFL deserves to go away, to be banished from our sight forever. There are at least two reasons why that won't happen.

Tradition and Peyton Manning.

The Oct. 8 PBS show "A League of Denial" was a journalistic masterpiece. If you haven't seen it, find it. It is everywhere on the Internet. It should be.

Database: Injury claims by professional football players

It was two hours that can be oversimplified in one sentence: For years, the NFL knew its players were suffering head injuries that would bring serious long-term damage, yet it denied that, stonewalled the players seeking help and spent millions to muddy the truth.

Many readers still respond to every written word about this with the predictable: "These guys knew what they were getting into. Why should we feel sorry for them?" That's wrong. They knew they were playing a rough game, that there would be bent fingers in their elder years. They did not know that many serious brain injuries would accompany those bent fingers.

The PBS show was devastating to the NFL, which deserved to be devastated.

When Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Lakewood), questioning Commissioner Roger Goodell during 2009 congressional hearings, likened the NFL to Big Tobacco, we had no idea that she had hit the right keynote. After the PBS show, we know.

What a despicable label to have pinned on you.

Via: LA Times

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California: Prop 13: Who’s the Fairest of Them All?

Almost twenty years ago, Money Magazine sponsored a debate and panel discussion at UCLA on Proposition 13. When one of the panelists, with ties to the public sector, began to assert vigorously that the tax cutting measure was unfair, he was challenged by Craig Stubblebine, Professor of Political Economy at Claremont McKenna College. Stubblebine said he would be happy to discuss fairness, but charged that the critic’s true motivation was simply the desire for more revenue. The Proposition 13 critic sheepishly conceded the point.

I thought of this last week when we of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association caucused with about a hundred Southern California taxpayer advocates and activists to discuss attacks on Proposition 13. After the event, a longtime homeowner approached me and told me that he had had words with a new neighbor over the fact that he was paying less in property taxes and the recent homebuyer thought this was unfair.

While Professor Stubblebine’s opponent refused to continue the fairness debate, knowledgeable taxpayers are always glad to address the issue.

Because Proposition 13 uses acquisition value (usually the purchase price) as a basis of taxation and not current market value, it is possible for owners of identical side-by-side properties to have significantly different tax bills. Critics claim that this is an “inherent flaw.” But this criticism flows from a mind-set accustomed to market-value-based taxation.

To understand why Proposition 13 is fair one must understand how it works. Proposition 13 limits property taxes by limiting the maximum rate to one percent and, more importantly, by limiting increases in assessed valuation to two percent annually. With the latter provision, it is easy to see how, during a real estate market upswing, a property’s market value can greatly exceed its taxable value over the span of just a few years.

This difference between a property’s actual value and its taxable value disappears when the property changes hands because then county assessors reassess the property to market value. Thus, recent purchasers derive no immediate benefit from the limitation on annual increases in taxable value.

Via: California Political Review

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[VIDEO] Abortion Clinic Worker Threatens To "Run Over" Pro-Lifer With Car

Miguel Abaunza has a heart to pray for the unborn. Abaunza prays on the sidewalk near the Hilltop Women’s Reproductive Clinic in El Paso, Texas. He is a part of a local 40 days for Life group in El Paso. On October 16, 2013, Gloria Martinez, the RN at the Hilltop clinic drove her BMW directly towards Miguel in an attempt to run him over. The RN pressed on the breaks at the last second, rolled down her window and told Miguel that “one of these days I am going to run over you.”

Miguel recorded the car coming towards him on video. He recorded her because this was not the first time Martinez threatened him verbally or with her car. Abaunza was shaken up by the event and is concerned Martinez won’t stop the next time she drives towards him. The 40 Days for Life El Paso group prays with families who bring their children near the clinic.

Abaunza fears Martinez’s attempts to slam into him could endanger the children. Others who’ve gone to the center to pray have also made reports that Martinez threatens them and yells explicit remarks. Abaunza has filed a report with local police over Martinez’s actions.

This is not the first time the police have been called to the clinic.

Via: Life News

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