WHO
DOES OneNationWorkingTogether.org REPRESENT?
This organization is endorsed
by groups like the Communist
Party-USA and the Democratic
Socialists of America. The International
Socialist Organization is another proud sponsor, and
don't forget the Progressive
Democrats of America.
OneNationWorkingTogether
is an interesting organization of socialist
organizations
with some members who think that President Obama
is not progressive enough.
WHO
DOES ACORN REPRESENT?
You do not have
to be part of an organization to uncover fraud and corruption
within organizations such as ACORN. For example, two
young individuals were able to change the course of events
inside the U.S. federal government by doing their own
investigative work. However, don't expect the old-guard
media to pay any attention.
Census
Bureau Cuts Its Ties With Acorn
[wsj.com]
The U.S.
Census Bureau on Friday dropped Acorn as a partner for the
2010 Census after two separate hidden-camera videos captured
four employees of the community organization giving tax advice
on running a brothel to a man posing as an aspiring politician
and a woman posing as his girlfriend and a prostitute.
U.S.
Senate denies funds for ACORN
[reuters.com]
The Senate measure, which passed
83 to 7 in the Democratic-led chamber, was included in a
must-pass spending bill that funds housing and transportation
programs for the fiscal year that starts October 1. "This
is an opportunity for the United States Senate to stand up and
say 'Enough is enough' just as the Census Bureau did,"
said Republican Senator Mike Johanns, the measure's sponsor.
WHO
DOES AARP REPRESENT?
Comeuppance
For The AARP
[wizbangblog.com]
The
AARP has become a veritable extension of the federal
bureaucracy and its estrangement from the real interests of
its members has reached Congressional like proportions. It
long ago left behind the real needs of seniors as it morphed
into a massive political lobbying machine in the same way
large labor unions did years ago.
AARP
loses members over health care stance [AP]
About 60,000 senior citizens have quit AARP since July 1 due
to the group's support for a health care overhaul, a spokesman
for the organization said Monday. AARP is strongly backing a
health care overhaul, running ads to support it and hosting
President Barack Obama at an online forum recently to promote
his agenda to AARP members.
What
Master Does AARP Serve? [wsj.com]
Perhaps there was a day when AARP
stood for retired people. Now it functions like a big
insurance company. AARP can serve only one master, and it's
not the retired people.
WHO IS INVESTIGATING THE ENERGETIC
GOVERNMENT OF THE U.S.?
Investigative
journalism is at risk
[propublica.org]
Profit-margin
expectations and short-term stock market concerns, in
particular, are making it increasingly difficult for the
public companies that control nearly all of our nation’s
news organizations to afford—or at least to think they can
afford—the sort of intensive, extensive and uncertain
efforts that produce great investigative journalism. It is
true that the number and variety of publishing platforms is
exploding in the Internet age. But very few of these entities
are engaged in original reporting. In short, we face a
situation in which sources of opinion are
proliferating, but sources of facts on
which those opinions are based are shrinking. Investigative
journalism is at risk. Many news organizations have
increasingly come to see
it as a luxury.
...OR...
Maybe
some news organizations have reasons to not be
interested in publicly questioning the intentions and plans of
the growing U.S. government organization.
For example:
1. Jeffrey Immelt is a member of President Obama's Economic
Advisory Board
2. Jeffrey Immelt is on the Board
of Directors of the Federal
Reserve Bank of New York
3. Jeffrey Immelt is the CEO
of General
Electric
4. General Electric owns NBC
News and MSNBC.
What
are the odds that GE's NBC News stories on President Obama and
his White House will be accurate
and balanced?
How
a Loophole Benefits GE in Bank Rescue
[washingtonpost.com]
General Electric, the world's
largest industrial company, has quietly become the biggest
beneficiary of one of the government's key rescue programs for
banks. At the same time, GE has avoided many of the
restrictions facing other financial giants getting help from
the government. (see GE memo
on TLGP)
Obama’s
hidden bailout of General Electric
[washingtonexaminer.com]
Labeled “climate revenues”
and totaling $646 billion over eight years, this line item in
Obama’s budget has inspired confidence in GE Chief Executive
Officer Jeff Immelt. As Immelt put it in a letter this week,
he believes that the Obama administration will be a profitable
“financier” and “key partner.”
G.E.
Makes It Official: NBC Will Go to Comcast [nytimes.com]
Comcast, the nation’s largest
cable operator, announced an agreement on Thursday to acquire
NBC Universal from the General Electric Company. The deal
valued NBC Universal at about $30 billion. The agreement will
create a joint venture, with Comcast owning 51 percent and G.E.
owning 49 percent (down from the 80%
GE had owned).
Comcast-NBC
merger is about money, politics
[sacbee.com]
Comcast is the biggest high-speed Internet access company, the
biggest cable company and the third largest phone company in
the United States. It has about 50 million high-speed
Internet, voice and TV customers. It would like to merge with
NBC Universal, one of the five media conglomerates that
control almost every TV viewing hour in America.
The merger is under review by
the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Communications
Commission; so far, from Comcast's perspective at least,
things are going well. But a staffer on Capitol Hill said to
me the other day that the way the Comcast-NBCU merger is going
should disturbing anyone who cares about the relationship
between money and politics.
The merger could be a case
study in well-run lobbying. Right out of the gate, Comcast
identified what its weaknesses were and started fighting off
– or buying off – anyone who might validate those
weaknesses. Comcast spent nearly $90 million in the first two
quarters of 2010 on efforts to support the deal; promised $20
million in venture funding for minority entrepreneurs; pledged
$6 million to support independent productions; agreed to place
a Latino member on its corporate board of directors; made
deals with NBC's affiliates; and hired (with NBCU) more than
100 former government employees to shepherd the deal through
– including several former chiefs of staff to key
legislators and policy-makers.
There's been very little press
coverage of the merger. It should be getting more attention.
Seventy-five percent to 85 percent of Americans will soon have
only one choice for video-quality high-speed communications,
and it will be their local cable monopoly.
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