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Flagstaff editor wrong-headed

“When is a scientific question settled to the point that entertaining further debate becomes not only a waste of precious newsprint but also a diversion from finding a solution to the problems raised by the answer to the question?” So wrote  Arizona Daily Sun Editor Randy Wilson, as he told readers he would no longer publish opposition opinions on human-caused climate change.

Wilson (lee.net)

Randy Wilson, editor of the Arizona Daily Sun in Flagstaff recently told readers human-caused climate change was settled science and will no longer publish opposing views (lee.net)

Indirectly, this is why my wife and I put Flagstaff in our rear view mirror in 2005, after residing there for four years.  We had decided to move to the cool pines community when I retired after living in Phoenix for 33 years.

With an interest in community relations, I began attending regular community meetings at the Daily Sun at the invitation of Wilson, who was interested in hearing the pulse of the city.  While I felt he leaned left as most newsmen do, he heard both sides of issues.

My wife used her degree in accounting and extensive institutional financial experience to successfully rescue the school district from a fiscal mess; a record that led to a successful run for a position on the school board and eventually its presidency. Continue reading →

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Tip to newspaper skimmers

                              Study: Keystone Pollution May Be More Than Figured,

That headline in the USA Today* naturally caught my eye.  What have those whacky environmentalists come up with now to further delay this project?”

“The much-debated Keystone XL pipeline could produce four times more global warming pollution than the State Department calculated earlier this year, a new study concludes,” read the lead.… read more

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Axelrod jab at Bush backfires

Obama advisor David Axelrod sought to take Hillary Clinton’s criticism of President Obama’s policy of “Don’t do stupid stuff,” and shift the focus to George W. Bush, but in the process he inferred that his boss’ appointees, Biden, Clinton, Kerry and Powell, were stupid.

“Just to clarify: ‘don’t do stupid stuff’ means stuff like occupying Iraq in the first place, which was a tragically bad decision,” tweeted Axelrod, happy to get in still another jab at Bush, but forgetting that Obama’s appointees all supported going into Iraq.… read more

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Obama has full confidence in lying CIA director

When the shoe is on their foot, Democrats want you to look the other way and pretend it didn’t happen.

Take the case of CIA spying on the Senate.  “As far as the allegations of CIA hacking into Senate computers, nothing could be further from the truth,” said CIA Director John Brennan, appearing before the Council on Foreign Relations on March 11, 2014.… read more

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Rep. Gutierrez spews hate

“So, I think the real, fundamental problem that the Republicans have is, ‘How do we get meaner, how do we get nastier with immigrants,’” said Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), adding a warning to Republicans that “Hispanics in America would never forget the tough legislation proposed by Republicans in upcoming elections.”

“The way you treat one of us today is the way you have treated all of us, and we will remember that, “he said. … read more

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Obama’s dream world

“We have come a long way over the past five and a half years.  Our challenges are nowhere near as daunting as they were when I first came into office.” – President Obama, Aug. 1, 2014

I came up out of my chair when I heard the president say that during his pre-vacation press conference on Friday, but there wasn’t a sound out of the dutiful press corps in the audience.

Really Mr. President?

Obama aug 1 2014 press conf (voanews.com)

President Obama told the press that “challenges are nowhere near as daunting” as when he came into office during his Friday press conference. (voanews.com photo)

Let’s look at the economy.  You said, “The good news is the economy clearly is getting stronger.  Things are getting better.”  And you claim “we’ve recovered faster and come farther from the recession than almost any other advanced country on Earth.”  Wrong.  We are mired in the slowest recovery ever!

What about the four per cent drop in real median household income under your watch, Mr. President?  And how about those 11 million workers who quit looking for work … the 11 million who went on food stamps … the increases in prices (food, gasoline and electricity)?  Growth is sluggish.

No, Mr. President, the economy is not looking up.  The national debt continues to climb and seniors have learned that Social Security will go broke in 2030, seven years sooner than when you took office. Continue reading →

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You can’t make this stuff up

Newly found e-mails reveal Lois Lerner’s hostility toward conservatives

“So we don’t need to worry about alien terrorists.  It’s our own crazies (Republicans) that will take us down, “wrote Lois Lerner to a friend on Nov. 9, 2012.

“And I’m talking about the hosts of these shows.  The callers are rabid,” her friend responded.

Lois Lerner

Newly found e-mails reveal Lois Lerner’s hostility toward conservatives.

“Great.  Maybe we are through if there are that many (A) holes,” wrote Lerner.

“Well, you should hear the whacko wing of the GOP.  The US is through; too many foreigners suck the teat; time to hunker down, buy ammo and food for the end.  The right wing radio shows are scary to listen to,”  her friend continued.

Though seemingly trivial in nature, this e-mail exchange released Wednesday by the House Ways and Means Committee clearly reveals Lerner’s feelings toward conservative groups and singling them out for extra scrutiny.

“Lois Lerner’s exposed emails show the world she was and is a political hack driven by her own partisan agenda rather than a neutral public servant,” said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.

“This email shows that Ms Lerner’s mistreatment of conservative groups was driven by her personal hostility toward conservatives,” wrote Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI) in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder as additional input for a criminal referral.

And let’s not forget this infamous quote on the IRS scandal:

“Not even a smidgeon of corruption,” President Obama, Feb. 2, 2014 Continue reading →

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Voter ID should be slam dunk

Voter ID.  What makes this common sense requirement so controversial?

I’ve written a number of pieces on this subject over the past few years, but a copy of an article of unknown origin, Ever wonder why Republicans want voter ID?, sent to me by a reader spurred me to again address the subject.

The article cites voting irregularities in Pennsylvania, Florida and Ohio that any reasonable person should question.  Is it possible that not one person in Wood County, Ohio’s 21 districts voted for Mitt Romney?  And, how is that 106, 258 votes were cast in that county where there were only 98,213 eligible voters?  There were other examples cited as well.

While the Republicans want to attack the fraud in voting, Democrats call it voter suppression. Continue reading →

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Who is Alyssa Mastromonaco?

In my last post, Those amateurs in Washington, I briefly mentioned the name Alyssa Mastromonaco, whose piece in the Washington Post generated the interest of State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki to the extent that she tweeted a friend about it in the middle of the downed airliner crisis.

Mastomonaco (Marie Claire photo)

Alyssa Mastromonaco is the subject of this exploratory piece on how campaign staffers get positions in the administration. (Marie Claire photo)

“Great piece by former colleague Alyssa Mastromonaco who defines smart, savvy and fashionable,” Psaki tweeted, according to blogger Pat Dollard.

Frankly, my curiosity got the best of me.  Over the years I have come to recognize the names of a number of Obama administration staffers, but I had not heard of Mastromonaco.

So, exactly who is Alyssa Mastromonaco, and how did she wind up at a desk just outside the Oval Office? Continue reading →