Ellen DeGeneres Slams Sarah Palin On Gay Marriage (VIDEO)
Click on the play button below.
Follow this link to the Huffington Post article where I first saw this video.
SteveG’s Posts
Greenberg’s Law of the Media
Greenberg’s Law of the Media states that “if a news item has a number in it, then it is probably misleading.”
The law is best understood by seeing examples of it in practice.
To this end, I am going to start posting examples that I find. I have also created a category on this blog so that you can easily find the examples.
Follow this link to the first example from the Washington Post web site. The following paragraph from the article is the example:
From shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaeda attacks to last year, U.S. defense spending rose from 3 to 4 percent of gross domestic product, but it remains far below the 45-year average of 5.5 percent. The Pentagon’s budget for fiscal 2009 is $527 billion, a figure that does not include Iraq and Afghanistan war costs, which have totaled more than $800 billion since 2001.
Are they saying that our defense spending is less than the 45-year average when you don’t count the amount that would put it above that average? I think that is what’s known as a tautology.
This kind of accounting has become standard practice in business. “Company XYZ made a profit when you exclude certain items.” Those items being the ones that show the company did not make a profit.
America Has the Second-Lowest Business Taxes In the World
Follow this link to an article and video about the claim that America has the second-lowest business taxes in the world.
I looked at the page in the the Bush Treasury Department report the author claims “admits we have the second lowest effective corporate tax rate in the industrialized world”. It does seem to say what he claims. Of course, I am the one that came up with Greenberg’s Law of the Media, “If a news story has a number in it, it is probably misleading.” See if you can find anything that is misleading about David Sirota’s claims.
McCain Hesitates as Bernanke Revives Stimulus Debate
Follow this link to the article that discusses McCain’s reaction to the newly proposed stimulus package.
If you remember, in my post Balancing the Federal Budget During a Recession, I noted that John McCain just does not understand what is needed to help us get out of a recession. He seems bound and determined to prove me right.
Fed Chairman Endorses Obama
Follow this link to the item on Bernanke endorsing Obama.
If it’s in the Wall Street Journal, you’ve got to believe it, don’t you?
Steal Back Your Vote 1
Follow this link to the story Block the Vote by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. & Greg Palast
“I don’t think the Democrats get it. All these new rules and games … could flip the vote to the GOP in half a dozen states.”
Here is the accompanying clip of the movie:
Follow this link to the the Steal Back Your Vote web site. This is where you can get the items mentioned at the end of the above video.
U.S. policies may have contributed to Iran revolution, study says
Follow this link to the story U.S. policies may have contributed to Iran revolution, study says by Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer.
The purported facts are worthwhile to know. Who to blame if indeed blame is warranted is hard to know. I don’t know if there are good guys and bad guys in this story. Perhaps there are only bad guys and worse guys.
Barney Frank On The Housing Situation
Follow this link to the 27 minute video of Washington Journal on C-SPAN Thursday, July 24, 2008.
Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), Financial Services Committee Chairman talks about the stability of and changes in the domestic and international markets as more and more assets are held outside the traditional banking system. He also discusses the passage of the housing bill by the House.
There is a lot to learn in this video including some thoughts on good investments and bad.
I stumbled across this video trying to do some research to respond to a comment on the Worcester T & G website about Barney Frank’s statement that Freddie Mac and Frannie Mae were sound. Perhaps he should not have said this, but it may be that at the time he said this it was true. The situation deteriorated in ways that could not have been foreseen at that point.
My post on this blog titled Private sector loans, not Fannie or Freddie, triggered crisis tries to address the complexity of both sides of the issue.
He Just Can’t Quit W
Follow this link to the New York Times OpEd piece by Frank Rich.
The article is even better than the cartoon.
Be sure to read the post after this one on Powell’s endorsement of Obama.
Colin Powell Endorses Obama 1
It is not only the fact of the endorsement, but it is also the way in which the endorsement was made.
I still do not like the way Colin Powell handled the Iraq War presentation to the UN. However, even if you want to completely discredit the man, what he said in the above two videos bears repeating over and over. Follow this link to see Huffington Post’s article and reader reaction to the endorsement.