Infrastructure: Let’s Spend Money on It! ... by Alan Caruba

Infrastructure: Let’s Spend Money on It!
By Alan Caruba
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There is one aspect of President Obama’s proposed agenda that I like very much and it has to do with investing in the nation’s infrastructure of highways, bridges, ports and airfields.

As a youth I can recall President Eisenhower and, from the vantage point of many decades later, I am amazed at how effective and foresighted he was. As President, perhaps his greatest legacy was the creation of a system of interstate highways. He funded it with a gas tax and it literally transformed the nation economically and socially.

Today, those highways, begun in 1972 and not finished until 1993 at a total cost of $130 billion, are in need of some serious maintenance and upgrade as are other elements of our infrastructure.

Attending to this vital national need will generate lots of jobs, well beyond construction. These are not the “green jobs” that Obama talks of, but real jobs that will produce real results in the form of an improved highway system, as well as the expansion of our ports and other transportation facilities.

Writing recently, Anthony Coscia, chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, had this to say about the nation’s infrastructure:

“America is literally falling apart. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, one-third of the nation’s major roads are in poor or mediocre condition and 26 percent of its bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.”

Back in September, the Washington Post reported that the Highway Trust Fund was about to run out of money before the end of the year. Left unmentioned, however, was why. Billions of the Fund’s money have been diverted to boost the production of ethanol. When the ethanol lobby realized it was going to be rightly blamed for potholes and collapsing bridges, it got the Energy Policy Act of 2005 passed to facilitate direct financing from the U.S. Treasury. Who voted for this? Sen. Barack Obama, Sen. Joe Biden, Sen. Tom Harkin, and Sen. Richard Lugar, to name a few.

“The nation’s air traffic control system still relies on radar technology dating from the 1960s, leading to chronic flight delays and near collisions on the runways. Traffic gridlock on the nation’s highways and airways costs the U.S. economy more than $100 billion annually.”

Part of the problem is that the State’s are responsible for some 75 percent of the cost of all infrastructure projects with the federal government picking up the rest. Governors, being politicians, know that highway repair is not a big vote-getter, so they have tended to ignore it. Some have actually leased parts of the nation’s highway system to foreign companies. Infrastructure is an American priority and should be funded by Americans.

Coscia notes that “The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates it will cost $1.6 trillion just to bring the nation’s infrastructure to a state of good repair.” This would be money well spent. Right now there are $79 billion in projects whose plans have been completed and could begin tomorrow if the money was available. The Obama administration and Congress need to make it available.

At issue, too, is where those projects are located. Bear in mind that 65 percent of America’s population lives in metropolitan areas and accounts for 75 percent of the economy. This is no time for more “bridges to nowhere.” The nation’s cities should be first in line to upgrade existing structures and add new ones.

Among those structures in desperate need of upgrade are the crumbling water mains in cities from Boston to Tampa to San Antonio and elsewhere, most of which were built generations ago. The estimated bill will be $277 billion according to the Environmental Protection Agency. What is more vital to life than water? Spend the money!

This is, ironically, a quintessential conservative cause even if it will take a recession and a nation’s capitol filled with liberals to make it happen. Republicans in office should embrace infrastructure as a key issue now that Congress has returned.

As Emil W. Henry, Jr., a former assistant treasury secretary from 2005 to 2007, wrote recently, “Like the maintenance of a strong military—investment that protects prosperity—investment in key infrastructure is consistent with Reagan principles.” He like so many others says “Our infrastructure needs are at a critical juncture.”

There will be voices opposing this task and they will all be from environmental groups like Friends of the Earth and the Sierra Club that are already on record as being against building new highways, new coal-fired or nuclear generation plants, and just about anything else that will ensure that our complex society can function and our economy can keep pace with the rest of the world.

Alan Caruba writes a daily blog at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com. Every week, he posts a column on the website of The National Anxiety Center, www.anxietycenter.com.

© Alan Caruba, January 2009

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The Presidency ... J. D. Longstreet

The Presidency
J. D. Longstreet
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Well, we have ourselves a new President. For good, or ill, Mr. Obama is "The Man" for at least four years.

I sure as heck did not receive an invitation to attend, and I didn't partake of all the offerings on TV of the Inauguration. I figured I'd see all I wanted to see, and then some, of Mr. Obama over the next four years so why overindulge this early on in the game. Besides, the remarks made by Douglas Adams, a British comedy writer crossed my mind. Mr, Douglas is credited with having said: " Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should, on no account, be allowed to do the job!"

Still there are those who, upon observing the way our US political system works nail it, dead on! Take for instance, this quote from Deng Xiaoping, a former Chinese politician and communist leader, who was the most powerful figure in the People's Republic of China from the late 1970s until his death in 1997. He said this: "The United States brags about its political system, but the President says one thing during the election, something else when he takes office, something else at midterm, and something else when he leaves." See? Even the Commies understand how it works!

Harry Truman, the 33rd President of the United States said this: “All the president is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing, and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway.”

John Adams, the second President of the US said, in reference to his term in office: "The four most miserable years of my life!" Later, Adams said: "Had I been chosen president again, I am certain I could not have lived another year."

Thomas Jefferson, the 3rd President of the US, said this: "No man will ever bring out of the Presidency the reputation which carries him into it. To myself, personally, it brings nothing but increasing drudgery and daily loss of friends."

Patrick Henry, one of the of the Founding Fathers of the US was not particularly happy with the Constitution and the way it treated the office of President. It is important to note, I think, that Henry wanted a "confederation of states" rather than a "consolidated government" which, he felt, was what the early Constitution did, even before the Bill of Rights was tacked on. In any event, this is what Henry had to say, especially about the office of President: "The Constitution is said to have beautiful features; but when I come to examine these features, Sir, they appear to me horribly frightful. Among other deformities, it has an awful squinting - it squints towards monarchy. And does not this raise indignation in the breast of every true American? Your president may easily become king. . . . Where are your checks in this government? . . . I would rather infinitely - and I am sure most of this convention are of the same opinion - have a king, lords, and commons than a government so replete with such insupportable evils."

President Jimmy Carter once said: "You really have to experience the feeling of being with the president in the oval office. . . . It's a disease I came to call Ovalitis."

President Dwight David (IKE) Eisenhower said this of the decision making by the President: "No easy problems ever come to the President of the United States. If they are easy to solve, somebody else has solved them."

Newt Gingrich, always good for a quote, is given credit for having said: "If the Soviet empire still existed, I'd be terrified! The fact is, we can afford a fairly ignorant presidency now."

I'll return to Harry Truman for another quote on the Presidency. Truman is felt by many to be if not the most "grounded" President the US has ever had, then certainly he would rank within the top three. Truman once said: "When you get to be President, there are all those things, the honors, the twenty-one gun salutes, all those things. You have to remember, it isn't for you, it's for the Presidency.

Now, I'm not trying to make any particular point here, in this piece, I just thought it would be good to get a perspective on the views of others, especially those who have served in the office of President, or served the office of President, helped to define the office of President, and even, in some cases, reported on the office of the President. It IS an exalted position in our government and our society. But, it is well to remember that those who have served as President and Mr. Obama, who serves today, is "... but a man."

Having established the fact that the President is "just a man" I, along with a multitude of Journalists/Bloggers/Commentators and every living American, reserves the right to excoriate him when he does something with which we do not agree.

Mr. Obama is in for some serious pounding in a few days, or a few weeks, whenever the so-called "Honeymoon" is over. Those of us on the political right have the long knives out, sharpened, and at the ready. We will be slicing and dicing Mr. Obama just as efficiently as the writers on the political left eviscerated Mr. Bush. I would hope we do it with more style, less crudity, and far less profanity and vulgarity than the political left.

In doing so, we should not flinch from the job at hand. I will turn to a quote from one of my favorite former Presidents of the US, Teddy Roosevelt. Mr. Roosevelt was a "man's man" and did not mince words when speaking on a topic he held sincere views about. Roosevelt held strong opinions about the job of, and the office of, the President. He said this: “The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able and disinterested service to the nation as a whole. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or anyone else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about anyone else.”

Taking our lead from former President Theodore Roosevelt, we here at "INSIGHT on Freedom" intend to do just that.

J. D. Longstreet

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Mr. Obama. Taking America into Harm’s Way.

Mr. Obama. Taking America into Harm’s Way.
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Not Everyone Is Happy

J. D. Longstreet
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Is the partying done yet? Is the trash picked up off the mall? Has everyone sobered up? Far more important is the question: Has the defecation hit the rotary oscillator yet?

So many questions. So much uncertainty. So much fear. Yes… I did say F E A R !

See, not all of us were celebrating as Mr. Obama took the Oath of Office. Some of us are genuinely frightened at the prospects ahead… prospects, which do not bode well for the United States and the people who populate these states.

See, there are 58 million of us who voted against Mr. Obama. Did you get that? I said 58 million Americans voted against Mr. Obama. Mr. Obama got 53% of the vote across America. See how close that is to ½ the electorate? So, when you fan away the media’s smoke… we are right where we were before the election… so far as the common man and woman of America is concerned. We STILL live in a country equally divided, roughly 50/50, about the direction the country should be taking.

Now, you would never know that from all the hoopla in the Mainstream Media about “healing”, and “hope”, and “change”, and all the “feel good” “warm and fuzzy”, “group hug” rhetoric, right out of the 60’s “hippie culture” spouted by the talking heads on TV and the gushing of the leftie writers in the printed press. I must tell you folks… to an old southern conservative, like “yours truly”, it is sickening. I could not watch it on the television for fear of vomiting.

Hey, and while we are at it… can we agree that America is no longer a “racist country”, like every other country on the face of the earth? No, you say? And, why not, pray tell? We have been told, all along, by the bleeding hearts in the Mainstream Media that if Obama were elected it would end racism in America!

Well, of course, I knew it was BS then… and it is BS today (BS=Bovine Scatology). But you know, there are actually people walking around on this earth who actually believed that stuff? Yeah! No kidding! That ought to scare you to death! I know it rattled my cage with gusto!

It is absolutely amazing how simple-minded the American voter really is. But, we can take comfort that only half, at best, of the American electorate bought that Utopian nonsense. Remember, only 53% of us voted for Mr. Obama. The other 47% still have their wits about them… and they will be, eventually, the people who save America from the Socialists, the Old Hippies, the Eurocrats, the Neocomms, (Neocomms=New Communists) and the plain ole “Air Heads” who populate the two chambers of our legislative wing of government. (Speaking of Air Heads… have you looked into the eyes of some of those people with their vacuous smiles plastered, permanently, to their faces? You really ought to. If gives new depths of meaning to the phrase: “The lights are on… but nobody is home.”

I am an old “states righter” who believes that the best government is the government that governs the least. I also believe that the smaller the government the better. I believe we should starve government into reducing its size by cutting taxes to reduce the amount of available funds the government can use to enlarge itself. I believe, as did the men who founded this country and drew up the Constitution, that the Federal Government was/is to be the agent of the states and is to take its orders from the states… not the other way around… as it is today. Like President Reagan, I believe government is the problem and not the answer. I believe Mr. Obama is dead wrong, absolutely wrong, in his stated desire to grow the government to right all wrongs in America. It will only create more wrongs.

I believe Mr. Obama is about to take the US into Harm’s Way… and he has no clue. He is a Commander-in-Chief who will have to be taught how to salute. And HE is to COMMAND the mightiest military force on the planet? YES! Does that not scare you?

And the bailouts: When do you and I have to pay it back? Huh? Oh, yeah! They forgot to mention that, didn’t they? Yep, you and I, the American taxpayer, AND our children and grandchildren, some yet unborn, will be required to put all that money back into the Treasury’s coffers.

Oh, well. We finally have that “Nanny State” 53% of the electorate wanted. Yep! You finally have a government that can give you everything you want. But, by the same token, you also have the government that can take everything you have!

I was in the Artillery when I served the country in the US Army. One of the first lessons I learned, as new artilleryman, was to always remember that as soon as the enemy is within range of your guns… YOU are in range of THEIRS! There are no “gimmes.” There is “No Free Lunch.” Somebody MUST pay. Want to know who is going pay for all the “FREE” stuff you are expecting to get from the US Government under Obama’s reign? Just look in the mirror!

No, some of us are not celebrating. Some us are sincerely worried.

J. D. Longstreet

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© j. d. Longstreet

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Oratory Versus Reality: The Obama Years Begin ... by Alan Caruba

Oratory Versus Reality: The Obama Years Begin

By Alan Caruba

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Not since Franklin Delano Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy has this nation had a President so blessed with the gift of oratory.

There is no doubt that, if words alone could lift this nation out of its current financial crisis, its wars, and other problems, President Barack Obama could make that happen.

We need, therefore, to cast our eyes backwards to those earlier presidents to remind us that, for all his eloquence, his power to encourage and inspire Americans, Franklin Delano Roosevelt did not resolve the Great Depression and, indeed, prolonged it with a misguided New Deal. Inaugurated in 1933, he was still struggling when World War II began for the United States in 1941.

As John F. Kennedy urged us to ask not what the country could do for us, but what we could do for our country, it was mere months before the die was cast for growing U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Other than the space program, his administration was a series of stumbles. His assassination eliminated any further opportunity to judge his brief term in office.

So oratory is a fine thing and our new President delivered a fine speech. But! If Americans discover that we are in for a “first 100 days” that involves a great flurry of ill-conceived, ill-considered, and utterly political legislation, we will rue the day we gave power to him and those on Capitol Hill.

“There are some who question the scale of our ambitions,” said President Obama. He’s right because the greatest failures always follow an excess of ambition. It happens to individuals and it happens to nations.

The proposed stimulus bill reeks of all the errors and ills of FDR’s New Deal programs that wasted millions paying farmers not to plant crops, fixing prices within industries to kill competition while driving up the cost of goods, and initially handing out money without requiring that people work to earn it.

The proposed $825 billion “stimulus package” is pure pork. It has no more relationship to economic recovery than previous efforts. The real change America needs is for government to stop interfering with the marketplace of goods and services.

When Congress gets out of the way of business and industry, you will have recovery.

When it stops paying farmers not to plant crops, as it continues to do, you will have recovery.

When it puts a stop to the lawsuits and laws that stop or slows every form of development in favor of some unknown species of insect or reptile, you will see recovery.

When it permits our vast natural resources of coal, natural gas, and oil to be extracted and sold as energy for America, you will see recovery.

Called the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill”, the proposed bill includes $650 million to help Americans upgrade to digital cable after the transition on February 17th. In what possible way does this help the economy? It is pork.

While surely there are structures in cities and towns in America that could use an upgrade, $44 million will be spent to repair and improve the headquarters of the Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. All manner of taxpayer money will be lavished on a panoply of government agencies, all standing in line with their tin cups.

As Ronald Reagan said, “Government isn’t the answer to our problems. Government is the problem.”

There will be $1.2 billion to provide day care services to 300,000 additional low-income children since clearly both parents will have to work in order to put food on the table. It is pork.

$1.2 billion to create an estimated one million summer jobs for young people. It is pork.

And $6.2 billion to weatherize the homes of low-income people to make them “more energy efficient.” It is pork.

It probably passed unnoticed, but the President’s promise to “roll back the specter of a warming planet” is quite possibly the worst indicator of what his new administration plans to do to the tune of billions of taxpayer dollars and countless new regulations.

The Earth is dramatically cooling. There is no global warming. Why the new President talking about “a warming planet”?

As just one more example of the endless list of items taxpayer money to be wasted, the most egregious is $2.4 billion for “projects demonstrating carbon-capture technology.” There is no need to “capture” carbon dioxide, a gas that plays virtually no role whatever in climate change. The oceans of the world have been doing that for more than five billion years.

After the oratory comes the reality. If, as a nation our elected representatives act, based on the failed politics and policies of the past, economic reality will swiftly become painfully apparent and all the speeches in the world will not put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

Alan Caruba writes a daily blog at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com. Every week, he posts a column on the website of The National Anxiety Center, www.anxietycenter.com.

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Conservative+Obama+Oratory+Action

Obama/Democrats To Repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Law.

Obama/Democrats To Repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Law.
J. D. Longstreet
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Here we go again! The Democrats are set to repeal the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law banning homosexuals from serving in the military of the United States. This is no joke. As utterly absurd as this sounds, they are set to do it... and I have no doubt they will manage to get it done this time.

Obama's new Press Secretary has declared that Obama will do it. Of course, Obama can't do it alone, even though he will be the Commander-in-Chief. The Constitution leaves that up to the Congress... and... since the Congress is now populated with old hippies and socialists it is a given, a fait accompli!

Now, let's understand something. Don't ask, Don't Tell is NOT a policy. It is a Federal Law, a Public Law. Methinks this has not been clearly understood.

OK, so what DOES the law actually say? You can read it, in it's entirety HERE.

Here are a few highlights of the law as it stands (temporarily) today:

“Pursuant to the powers conferred by section 8 article 1 of the Constitution of the United States, it lies within the discretion of the Congress to establish qualifications for and conditions of service in the armed forces,” the law states.

Moving right along... the law says: “The prohibition against homosexual conduct is a long-standing element of military law that continues to be necessary in the unique circumstances of military service."

It further says: “The presence in the armed forces of persons who demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability,”.

Then comes the clincher: “A member of the armed forces shall be separated from the armed forces under regulations prescribed by the Secretary of Defense,” the law continues, “if one or more of the following findings is made and approved in accordance with procedures set forth in such regulations: (1) That the member has engaged in, attempted to engage in, or solicited another to engage in a homosexual act or acts … (2) That the member has stated that he or she is a homosexual or bisexual, or words to that effect … (3) That the member has married or attempted to marry a person known to be of the same biological sex.“

Under the terms of the law homosexuals could serve in the US military as long as they kept quiet about their sexual orientation and didn’t go public with it, by admitting it, or openly taking part in homosexual activity. If either occurred, homosexuals were shown the door and bade farewell from the US Military.

As a veteran, when I served, a homosexual was not allowed in the service, period. If they did manage to get in, as soon as they were found out, they were gone. And it was quick.

In my time in the US Army there was no such thing as privacy. You did everything as a unit. You slept in the same room, you showered together, you ate together, and you even relived yourself in full view of all the other soldiers who happened to be in the latrine at the same time. There were no “stalls” with toilets in them. There was a line of toilets, in a row, and it was quit possible for two soldiers to have a conversation, while relieving themselves, sitting on those toilets. Did I mention there was no privacy? I did, didn’t I?

It was important that a soldier knew his fellow soldier was the same gender as he was.

Look, having a known homosexual in a military unit disrupts that unit’s cohesiveness. If it happens to be a combat unit, lives are at stake.

In a piece I wrote and published back in July of 2008 I said the following: "So why is this coming up now? The answer is simple. Take a look at what is probably going to happen n November. The most liberal senator in the US Senate is probably going to win the next election and become the President of the US. Add to that the increase in numbers in the Congress of ultra-liberal democrats cinching their control over the two branches of the government and with a Supreme Court that is almost as liberal as it is conservative… and you have to ask??? The “iron will be hot” and they intend to strike. There is no reason to believe they will fail in striking down any and all laws that might keep homosexuals out of the US military. Don’t ask, don’t tell is doomed. Bet on it!

Get used to it. A liberal/progressive/socialist/Marxist take over of the US government is in the offing. We old fogies who believe in freedom had a pretty good run, but we are no longer wanted and theEurocrats and Neocomms (New Commies) are set to take over and roll back the freedom(s) we worked so hard to preserve for nearly three centuries. The destruction of the hated US Military is just one of their goals. And that is why the issue has resurfaced at this particular time.

Get ready, America. We are about to witness the destruction of a way of life envied the world over as the Socialist and Neocomms tear down the last best hope of mankind on this planet."

Don't worry. My crystal ball is stowed safely away for a while. Of course, that wasn't the greatest prognostication I have made. In fact it was one of the easiest. Only the dimmest of dim bulbs could have actually believed that Mr. McCain had a prayer at beating Obama and the media.

So, back to the topic at hand. A democrat from (where else?) California is set to introduce the legislation to repeal the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Law. Rep. Ellen Tauscher to be exact. Tauscher's bill is titled: "The Military Readiness Enhancement Act."

Now, you would think a bill to do away with the Don't ask, Don't tell law would be enough, wouldn't you? But... NO. It's not. The BillTauscher will introduce will , if passed, allow those homosexuals who have been discharged from the military as a result of violating the Don't ask, Don't tell law will be allowed to return to active duty. The bill is set to be introduced in a few weeks and it is reported to already have nearly 150 co-sponsors already signed up.

National Review has an article citing a survey by the Military Times which indicates that passage of the "The Military Readiness Enhancement Act." repealing the Don't ask, Don't tell law would result in the loss of between 141,000 and 323,000 active duty troops. That is a loss of around 23% of our standing military force. We recommend you read this article. You'll find it HERE. One has to wonder what percentage of the various Reserve Services would also refuse to serve with homosexuals. Anyway you parse it, it will lead to the degradation of our military almost overnight.

Thankfully, it is a rare thing for an incoming president to inherit a war. But this one is inheriting TWO wars. Our military is stretched and a number of veterans, having done two or more tours in the combat zones do not need this additional worry and aggravation.

We have said time and time again that the left does not understand the military nor do they understand the application of military force. If there was ever an inkling of doubt in your mind about that, then simply consider what the left is about to do to our military by repealing the Don't Ask, Don't Tell law.

Now, let's talk about The Draft! OK. We'll save that for after the dems destroy the Volunteer Military and we HAVE to fall back on The Draft.

J. D. Longstreet
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The Passing of the Mainstream Media

The Passing of the Mainstream Media

J. D. Longstreet

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People who write commentary do a good deal of research. Well, unfortunately, that is not always true. Would that it were. To write with authority, however, they/we have to, it is important, even vital, that their/our facts are , indeed, facts and that they are as accurate as is possible and that attribution is given to those deserving of it.

A number of years ago, when I switched over from the broadcast media to the Internet, as a base for my commentaries, the first thing I noticed was that in order to find out what was REALLY happening in America I had to go to off shore news outlets. Our homegrown news media is SO biased in favor of the left that anything that has any attachment to the right, and may bode well for America, is, somehow, ignored. They just don't tell you about it. It's called omission... among other things.

Bear with me. I AM leading up to a point.

I have access to two regional newspapers. But the Internet, along with the escalating cost of newsprint, (the paper the newspaper is printed upon) and the faltering economy has about shut down the hard copy editions of newspapers in my neck of the Carolina woods west of the Cape Fear. I now have one regional newspaper to rely upon for a daily hard copy dose of what they refer to as "news". Of course, most of what arrives at my door, as news, has already been seen and read by me on the internet hours and even days before it arrives at my breakfast table.

The first, and so far the only one, of the two regional papers to stop delivery to my area was a New York Times owned paper. That was no great loss to readers on this side of the river, as it was so liberal as to be a joke and was often the source of much humor at the restaurant table where meets the daily gathering of the retired morning coffee drinkers/"Liers Club". Many of my neighbors were fond of announcing, when that paper issued it's list of recommended candidates to vote for, they would vote for the opposition. That paper carried a box score, every edition, of the US service personnel killed in Iraq. I never saw a listing of the enemy killed in Iraq, although rumor has it that number is in the hundreds of thousands.

As long as the war was going badly for the US, the paper kept up it's drumbeat of defeat, defeat, and run and retreat. But now that the war in Iraq has turned the corner and the US has the upper hand, it is as though the war in Iraq suddenly, somehow, creased to exist. There is little, if any, reporting on it, at all. And you can bet that as soon as it becomes Obama's war, the reporting on the war will be glorious. There will be stories of great strides made on the battlefield and at the negotiating table, and there will be reports of victory after victory. That newspaper, and it's parent company in New York, will not allow Obama's War to become a millstone around the neck of the Obama Administration. Funny how that works, what?

The other regional paper is based in a military town here in North Carolina and therefore cannot avoid reporting on the war, on non-strategic and non-tactical troop movements, and all things military because, frankly, it is a part of everyday life to many of the residents here in my neck of the Carolina woods. Still, in depth reporting of the war has slipped and fallen from the pages of that broadsheet as well.

So, what must one do to find out what the dickens is going on in Iraq and how it affects Americans? One must go to off shore newspapers and news organizations. That is what I do practically every day.

How else will I know if America wins the war... if the press doesn't tell me? That is a darned good question and one Investors Business Daily puts this way: "What would happen if the U.S. won a war but the media didn't tell the American public?" Then IBD goes on to say: "Apparently, we have to rely on a British newspaper for the news that we've defeated the last remnants of al-Qaida in Iraq." See what I mean?

OK. So maybe I'm being too hard on the MsM, huh? Well the London Sunday Times says it is an important story. They say America's victory over al-Qaida in Iraq is: "the culmination of one of the most spectacular victories of the war on terror." And they are absolutely right. It is a fantastic victory. The article says: "A terrorist force that once numbered more than 12,000, with strongholds in the west and central regions of Iraq, has over two years been reduced to a mere 1,200 fighters, backed against the wall in the northern city of Mosul." You can read this excellent article HERE.

But, where are the headlines and the stories in the American press about these fantastic victories? Where are the stories on the major TV networks news shows about this, as some call it, "most unlikely of American victories"? Where are they? Well, if you haven't figured it out by now, there is no hope.

For the leftist press in America to print anything that would show America, America's military, or a republican presidential administration, in a good light is just not going to happen. And THAT, dear reader, is why so many of us, including "yours truly", goes off shore for news about America. And... and this is important... it is an important reason why the news media in America is in deep trouble today.

With the Internet opening up the windows to the world, for the average person in America, we now have access to sources of information we never had before. It was startling, to say the least, for the uninitiated "news hound" to learn that what he was seeing in his local/regional newspaper and on the TV news was so badly slanted as to be, for all intents and purposes, useless. It was an awakening.

Suddenly, they remembered the voices of commentators, not unlike this scribe, who, for decades, had been warning them that what they were getting and accepting as news was nothing short of out and out propaganda for the political left. When that settled in they stopped buying those newspapers. They stopped spending their advertising dollars with that newspaper, and with that TV/radio station, or network, leading to the near financial collapse of some of the giant media companies in America. It is, as they say: "Payback Time!"

We in America are on the cusp of one of the media's biggest digging and filling operations ever seen by man. They have built Mr. Obama up into a mythological figure with superhuman powers and that image is about to crumble and fall all around them. They will be struggling to cover up as much of the foibles of Mr. Obama as they possibly can and it will not be easy. It will be an around the clock, 24/7, operation and one that will take a toll on the remaining resources of the once powerful propaganda machine that was the Mainstream Media in America.

Things change. Profound. And so true. Nothing remains the same. The much heralded Information Age exploded upon us so quickly the old repositories of information were totally unprepared... and... in their arrogance they could not envisage anything ever replacing them as the source for all information and the filter through which all that information was processed before it reached you and I, the Great Unwashed. Nevertheless, it happened and the world has been changed forever.

The day of the Mainstream Media is over. So, what's next? I have no idea. I intentionally did not choose the Internet because the Internet itself is in a state of flux and ten years from today it will barely resemble what we call the World Wide Web today. The information carried along it's cortex will change, too. But this I DO know. Those who wish to remain in the organized profession we have come to know as the Press, the Media, and Journalists must be ready to change. There will be no room for covert bias in reporting the day's events. The very nature of the Internet, where everyone with a keyboard and a modem is a reporter of those events, will force accuracy in the reports or a hasty withdrawal of the biased reporter simply because there are so many others reporting the same event with truth and accuracy. "Opinion writing" will remain as popular as ever, possible even more popular.

This is a good thing and is much to be praised and lauded. Finally, the consumer of "news" will be able to access reports on an event he/she is interested in with a high degree of certainty that the information he/she is accessing is as accurate and as free of the writer's biases as possible. This has never been possible before. Sometimes change IS good!

J. D. Longstreet

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©J. D. Longstreet, 2009

Conservative+Newspapers+Press+Media+Mainstream+Bias

Celebrating Robert E. Lee's Birthday Today, Jan. 19th, 1807