gdp's Comments

Big Journalism : NPR's Bitter Disappointment: Komen Divorces Planned Parenthood

Fri, 3 Feb 2012 07:06:52 +0000

Breaking News, 1973: NPR is reporting as "unwarranted" a Senate committee's investigation into campaign tactics employed by The Committee to Reelect the President. Spokesmen for the President observed that Richard Nixon was reelected by an landslide in one of the greatest electoral blowouts in American history. That investigation [by Sen. Ervin], which has no set timetable, was launched in when Ervin asked the White House for executive branch documents. Ervin, in a statement to the AP, said he is still working with President Nixon's campaign on getting the requested documents. He said he is looking into possible violations of federal, state and local reporting requirements, as well as allegations of financial abuse, and would consider holding a hearing depending on what he learns. Republicans and White House supporters have assailed the probe as an unwarranted political ploy.

Big Journalism : N.H. City Clerk Caught Lying About New Hampshire Voter Fraud on Al Sharpton's Show

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 08:02:48 +0000

When a CPA firm undertakes a financial audit the first stage is to determine whether the company under review has safeguards in place to detect and prevent error and fraud. This was codified in Sarbanes-Oxley but had long been standard audit procedure. IT IS ONLY AFTER IT IS DETERMINED THAT SAFEGUARDS ARE IN PLACE AND ADHERED TO that an audit would proceed to examine the financial assertions making up the Financial Statements. Put simply, you don't accept the firm's Cash On Hand claim if you have found they don't count the cash or reconcile their bank accounts. Yet what Bergeron is demanding is that the public accept his assertion of no invalid voters even after it has been resoundingly demonstrated that NH has no safeguards in place to detect voter fraud and makes no effort to prevent it. He wants us to accept his voter inventory without recording acquisitions, disbursements or a count of what's on the shelves. Somehow I doubt NH takes a similar attitude toward its residents' taxable income.

Big Hollywood : Weinstein Says Obama Like Strong-Willed Thatcher

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 05:59:27 +0000

"lending a helping hand, may achieve the same result as Thatcher" What - breaking the power of the unions? We can but hope.

Big Hollywood : Weinstein Says Obama Like Strong-Willed Thatcher

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 05:58:09 +0000

"I always find myself rooting for people who stand up for what they believe in, and it always gives me a great charge to see it happen." So - that's why Harvey was so staunch in his criticisms of those who dissed George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld!

Big Government : Austan Goolsbee's Budget Math Is Wrong - More than 100 Percent of Long-Term Fiscal Challenge Is Gove

Mon, 9 Jan 2012 06:59:32 +0000

What nobody ever asks Goolsbee and his compatriots is "What is the maximum percentage of GNP that should be consumed by government at all levels?

Big Government : Mitt Romney Sharpens Attack on "Crony Capitalism"

Mon, 9 Jan 2012 06:53:05 +0000

Romney needs to expand this theme, perhaps by noting how the bailout of Detroit aided the unions and shafted the bondholders -- pointing out that many of those bondholders were pension funds supporting widows and orphans, or folk whose lost bond investments denied them the ability to turn those investments around into other, possibly job-creating, opportunities. Nyahh - that would require a voting block (and more importantly, a MSM) that understood how free market capitalism works.

Big Government : Mitt Romney Sharpens Attack on "Crony Capitalism"

Mon, 9 Jan 2012 06:48:57 +0000

Huh - I have my defaults set to prevent Autoplay and have no trouble with the Big sites. Perhaps the fault, dear complainants, lies not in your Bigs, but in yourselves.

Big Hollywood : 'And So it Goes: Kurt Vonnegut: A Life' Review - Author Reflected on the Madness All Around Him

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 05:56:15 +0000

I find it wonderfully ironic that the atheist Vonnegut's portrayal of the Tralfamadorians did much to enable me to conceive of a God as external to Time and thus able to accomplish his many miracles through manipulation of events across Time and Space, and thus did much to confirm and deepen my faith in a Creator.

Big Journalism : More Turmoil At The New York Times As CEO Retires Unexpectedly

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 07:21:48 +0000

I get past the Times' paywall courtesy of a promotional offer I received courtesy of Chrysler. I've no idea why Chrysler thought I deserved such consideration, I received the offer and accepted it reflexively when the paywall was going up. It was only afterward that it struck me that this might be a way of funneling taxpayer money (from the bailout) to the main media institutional supporter of the bailout and the administration. Given the prior market response to a Times paywall, i wonder how many of their "subscriptions" are similarly funded by third parties?

Big Government : Are Some 'Tea Party' Politicians Just Politicians After All?

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 07:12:32 +0000

One factor to consider in choosing somebody to head the GOP for the next four years (assuming they win) is whether they've demonstrated a commitment and ability to BUILD THE PARTY. Is a president who doesn't build the GOP really winning for the GOP? What condition did Romney leave the Massachusetts Republican party in? What was Gingrich's legacy? Has Perry built the GOP in Texas, has Bachmann built the GOP in Minnesota? Interesting that this is one question generally ignored.

Big Hollywood : Blacklisted or Ostracized? Tell Me About It

Fri, 2 Dec 2011 03:29:09 +0000

Well, I guess that means he acknowledges that before now Cubans could NOT criticize Castro?

Big Hollywood : Blacklisted or Ostracized? Tell Me About It

Fri, 2 Dec 2011 03:26:12 +0000

Go thou to Amazon and look for Monster Hunter International, Monster hunter Vendetta and Monster Hunter Alpha. Then try The Grimnoir Chronicles. Prepare to be entertained. Likely tagline: When monsters attack, some people refuse to be victims.

Big Government : REVEALED: Nancy Pelosi Blocked Credit Card Reform While Investing Mill

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 06:02:04 +0000

Be It Resolved: When elected to national public office all financial assets of the office holder (and spouse) shall be liquidated and invested in a government index fund, said fund to be indexed to the GDP so that the office holder's wealth will grow in direct proportion to the nation's wealth.

Big Government : #OccupyDenver Elects Dog as Leader

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 06:33:29 +0000

Very appropriate that they are now lead by a true bit...

Big Journalism : Columbia Journalism Review Slams Politico's 'Frenzied, Single-Minded Focus' On Herman Cain

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 06:30:45 +0000

144 stories?? Isn't that a gross?

Big Hollywood : Hergé's History Tainting Spielberg's 'Tintin?' Not Quite

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 02:31:36 +0000

Count me among those who think it better to recognize and acknowledge flaws in past works of art than to suppress them. It is both important and useful to respect the flaws of earlier times just as, surely, the moral failings of our current age will be deplored in some future era. Birth of a Nation and Triumph of the Will are no less masterpieces for being morally deplorable -- but at least now we can watch them aware of the propagandistic nature.

Big Government : New Video Shows the War on Poverty Is a Failure

Wed, 5 Oct 2011 08:06:52 +0000

The family attended a local production of Brecht & Weill's Threepenny Opera (masters thesis at local university) this evening and, as we were leaving, I commented to the Beloved Spouse that we had certainly advanced since those bygone days depicted; nowadays Peachum is a government official.

Big Hollywood : Hollywood Shies Away From 9/11-inspired Movies

Sun, 4 Sep 2011 05:27:19 +0000

I have wondered for almost a decade about the failure to make a 9-11 film about the people stranded by the shutdown of airline travel following the attacks. Pick a half dozen characters stuck in Seattle and needing to get to NY ... or Chicago, or L.A. or Pittsburgh; anyplace requiring a fair bit of travel ... who rent a car/van/mini-bus and go cross-country together. It's a classic formula and would the characters to explore and express the multiple emotions affecting Americans after the attack. This would not require Hollywood to take a stand on the attacks, or address the questions of who did them or any of the other issues H-wood shies away from (or just gets wrong) but would allow H-wood to have the enlightened Liberal demonstrate his superiority over the knuckle-dragging neanderthal exploitative environment degrading businessman conservative. And they could have a cute actress flash her ta-tas while changing her shirt in the back seat.

Big Journalism : Despite Glowing Profile of NY Times Publisher, Paper Still has Problems

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 06:38:37 +0000

I regret to confess I am one of those helping make the NYT paywall a "success" - although not intentionally. When the wall first dropped into place I received an offer of free access as a promotion, courtesy of automaker Chrysler (I think - it's been a while and they've never done any follow-up promotion to remind me of whose generosity gives me the NYT every day.) And I expect you realize what I realized, that Chrysler is a major beneficiary of taxpayer dollars, which sorta kinda makes this "promotion" a transfer of public dollars to the NYT. It would be interesting to see into the corporate memos behind this little promotion, wouldn't it?

Big Government : Nanny State Trolls for Homeschooled Children in Illinois

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 07:39:17 +0000

Before the state of Illinois bloviates about being "responsible for the education of our children" they might want to address the graduation rates of the Chicago (and Springfield, and Joliet, and Decatur and ...) public schools.