“September’s light-vehicle sales rate will fall to 8.8 million units . . . the lowest rate in nearly 28 years, tying the worst demand on record. After the cash-for-clunkers program boosted August sales to their first year-over-year increase since October 2007, demand has plunged. In at least the last 33 years, the U.S. seasonally adjusted annual rate has only dropped as low as 8.8 million units once — in December 1981 — with records stretching back to January 1976.”
The government is investigating a major insurance company for allegedly trying to scare seniors about the health care overhaul in Congress.
The Health and Human Services Department is objecting to a mailer that Humana recently sent Medicare recipients.
It warned that “millions of seniors and disabled individuals could lose many ... important benefits and services.” The bills in Congress would cut payments to private insurance plans that serve about one-fourth of seniors. Government experts say those plans are overpaid, and lawmakers insist it won’t affect benefits.
HHS ordered Humana to stop all such mailings and says it may take further action based on its investigation.
09/21 at 07:25 AM •
(30) Extra Credit • Pass it on...
vrooom… *thump*thump*
[ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis] gave feedback on the news of Mr. Obama support[ing][sic] an investigation, “Well, that’s his opinion also.”
09/21 at 06:49 AM •
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Since resigning her post as governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin has essentially gone dark, making almost no public appearances and successfully avoiding the media outlets that are clamoring to talk to her.
But that doesn’t mean Palin has been quiet.
Relying almost exclusively on social media to get her message out, Palin has managed to carve out her own high-profile place in the national health care debate, on energy policy and on tort reform.
While Palin isn’t the only major political figure to try alternative means of communication to bypass the media, her unique ability to remain in the headlines while avoiding the spotlight suggests she may be the first to pull it off successfully.
For several days in August, the national health care debate turned to focus on so-called “death panels,” in large part because of two widely-publicized Palin Facebook posts accusing Democratic authors of the House proposal of creating bureaucratic entities to decide end of life care.
The post was immediately rebuked by Democrats, and even by some Republicans, as untrue and irresponsible. But rather than immediately firing back at her critics when reporters came calling for a response, or issuing a press release defending her claim, Palin waited five days to post her response on Facebook.
The post, simply titled “concerning the ‘death panels,’” went up shortly before midnight on a Wednesday night. By late Thursday morning, a write up of her statement was on the homepage of dozens of national and local newspapers. The post also quickly became one of the most mentioned topics within the political blogosphere.
“I can’t answer what her strategy is, but I can say that it’s working
~ * ~
Since her television news blitz shortly before resigning as governor, a chaotic period in which she was even interviewed wearing waders while fishing, Palin has not appeared on cable or network television. She has issued very few statements to the media and her press contacts have become markedly less responsive to press requests. While Palin will be delivering a September 23 speech to investors in China, the event is closed to the press.Palin’s camp did not respond to numerous requests from POLITICO seeking comment on this story…
Fans of President Obama are in for a treat this weekend. The president is going on a massive publicity blitz as he steps up his push for health care overhaul.
Some media consultants say the president is overexposing himself.
Obama will be interviewed Sunday on five shows—ABC News’ “This Week With George Stephanopoulos,” CNN’s “State of the Nation,” CBS’s “Face the Nation”, NBC’s “Meet the Press” and Univision’s “Al Punto with Jorge Ramos”—in what is called a “full Ginsburg.”
In modern media lore, the first time someone pulled the five-show feat was 11 years ago, in 1998, when Monica Lewinsky’s attorney, William Ginsburg, made the rounds to defend his client.
~ * ~
In addition to this weekend’s shows, he granted interviews last week to ABC News’ “Good Morning America” and this week to CBS’s “60 Minutes,” CNBC and Bloomberg News…
Can a world-famous celebrity of ambiguous coloring,
at the top of his craft,
who performs wearing one white glove,
still be admirably normal?
Answer BTF:
A model displays a creation at the 2010 Spring/Summer collection Headonism show during London Fashion Week
Here’s 14 minutes of excellent AH-64 gun-camera goodness.
Not for the squeamish.
...you and many others need to get it through your heads that, while the US Constitution is an official government document, the Federalist Papers are not, neither being official, complete, truly representative of everyone on the Committee or anything but opinions. Yes, they are opinions of some very learned men, but they are still propagandist opinion meant to convince or explain with a certain bias just like any LTE today. They were collected, edited and published to represent that bias.
Using them to “explain” the Constitution is not too much different than using a book by Rush Limbaugh - with the exception that the writers published in the Federalist Papers were intelligent… probably more like the writings of President Obama or former President Carter.
President Barack Obama says requiring people to get health insurance and fining them if they don’t would not amount to a backhanded tax increase.
“I absolutely reject that notion,” the president said.
~ * ~ What it’s saying is, is that we’re not going to have other people carrying your burdens for you anymore............
Climate change protesters have dumped a pile of horse manure at the home of Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson in a protest about vehicle emissions.
Six women stood by the dung in the drive of his home in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, with a sign that read: “This is what you’re landing us in.” ...
GarthG
A five-page advice booklet tells civil servants that eating lunch near a colleague who is fasting can make them feel hungry.
The Home Office Islamic Network produced the advice which said: “In practical terms, please be sensitive when eating lunch near a Muslim colleague who is fasting.
“This can make an individual feel hungrier and make it more challenging to observe the fast.”
It also urged Home Office managers to be flexible over working hours because Muslims may be following a different routine during Ramadan, which finished this weekend.
“The most likely need Muslim staff may present to managers during this period is for flexibility around working hours and break times as those fasting will have a slightly different routine from usual. Managers and Muslim staff should discuss what their needs are and be responsive and sensitive,” the document said.
Managers were also told: “Muslim staff who are fasting and whose environment allows it may wish to set out for work earlier than usual and finish their working day correspondingly early...in line with flexi-time arrangements.”
A politically incorrect pooch delivered a stream of consciousness protest Saturday as Libyan officials rolled out the red carpet for dictator Moammar Khadafy.
Maggie the dog was out for a walk when she responded to the pomp by taking a pee on the lush rug outside the Libyan Mission - a gesture appreciated by many New Yorkers with little use for the notorious colonel.
I’m dyin’, here, boss!
President Barack Obama says there should be an investigation into the hidden-camera video involving employees at the activist group ACORN and a couple posing as a prostitute and her pimp. The two ACORN workers are seen apparently advising the couple to lie about her profession and launder her earnings to get housing aid.
The video is only the latest problem for the group, which had nearly $1 million embezzled by its founder’s brother and has been accused of voter registration fraud. The House and Senate voted last week to deny federal funds to ACORN.
Obama told ABC’s “This Week” in an interview broadcast Sunday that what he saw on the video “was certainly inappropriate and deserves to be investigated.” But the president did not say who should investigate. And he said it is not a major national issue he pays much attention to.
“Frankly, it’s not really something I’ve followed closely,” Obama said. “I didn’t even know that ACORN was getting a whole lot of federal money.”
Asked about the president calling for an investigation, ACORN chief executive Bertha Lewis said Sunday, “Well, that’s his opinion.”
NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Obama has asked New York Governor David Paterson to withdraw from the state’s 2010 governor’s race for fear that the embattled fellow Democrat cannot regroup from a series of political setbacks, The New York Times reported on Sunday.
The Obama administration is worried Paterson’s unpopularity could also drag down Democratic members of Congress in New York and the Democratic-controlled state legislature in the November 2010 election, the Times said.
Racist!
Racist/handicappist!
in light of my weather forecast...
Ok—my stack of “real” books keeps growing [just picked up Malkin’s and gonna add Beck’s—Next up; 5,000 Year Leap and a re-check of Liberal Fascism]
But I just noticed my stack of “popcorn books” is dangerously low. Dangerously.
I finished the Jack Reacher series [highly recommended if ya haven’t already read ‘em] and need something at least that good.
Recommendations?
09/20 at 07:04 AM •
(40) Extra Credit • Pass it on...
timing...
Here’s the forecast for my area…
EXCESSIVE HEAT WATCH
A STRONG RIDGE OF HIGH PRESSURE IS FORECAST TO BUILD OVER THE WEST COAST TODAY AND MONDAY. THE RIDGE WILL THEN REMAIN OVER THE WESTERN STATES THROUGH MUCH OF THE WEEK...PRODUCING HOT WEATHER… THE HOTTEST DAYS ARE EXPECTED TO BE MONDAY AND TUESDAY.
AFTERNOON TEMPERATURES WILL TOP OUT BETWEEN THE UPPER 90S AND 105.
[which means 110°+ in our little valley… and no end in sight...]
You?
09/20 at 06:44 AM •
(27) Extra Credit • Pass it on...
Breitbart: Prepare for a “blockbuster” “from left field” next week............
Yeah, I know. Words, words, words.
Sumbiches didn’t pass their “new plan” by Congress,
so I gotta figure there’s serious mischief afoot.
(What? No, I mean more than payin’ off GE for favorable news coverage.)
The virtual Internet competition for a real dinner with the former governor of Alaska and 2008 Republican candidate for vice president turned out not to be priceless, but rather closed at $63,500, the winning bid in an eBay auction to benefit a wounded veterans’ charity, the auction closing Friday.
And a potentially awkward charity dinner at that was averted when Palin critic Joe McGinnis was outbid by Palin fan Cathy Maples of Huntsville, Ala., a defense contracting company owner who won the auction, saying she not only fully supports the military men and women fighting for the nation, but also is a “big advocate’’ for Palin, who resigned as governor over the summer and is hard at work on a book that should be worth a few million dollars and a Facebook page claiming more than 875,000 followers, the list swelling since she quit her office.
“We eat, therefore we hunt,’’ Palin has said.
Palin offered the dinner as part of a charity auction on eBay for the Ride 2 Recovery program, which supports wounded veterans through cycling programs. All told, more than $95,000 was raised. The winner foots the bill for travel to Alaska…
~ * ~
McGinnis had bid $59,999.99, explaining that ”such a dinner would be the perfect way to kick off the reporting for my new book: Sarah Palin’s Year of Living Dangerously”. (to be published by Broadway/Random House in fall of 2011.) “ McGinniss is the author of “Pipe Dreams”, an article which documented Palin’s failure to deliver a gas pipeline in Alaska....
