April 6, 2011 · 7:40 pm

The Glenn Beck Show is Going, Going, Gone…

Finally, some good news from Faux News….

Glenn Beck really has become toxic if Fox is getting rid of him…

CNN already fired him before he went to Fox….

He’s running out of networks, so he has to go out on his own…

From the Los Angeles Times:

Completing a swift rise and fall from TV stardom, controversial host Glenn Beck will lose his once-popular Fox News show later this year, the network announced Wednesday.

Beck’s 5 p.m. program, which earned scorn from liberals for its attacks on President Obama as well as its devotion to sometimes-obscure right-wing thinkers, was a top cable draw in 2009 and a signpost for the populist “tea party” movement in last year’s midterm elections, which dealt a ballot-box rebuke to the White House.

But ratings plummeted and advertisers bailed as Beck — a cherubic, salt-and-pepper-haired longtime radio host who has compared himself to a rodeo clown — increasingly pursued a hard-to-follow agenda that many found too conspiracy-minded. He also chafed his bosses at Fox News, who faulted him for spending too much time on his far-flung business operations and not enough on honing his TV presentation.

Both sides cobbled together a diplomatically worded statement Wednesday that noted Beck would “transition off” his daily program but stressed that the host and Fox News had reached a new deal for future, as-yet-unspecified projects. Joel Cheatwood, a senior Fox News executive, was hired away to help run Beck’s company, Mercury Radio Arts.

Fox News and Beck both declined to comment beyond the statement.

Roger Ailes, the Fox News chairman and chief executive who until recently had overridden doubts about Beck among his subordinates, said in the statement: “Glenn Beck is a powerful communicator, a creative entrepreneur and a true success by anybody’s standards.”

But there was little mistaking the upshot of the move: Less than three years after joining Fox News from CNN’s Headline News amid a burst of publicity, Beck is being booted off the air. His sinking ratings certainly didn’t help — they fell 32% for the first three months of this year, to 1.9 million total viewers, according to the Nielsen Co.

And after months of reported friction between the host and Fox News as well as an aggressive advertiser boycott after Beck dubbed President Obama a racist, analysts professed little surprise.

via Fox News to end Glenn Beck’s show – latimes.com.

Leave a comment

Filed under Journalism, Media, Tea Party, Television

Tagged as , , , , , ,

April 6, 2011 · 7:30 pm

10 of the Biggest Corporate Tax Cheats In America | AlterNet

I really don’t mind paying my fair share of taxes, but I find it hard to believe it’s fair that I pay more than these Corporations….

If you or I were running a small business and we kept one set of books showing how much money we were making and a second set for the IRS that painted a picture of an enterprise on the brink of bankruptcy, we’d end up behind bars.

But that’s standard operating procedure for corporate America. In fact, public corporations have to do it — the law requires that they keep one set of books for their shareholders, and another for the IRS. As tax journalist David Cay Johnston explained, “Many corporations routinely tell investors they incur millions in corporate income taxes, while the financial records they give the IRS show they owe nothing or are due refunds.”

In the records kept by the IRS, corporations cook the books “by using tax shelters, offsetting income with losses from years ago, and employing countless other devices that make them look like paupers to the IRS but money machines to investors.”We got a peek into this process last week, when the New York Times revealed that multinational giant GE is not only avoiding corporate income taxes this year, but is taking a “tax benefit” of $3 billion. According to the Times, the company’s “extraordinary success is based on an aggressive strategy that mixes fierce lobbying for tax breaks and innovative accounting that enables it to concentrate its profits offshore.”

But of course, GE is not alone. Here are 10 other big corporate tax evaders (with an assist from an MSNBC analysis of leading corporate tax-dodgers). Keep in mind that neither political party ever actually cuts spending significantly, so every dollar these companies avoid paying is one that will come out of the paychecks of working America.

via 10 of the Biggest Corporate Tax Cheats In America | AlterNet.

Leave a comment

Filed under Politics, The Economy

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

April 6, 2011 · 8:38 am

A Tale of Two Visions: Killing Medicare, Budget Deficits and the Government Shutdown

As usual Robert Reich is dead on in his assessment of the situation in Washington.

Obama is losing the message war to the GOP and Democrats are afraid to stand up for basic Democratic principles- that we are all in this together and are socially obligated to each do their fair share and help each other when age or misfortune falls….

This used to be called Christian Duty- a term which I prefer not to use in a multi-cultural, multi-religious society.  I also hesitate to use this term because Christianity is now viewed as a hard and unforgiving religion by so many thanks to the Religious Right and their role in GOP Politics…

Instead,  I prefer to think of this as Societal or Social Duty.  It is our duty to contribute to the overall good of the nation- not to make this a a dog eat dog world/country  where the motto is “I’ve got mine, screw you.”  That is the GOP vision…

The Democrats need to call this out and fight for the middle class, the elderly, the poor, minority and women’s rights, children and those who work hard but pay more taxes than the idle rich…

Reich calls it out in the Huffington Post:

 

Obama must show America that the basic choice is between two fundamental views of this nation. Either we’re all in this together, or we’re a bunch of individuals who happen to live within these borders and are mainly on their own.

This has been the basic choice all along — when the Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution, in the Civil War, when we went through World War I and World War II and the Great Depression in between, during the Civil Rights movement and beyond.

The president needs to remind us that as members of the same society we have obligations to one another — that the wealthiest among us must pay their fair share of taxes, that any of us who loses our jobs or homes or gets terribly sick can count on the rest of us, and that we have collective obligations to our elderly, our children, and the rest of the planet.

This is why we have government. And anyone who wants to shut it down or cut it down because they say we can’t afford it any longer is plain wrong. We are the richest nation in the world, richer than we’ve ever been. We can afford to remain a society whose members are in it together.

via Robert Reich: Paul Ryan’s Plan, the Coming Shutdown, and What’s Really at Stake.

Leave a comment

Filed under Elections, Politics, The Economy

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

April 5, 2011 · 8:59 pm

VA Congressman Proposes Officially Changing Title Of Anti-EPA Bill To ‘Koch Brothers Appreciation Act’

Love this….

From ThinkProgress.org…

Weeks ago, Koch-funded climate change denying Republicans on the House Energy Committee voted unanimously in favor of the Upton-Inhofe bill to eliminate the EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The Republican-controlled House is expected to pass the bill later this week and Rep. Gerry Connollly (D-VA) wants to call a spade a spade and officially change the name of the bill to a more appropriate title:

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) wants to change the title of a bill that would permanently block Environmental Protection Agency climate regulations to the “Koch Brothers Appreciation Act,” a reference to the billionaire brothers who are active in Republican politics.

via ThinkProgress » Rep. Gerry Connolly Proposes Officially Changing Title Of Anti-EPA Bill To ‘Koch Brothers Appreciation Act’.

Leave a comment

Filed under Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

April 5, 2011 · 8:54 pm

CBO: GOP Budget Would Increase Debt, Then Stick It To Medicare Patients

These are the facts…

Now let’s see how the Republicans spin them as they try to kill Medicare…

They usually use their specially created data from the Conservative “Think” Tank, The Heritage Foundation that’s about as credible as Fox News…

However, unlike Faux News and The Heritage Foundation, The CBO is non-partisan, generally accurate and widely respected…

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s initial analysis of the House GOP budget released today by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is filled with nuggets of bad news for Republicans.

In addition to acknowledging that seniors, disabled and elderly people would be hit with much higher out-of-pocket health care costs, the CBO finds that by the end of the 10-year budget window, public debt will actually be higher than it would be if the GOP just did nothing.

Under the so-called “extended baseline scenario” — a.k.a. projections based on current law — debt held by the public will grow to 67 percent of GDP by 2022. Under the GOP plan, public debt would reach 70 percent of GDP in the same window.

In other words, the spending cuts Republicans would realize in the first 10 years would be outpaced by deficit increasing tax-cuts, which Ryan also proposes. After that, debt projections under the plan improve decade-by-decade relative to current law. That’s because 2022 would mark the beginning of the Medicare privatization plan. That’s when, CBO finds, “most elderly people would pay more for their health care than they would pay under the current Medicare system.”

If the current Medicare system were allowed to continue, CBO found that an average 65-year-old beneficiary’s costs would be only 25 percent of what it’d be in the individual private insurance market. Under the GOP plan, those costs would jump to 68 percent.

In plain English, “the gradually increasing number of Medicare beneficiaries participating in the new premium support program [the GOP’s Medicare privatization plan] would bear a much larger share of their health care costs than they would under the current program.”

via CBO: GOP Budget Would Increase Debt, Then Stick It To Medicare Patients | TPMDC.

1 Comment

Filed under Elections, Politics, The Economy

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

April 5, 2011 · 8:22 pm

Happy Birthday, Bette Davis!

Today really should be a National Holiday…..

Bette Davis was born April 5th, 1908 in Lowell, Massachusetts…

She has always been one of my favorite actresses…

Here are some of her memorable scenes…

There were so many…

“Now, Voyager”

“All About Eve”

And so many more…

Leave a comment

Filed under Entertainment, Movies

Tagged as , , ,

April 5, 2011 · 7:18 pm

Bristol Palin’s Nonprofit Paid Her Seven Times What It Spent On Actual Teen Pregnancy Prevention

This is amazing…

Her salary was over $250K and they only spent $35k to actually try to prevent teen pregnancy.

It seems like she’s really sending the message that you can sure make a lot of money off premarital sex and teen pregnancy as long as your name is Palin…

Why do the Conservatives and the Religious Right keep supporting these people?

In 2009, Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol joined a teen pregnancy prevention nonprofit called the Candie’s Foundation. Today, the Associated Press reported that the Candie’s Foundation released its 2009 tax information, revealing that Bristol was paid a salary of $262,500.

But a closer examination of the tax form by ThinkProgress shows that the group disbursed only $35,000 in grants to actual teen pregnancy health and counseling clinics: $25,000 to the Mt. Sinai Adolescent Health Center and $10,000 to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. View a screenshot of Bristol’s exorbitant salary below:

via ThinkProgress » Bristol Palin’s Nonprofit Paid Her Seven Times What It Spent On Actual Teen Pregnancy Prevention.

Leave a comment

Filed under Politics

Tagged as , ,

April 5, 2011 · 7:12 pm

CEO Pay Shoots Up At Expense of Workers | Mother Jones

Some good points from Josh Harkinson at Mother Jones:

Here’s the latest on how much richer the rich have gotten: Last year, according to a USA Today analysis of corporate filings, median CEO pay jumped 27 percent. Compare this to the paltry 2.1 percent pay raise earned last year by the typical American worker.

In general, CEOs did so much better than everyone else due to their generous stock options, which surged concert with last year’s bull market. Wall Street argues that there’s nothing wrong with such incentive-based pay; it alignes the interests of corporate execs with their companies’ shareholders.  But is that all that matters? UMass economics professor William Lazonick notes that a huge chunk of corporate profits last year came not from legitimate gains, but from downsizing:

The fact that CEOs’ pay is rising along with stock prices underscores the disconnect between pay and companies’ true underlying performance, Lazonick says. While companies in the S&P 500 boosted profit 47% last year, much of that was due to cost-cutting and layoffs, not from the creation of businesses and growth, Lazonick says. Revenue, a gauge of the money flowing into businesses for selling goods and services, grew at a much slower pace than profit — and ended the year up just 7%.

So in other words, a 7 percent pay hike for CEOs might have been fair; a 27 percent raise looks a lot more like profiting off the misery of the people who once worked for you.

via CEO Pay Shoots Up At Expense of Workers | Mother Jones.

Leave a comment

Filed under The Economy

Tagged as , ,

April 5, 2011 · 7:10 pm

The GOP’s Shutdown Frenzy | Mother Jones

This is obvious, but it will be interesting to see if it is reported as such…

The GOP wants this shut down to occur to appease their Tea Party Base…

In my view, the Democrats offered entirely too much in an effort to avoid this…

I wish the Democrats had half the nerve of the GOP…

A government shutdown now looks all but inevitable, and both parties are jockeying to make sure that the other one gets the blame. But I think this paragraph makes it pretty clear which party is really jonesing for a shutdown to happen:

House Republicans huddled late Monday and, according to a GOP aide, gave the speaker an ovation when he informed them that he was advising the House Administration Committee to begin preparing for a possible shutdown. That process includes alerting lawmakers and senior staff about which employees would not report to work if no agreement is reached.

Democrats are willing to endure a shutdown but are pretty obviously willing to compromise to avoid one. Republicans, conversely, really want this to happen. That’s been obvious from the start, and we shouldn’t allow anyone to let us to lose sight of this.

via The GOP’s Shutdown Frenzy | Mother Jones.

Leave a comment

Filed under Elections, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

April 4, 2011 · 9:29 pm

Rutgers Parents Outraged by Snooki Speech – FoxNews.com

I knew there would be a backlash…

I still can’t believe they paid her $32K, which is 2$ more than they are paying Toni Morrison to give the graduation speech…

If I was paying Rutgers tuition, I would be furious…

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J.–Angry parents of students attending Rutgers University blasted the decision to pay Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi $32,000 to give a campus talk last week — and said she should stay on the Jersey Shore, the New York Post reported Sunday.

“It’s disgusting,” said Nester Delgado, 43, whose daughter is a Rutgers freshman.

“Next year, is it going to be J-WOWW or The Situation?”

Parents fumed that Snooki was paid nearly $10,000 more than the $23,466 they have to fork over annually in tuition fees and housing to send their kids to the Garden State university.

“I don’t think she’s a good representation of a role model for my kids,” said Christine Getz, 47, a part-time preschool teacher who has a son and daughter at Rutgers.

The boardwalk bimbo drew 2,000 students to both of her Q&A sessions Thursday night at which she offered tales of her rise to “guidette” stardom, and offered such advice as “When you’re tan, you feel better about yourself,” and “Study hard, but party harder.”

The backlash comes after many students spoke out against the decision to host the reality TV star on campus.

“As an RU student, I’m really ashamed,” one student tweeted, according to FOXNews.com

“My tuition dollars wasted on Snooki,” another student wrote. “Rutgers probably could have paid her with a case of beer.”

Members of the Rutgers University Programming Association (RUPA), which organized the event, defended the high speaking fee, saying the group had been looking for someone who could appeal to the student community.

“We’re trying to provide different kinds of experiences to students,” said the group’s president, Ana Castillo.

Snooki’s $32,000 fee caused a stir when it was revealed she got $2,000 more than Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison will get for this year’s commencement address.

via Rutgers Parents Outraged by Snooki Speech – FoxNews.com.

Leave a comment

Filed under Education, Entertainment

Tagged as , , , , , ,