The Reagan Diaries

We've been reading The Reagan Dairies, President Reagan's fascinating daily account of his eight years in office (the complete set will be released later). Reagan comes across a fundamentally decent, fully engaged statesman who always put his country first. As editor Douglas Brinkley explains, "his uncomplicated and humble notations are on display in these pages: genuine, thoughtful, and caring."

What also is evident in the entries is how the shamelessly slanted media tried to undermine his initiatives at every turn. For example, reflecting on the press conference afte the Tower Commission report on the Iran-Contra controversy was issued in February 1987, President Reagan notes that "Press obviously was seeking answers that would let them keep on their distortions and this lynch party."

A few interesting entries from 1983:

April 5:

I had an unsatisfactory meeting with Repub. Sens. on the budget committee. They are determined we must cut defense spending & increase domestic in order to get a budget passed. I'm opposed. We have rabbits where we need Tigers.

July 18:

Announced today in Florida that Henry Kissinger will be chairman of the Commission on Central Am. One of the press yelled a Q. at me that Sen. Dodd says commission is a ploy to get around Cong. I wonder really which side Dodd is on. He comes down against the U.S. on almost every issue.

July 24:

...Could almost forget too the block of Congressman who are determined to stop our aid to Central Am. & our own defense buildup. It's hard for me to believe this is just partisan politics. Whenever it is us versus the Soviets or Cubans they always come down on the wrong side.

In February 1982, the president talked about screening the film Inchon:

It is a brutal but gripping picture about the Korean War and for once we're the good guys and the Communists are the villains. The producer was Japanese or Korean which probably explains the preceding sentence.

NetFlix says the film was produced by the Moonies but we put it in our queue anyway.

Happy Constitution Day

Instant Classic: Susana Martinez Refutes Attack Ad

Chris Christie is not the only Republican politician on the opposite side from teacher's union bosses. Democrat operatives tried to smear Susana Martinez, the GOP's gubernatorial candidate in New Mexico, with false charges about education policy, but as you can see is this brilliant Martinez response, it completely backfired on them.

Another Chris Christie Video Goes Viral

Chris Christie, the New Jersey governor, is one of the few politicians who really represents the ordinary taxpayer for once. Millions of workers in the private sector (assuming they still have jobs) have had to kick in more and more for their health insurance benefits, while public sector pay and perks have gone through the roof. Christie asked the greedy teacher's union leadership to agree to make a small sacrifice to help with the huge state budget deficit and they basically went nuts. Here is Christie's latest encounter with a teacher:



Related stories:
America's Governor, Chris Christie
France's Government Employees: "Fonctionnaires" are Dysfunctional

The Department of Injustice

It wasn't enough to sue the state of Arizona for enforcing immigration law under SB 1070; the hyper-partisan U.S. Department of Justice has now filed what appears to be a suspiciously timed lawsuit against Sheriff Joe Arpaio, "America's Sheriff." The currently misnamed Justice Department is more interested in suing those who seek to uphold the law rather than protecting the American people. The pathetically politicized agency also won't lift a finger to prevent or prosecute vote fraud. The Power Line blog puts it in perspective:

In Washington, there are probably 10 or 20 faux "scandals" for every real scandal. One of the real scandals these days is the way in which Barack Obama and Eric Holder have politicized the Department of Justice. The Democrats criticized the Bush administration for politicizing DOJ, but that was sheer fabrication. It didn't happen. Immediately upon taking office, however, Obama and Holder embarked on a program of partisan law enforcement the likes of which this country may never have seen before.

And it gets worse:

Illegal immigrants who get pulled over by police for traffic-related offenses will be set free if a proposed change in Immigration and Customs Enforcement policy is approved. [Fox News]

Sgt. Joe Friday is having none of it:

News Executive Admits Massive Left-Wing Bias, Finally

It seems to be an article of faith among the mainstream (a.k.a dinosaur) media to never admit its palpable liberal bias. The stubborn tilt to the left is, in part, why many newspapers and magazines have reached the brink of bankruptcy and traditional news networks have seen their market share evaporate. ABC News just recently announced massive staff cutbacks, for example. It's also why Fox News, despite its real and/or imagined faults, has been a ratings juggernaut.

So this candor from the head of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is long overdue, although the admission may be an attempt to get on the good side of the Conservative coalition that is governing the U.K. under David Cameron. The BBC is funded by an annual license fee that is collected from every British household.

BBC Director General Mark Thompson has admitted the corporation was guilty of a 'massive' Left-wing bias in the past.

The TV chief also admitted there had been a 'struggle' to achieve impartiality and that staff were ' mystified' by the early years of Margaret Thatcher's government.

But he claimed there was now 'much less overt tribalism' among the current crop of young journalists, and said in recent times the corporation was a 'broader church'.

...But he said he was optimistic about a good settlement in forthcoming licence fee discussions with the Coalition. [DailyMail]

On this side of the pond in a related story, the Washington Examiner recently revealed some interesting information about the "massive" political donations of network news employees:

Senior executives, on-air personalities, producers, reporters, editors, writers and other self-identifying employees of ABC, CBS and NBC contributed more than $1 million to Democratic candidates and campaign committees in 2008, according to an analysis by The Examiner of data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.

The Democratic total of $1,020,816 was given by 1,160 employees of the three major broadcast television networks, with an average contribution of $880.

Something to think about when someone claims the three networks or even CNN plays it down the middle.

Why Isn't Anyone Asking About Palestinian Rights In Arab Countries?

As we have noted previously, the gullible media and the international community seems to be oblivious to the treatment of Palestinians in countries other than Israel. We know also that the premise that global terrorism will magically go away upon the implementation of a "two-state solution" is absurd. Yet, the shrill, irrational demands on Israel to make unilateral territorial and other concessions in the so-called "peace process" never ends. The dictatorships and thugocracies in the U.N. seem only concerned with make-believe human rights violations by the Jewish state, the only functioning Middle East democracy. The idea that global terrorism will magically go away upon the implementation of a "two-state solution"

In last August, the Wall Street Journal shed further light on this issue in connection with a recently enacted law in Lebanon granting limited rights to Palestinian refugees:

Last week, Lebanon's parliament amended a clause in a 1946 law that had been used to bar the 400,000 Palestinians living in the country from taking any but the most menial jobs. "I was born in Lebanon and I have never known Palestine," the AP quoted one 45-year-old Palestinian who works as a cab driver. "We want to live like Lebanese. We are human beings and we need civil rights."

The dirty little secret of the Arab world is that it has consistently treated Palestinians living in its midst with contempt and often violence. In 1970, Jordan expelled thousands of Palestinian militants after Yasser Arafat attempted a coup against King Hussein. In 1991, Kuwait expelled some 400,000 Palestinians working in the country as punishment for Arafat's support for Saddam Hussein in the first Gulf War.

For six decades, Palestinians have been forced by Arab governments to live in often squalid conditions so that they could serve as propaganda tools against Israel, even as millions of refugees elsewhere have been repatriated and absorbed by their host countries. This month's vote still falls short of giving Palestinian Lebanese the rights they deserve, including citizenship. But it's a reminder of the cynicism of so much Arab pro-Palestinian propaganda, and the credulity of those who fall for it.

Related postings:
The International Community and Terrorism: An Inconvenient Truth
Helen Thomas, Racist
Christmas in Bethlehem...But For How Much Longer?

Happy Labor Day

The Washington Post points out that Labor Day "honors the social and economic contributions that the American worker has made to the growth health and prosperity of the country." It also adds that the labor movement won much better working conditions for adults and children. Today, however, organized labor has become a utterly corrupt, job-killing ATM machine for the Democrats, particularly the public sector unions that use their political clout to bleed the taxpayer dry.

A Labor Day New York Post editorial explains these concerns about Big Labor:

But the holiday -- once meant to extol an honorable movement, affirm worker solidarity and celebrate gains won through collective bargaining -- is an ideal time to look at what has become of the labor movement in recent years.

Union-driven pensions, health-care programs, overtime and other work rules have nearly bankrupted industries (Detroit), threatened the fiscal integrity of state governments (California, New Jersey, New York) and wreaked havoc on entire nations (Greece).

...Meanwhile, public-employee pension costs strangle state and local budgets -- and when taxes go up to pay the bill, private-sector businesses fold or flee, taking jobs with them.

Happy Labor Day!