Government Agencies

Al Gore, Felipe Calderon Want to Spend $90 Trillion to Eliminate Cars
January 27th, 2015 11:56 PM
Ever since the publication "Earth in the Balance" in 1992, we've seen the press minimize the public's exposure to the more outrageous ideas and quotes emanating from former Vice President Al Gore.
Concerning that original book, Gore's statement that "The internal combustion engine is the greatest enemy of mankind" and his contention that it could and be eliminated in 25 years are hardly known by…

Shhh: Unionized Percentage of Workforce Is at an Over 100-Year Low
January 27th, 2015 10:02 PM
On Friday, Melissa Quinn at the Daily Signal, after the release of the government's "Union Members -- 2014" report, uniquely observed that the unionized percentage of the public- and private-sector nonagricultural wage and salary U.S. workforce had reached "its lowest rate in 100 years." From what I can tell in web and news searches, despite the fact that virtually any 100-year record is…

Only 1.1% of Americans Live in Unemployment Rate-Recovering Counties
January 26th, 2015 6:11 PM
This post follows up on Friday morning's entry (at BizzyBlog; at NewsBusters) showing that "Fewer Than 0.5% of Americans Live in Fully Recovered Counties." This is the kind of news which would be front and center with the nation's establishment press if such a report came out during a Republican or conservative presidential administration. With Team Obama in place, NACo's work has been virtually…

At Politico Mag, Undisclosed Dem Donor Covers Obama and Middle Class
January 26th, 2015 11:28 AM
It would seem that the conversation at Politico went something like this: "Hey, we need to hit the Obama administration for the havoc its policies have wreaked on the middle class. But we can't go after them too hard, because that might burn some bridges, and we'll lose our stenographer — er, journalistic — access. So we need to use someone sympathetic to Democrats who will know how not to go…

Recovery Watch: Homeless Problem in LA Is Growing
January 25th, 2015 11:55 PM
As President Barack Obama and Governor Jerry Brown continue to extol the wonders of the alleged economic recovery of nation and the Golden State, respectively, stories of significant growth in homelessness continue to rain on their parades. The latest example comes on the heels of reports on Seattle's burgeoning problem and the city's apparent willingness to allow officially sanctioned outdoor…

AP Spins Today's Glum (For Organized Labor) Union Membership Report
January 23rd, 2015 4:46 PM
Someone looking at the annual "Union Members" report released this morning by the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics would logically conclude that 2014 was a year organized labor would rather forget.
While average nonagricultural wage and salary employment increased by over 2.32 million from 2013 to 2014, union membership only went up by 48,000, or about 2 percent of the nationwide…

As Homelessness Rises in Seattle and Elsewhere, National Press Snoozes
January 22nd, 2015 11:53 PM
A week ago, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, a Democrat, called homelessness in his city and the rest of King County a "full-blown crisis."
Based on the numbers presented in coverage of the area's situation, we can certainly add the Emerald City to the list of areas where homelessness has been on the rise. Odds are that many readers here didn't know that, because the national press hardly ever pays…

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Kurtz: Boston Globe's Boehner Blunder Reflects 'Ugly Media Mindset'
January 18th, 2015 12:23 AM
Howard Kurtz, the Fox News analyst and the host of its "Media Buzz" program, made a few pertinent observations in a column about Victor Paul Alvarez's astonishingly crass attempt at humor at Boston.com earlier this week. That said, Kurtz should have criticized the web site and its parent, the Boston Globe, for its completely unsatisfactory explanation for the one "correction" it made to Alvarez's…

’1 in 3 Men Would Commit Rape’ Study Leader Doesn't Care About Facts
January 16th, 2015 8:09 PM
On Tuesday, I posted (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog) on a bogus "study" out of North Dakota University contending that "almost one in 3 college men would commit rape 'if nobody would ever know and there wouldn’t be any consequences.'" Media exposure from favorable and unfavorable outlets continues to grow.
In that post, I noted that the study disqualified itself from credibility by uncriticially…

Reporter Thinks He Flunked the 'Food Stamp Challenge'; No He Didn't
January 15th, 2015 12:31 AM
At the Lafayette, Indiana Courier Journal, reporter Mikel Livingston, that paper's social policiy reporter, set out to try to pass the Food Stamp Challenge.
The idea, in his words, was to "survive for one week on $29.69," because, he says, that is "what the average recipient of SNAP benefits, commonly called food stamps, receives each week in Indiana." By Day 6, he claimed, "faced with the…

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Rep. Duffy Schools Costello With CNN's Poll on Amnesty, Her Own Words
January 14th, 2015 3:50 PM
Carol Costello badgered Rep. Sean Duffy on Wednesday's CNN Newsroom over House Republicans' attempt to defund President Obama's executive action granting amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants: "The Department of Homeland Security protects the United States from terrorist attacks. Some Senate Republicans – among them, Lindsey Graham – say the strategy should be revised in light of what…

Press Ignores Venezuelan Bishops' Strong Denunciation of Marxism
January 13th, 2015 7:30 PM
The latest report out of Venezuela by the Associated Press's Hannah Dreier has a time stamp of 1:15 p.m. today. This means that the wire service has had plenty of time to report, and has chosen not to report, a powerful pastoral letter issued yesterday by that country's Catholic bishops (original in Spanish; full Google Translation) denouncing that country's descent into a system they described…

Lefty Sites Love Bogus Study on Rape; Its First Sentence Discredits It
January 13th, 2015 3:17 PM
The feminist-leftist fever swamp is apparently thrilled to have learned of a North Dakota University "study" purporting to show that almost one in 3 college men would commit rape "if nobody would ever know and there wouldn’t be any consequences."
I'll get to the study's specifics shortly, but first want to note that the work, published in December, automatically discredited itself in its body's…

Politico Doesn't Mind Obama Going Around Congress Again
January 12th, 2015 6:49 PM
Well, they're nothing if not consistent.
When the Obama administration lost a court ruling against its ban on Gulf of Mexico drilling after the BP oil spill, it simply issued another ban. When it lost at the Supreme Court in the Hobby Lobby case, it just issued a new rule which hardly differed from the one the Court nullified. Now, when it becomes clear that the administration won't get the…