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Chris Matthews on Thursday said President Obama was using a Saul Alinsky communication technique during the healthcare summit earlier that day.Talking to NBC's Chuck Todd and Savannah Guthrie about the festivities at Blair House, the "Hardball" host couldn't help but notice community organization skills on display."By the way, that`s the Saul Alinsky in him -- that is the community organizer,"…

Teachers at a failing Rhode Island high school refused to work another 25 minutes a day in order to turnaround the school’s 48% graduation rate. So the school board fired them all. The teachers at Central Falls High School already earn over $70,000 a year, compared to a median home income of $22,000 a year for area residents, but their union balked at offers of $30 an hour for extra work,…

Conservative dominance of the talk radio airwaves continues, but liberals are making concerted efforts to get their voices heard through large top-down campaigns.Organizing for America--the campaign arm of the Obama administration--is rolling out the astroturf in an effort to get liberal voices heard on the nation's most popular (i.e. conservative) talk radio shows. The campaign is called "On the…

Although the Canadian health care system may kind of work for its roughly 33 million people and still have a myriad of downsides, its hard to imagine it could be sustainable in the United States, with 304 million people. But looking at the Canadian system was how NBC News decided to handle its follow-up to the health care summit. On the Feb. 25 broadcast of the "NBC Nightly News," anchor Brian…

The Washington Post couldn’t provide a solely objective analysis of the health "summit" in Friday’s paper. Instead, they put liberal columnist Dana Milbank on page one to crow that Obama had badly paddled the Republicans. The headline was "Prof. Obama walks tall and carries a big paddle." The opening came with a heaping spoonful of sugar for Obama: Republicans had been hesitant to accept…

Good Morning America's George Stephanopoulos on Friday offered liberal spin for the issue of using reconciliation to pass the health care bill, a process that would allow legislation to go through the Senate with only 51 votes: "Reconciliation has been used for President Bush's tax cuts, for welfare reform, for other health care bills in the past." [Audio available here.]Stephanopoulos' guest,…

Washington Post's Dan Zak devoted a Style section front page feature today to liberals who are "[b]rewing a progressive alternative to the Tea Party."*But as one reads Zak's article, it becomes clear the nascent "Coffee Party" movement is a decaf brew of mostly liberals whining about how the rabble are roused by the Tea Parties while they, the sophisticates "have real political dialogue with…

After the Democrats regained control of the House in 2006, Nancy Pelosi promised NBC's Brian Williams that she would "drain the swamp" and "turn this Congress into the most honest and open Congress in history." So when news broke that a House Ethics committee found that long time New York Democratic Congressman Charles Rangel accepted corporate money for trips to the Carribean one would think…

UPDATE: Fantastic video analyzing two weeks in the life of Keith Olbermann and his (nearly all white) guests below the fold.  From February 4 through February 18, Keith had 48 guests - and TWO were black.  One, actually - the Washington Post's Eugene Robinson appeared twice.  4% - now THAT'S diverse.  Bravo and kudos to Broliath for said stellar production. The Place for…

CNN, both on-air and on its website, highlighted how Democratic leaders and President Obama spoke more than twice as long as Republican leaders at Thursday's health care summit. CNN.com's Political Ticker on Thursday noted how Republicans "spoke for just 111 minutes, about 30 percent of the total speaking time." The statistic was also cited on Campbell Brown on Thursday and American Morning on…

On Thursday’s Joy Behar Show on CNN Headline News, host Behar brought up a 1961 Ronald Reagan quote opposing socialized medicine being cited by conservatives, prompting guest Ron Reagan to argue that his father was wrong in opposing Medicare because some of the dire predictions have not happened yet. After Behar complained that "the GOP is always trotting out Ronald Reagan. I mean, can't they…

All this week CNN has been taking a look at “Broken Government” and in some cases the cable channel deviated from the mainstream media norm by providing a critical view of government.That was the case on Feb. 23 when Wolf Blitzer and Lisa Sylvester scrutinized lavish pension-plan and retirement-packages for government officials during “The Situation Room.” “Many Americans will spend half a…

"Are we on seven-second delay?"--Mark Halperin on Morning Joe, prefacing his criticism of Pres. Obama's performance at the health-care summit.Halperin was surely being facetious, but the point about MSNBC's pro-Obama predilection was made.The Time editor went on to rather comprehensively pan PBO's petulant performance. His comments were preceded by a clip of Pres. Obama rudely reminding Sen. John…

On Thursday’s Joy Behar Show on CNN Headline News, Behar hosted a discussion of the health care negotiations between President Obama and Republicans. Introducing the segment, she charged that "the Democrats brought a plan and the Republicans brought an attitude." At one point, after playing a clip of President Obama speaking, Behar gushed that, "He is so civilized," and, after playing another…