Category Archives: Media Criticism

What Kind Of Negotiator Is Barack Obama?

I’d say door number three:

President Obama has not negotiated a single win-win middle ground legislative compromise with the other political party. I fear he may not know how to do so or be unwilling to do so because he sees all his dealings with Congressional Republicans as pure zero-sum.

The scary part about model 3 is that the President might unwittingly kill an agreement, further inflame a nasty partisan blame game, and trigger a recession even though in this model that’s not the outcome he wants. In model 3 a different negotiator (say, Mr. Bowles) could find a middle ground that could pass both the House and Senate, but President Obama cannot or will not. Some combination of legislative inexperience, a distaste for interacting with Congress, and a naturally combative rather than cooperative temperament may hobble the President’s ability to close deals with those who have different policy priorities. And if model 3 is correct, in the next few weeks it could all go sideways because we have a President who doesn’t know how to or isn’t willing to negotiate.

We’ll find out in a couple weeks.

The False Flag Of The Left

…and the media silence:

This alternative version the left offered didn’t have to be true. It didn’t even have to appear to be true. There did not have to be a single grain of a fact anywhere near it. It just had to be floated out there and give so-called mainstream journalists enough of an excuse to decide not to cover the real story. Mainstream media journalists know all about editing, for instance, since they go out of their way to edit out the conservative world view in just about every story they write or produce. Many journalists know about false flag operations, because they are living false flag operations. They pose as objective while they work as Democratic Party operatives. That’s how they spend their entire careers.

The left’s alternative reality keeps winning, though. The casual news consumer scans Google News and sees nothing about the unions’ use of violence to attempt to overturn the legislative process. The casual news consumer has been trained to hate alternative media that counters the prevailing culture. The mainstream media didn’t report that Big Labor tried its hand at intimidating Michigan’s elected representatives out of restoring for the state’s workers the freedom of choice and assembly, so to most Americans, it didn’t happen.

That’s how they win elections, too.

The President’s Latest Lies

…about right to work.

And is he going to denounce the threats of violence? Don’t hold your breath. It’s all part of that new civility we’re always hearing about but somehow never actually see.

[Update a while later]

It’s the same old story:

…we have actual Democratic elected officials threatening acts of political violence, and we have actual Democratic activists carrying out those acts of political violence. Mr. Sullivan? Mr. Rich? Mr. Obama?

As I said, don’t hold your breath.

[Update a while later]

The thuggery begins.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Raising money for a reward for info leading to the arrest of the thug. It shouldn’t be hard. He’s easily identifiable. They’ve already raised more than a couple thousand, with a grand from Instapundit.

Also, as Dana warns, please don’t speculate about his identity in comments.

[Update a few minutes later]

Here‘s a report on the tent destruction:

Fladeboe said the tent, for which AFP-Michigan had received a permit a week earlier, held between 30 and 40 people before protesters began stabbing at its straps with knives. He said that at first, protesters were targeting random straps to avoid being caught — then, finally, they focused on one corner of the tent in an effort to pull it down. Fladeboe said that even once several of the straps were cut, the local police on the scene did little to help the volunteers re-secure them.

Eventually, protesters were able to snap one of the tent stakes in half and pull it from beneath the tent, causing it to collapse. Fladeboe said that despite reports that the tent had been cleared of people before it went down, there were about a dozen people still trapped inside after it had fully collapsed. “You could see people inside of it trying to get up, and you could see the tent moving,” he said — a problem exacerbated by the fact that protesters began “stomping” on top of the collapsed canvas while volunteers tried to help those trapped inside.

And those inside reportedly included women, children and elderly. If there were children, it was probably an inadvisable place to bring them, given all the credible threats, but I guess they thought they’d be safe inside.

[Update a few minutes later]

Here‘s video of the tent.

[Late evening update]

“There are people under there, oh my God.” Language warning.