Another One Bites the Dust… Newspapers File for Bankruptcy
The Sun-Times Media Group, owner of the Chicago Sun-Times and numerous suburban newspapers, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Friday morning, just a few months after rival newspaper titan Tribune Company did the same thing.
As CBS 2′s Joanie Lum reports, the filing didn’t come as a surprise for many employees at the paper. The only surprise was that the Sun-Times filed for bankruptcy after the Tribune.
On Tuesday morning, the staff of the Sun-Times was in a meeting with the bosses in the Holiday Inn located above their headquarters at 354 N. Orleans St., to learn how bankruptcy protection will affect the newspaper and its readers.
The Chicago Sun-Times returned to it’s liberal-leaning stance a couple years back (in 2007) and the readership has taken a nose-dive. That, plus the fact that almost everything in internet based these days and the current recession, does not help the outdated newsprint as a valid form of media.
Good riddance… learn to start reporting the facts objectively and maybe people will read your paper!
Reid Leaves Open Option for Extreme Maneuver on Health Care, Energy Overhauls
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is holding the option of using a legislative maneuver to create not only a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s health care system but also a controversial cap and trade energy program, a move that could torpedo bipartisanship.
The maneuver, known as “reconciliation,” protects legislation to which it’s attached from a Senate filibuster. Republicans, in their deep minority status, are in an uproar over the possibility that they will be all but eliminated from the legislative process.
But Republicans are not alone in their opposition. A sizable number of Democrats have protested the move; first and foremost, Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., who excluded it from his committee’s budget passed Thursday.
The House has reconciliation instructions in its budget for health care, and Reid left open the door Thursday to adding energy protections as well.
“We’re leaving nothing off the table,” Reid told reporters Thursday, a move that has touched off a firestorm of concern behind the scenes.
So concerned about the possibility of it being used, Sens. Robert Byrd, D-W.V., and Mike Johnanns, R-Neb., sent a letter of strong protest to the majority leader.
As opponents of proposed cap and trade measures, Byrd, the Senate’s most senior member and lead watchdog of Senate rules and decorum, and Johanns told Reid, “Enactment of a cap-and-trade regime is likely to influence nearly every feature of the U.S. economy.
“Legislation so far-reaching should be fully vetted and given appropriate time for debate, something the budget reconciliation process does not allow. Using this procedure would circumvent normal Senate practice and would be inconsistent with the Obama administration’s stated goals of bipartisanship, cooperation, and openness,” they wrote.
******As you all can see, Sen Majority Leader Reid will stop at nothing to Win. Win at any cost! To heck with soaring budget deficits, lost jobs, lost GDP, inflation. Lets tax and spend our way into oblivion for some crazy socialist agenda of Pelosi and Reid.*******
Obama Math or, 2+2=3
02/22/09
I know I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer and when it comes to mathematics, a butter knife is a cut above me. However, when I hear the numbers being tossed about by Washington, even I know something isn’t adding up.
The headline reads: Obama Aims to Halve Deficit by 2013. I had to read that twice. Halve the deficit!? I mean, didn’t we just spend $787 billion in pork? If you go by what the “experts” say, one third of that is tax cuts and job creation so that creates an actual total of about $520 billion in pork spending. Stay with me, the numbers are about to get even more confusing.
We musn’t forget the $75 billion in mortgage bailout, or is it $275 billion? I still haven’t figured this one out. The President said it was a $75 billion dollar plan and yet the same day the news was reporting it at $275 billion. Get out your calculator folks. This plan is supposed to help up to 9 million homeowners by renegotiating loans to save them $6,000 on their mortgage. According to my trusty rusty Texas Instrument, 9 million times 6 thousand equals, 54 billion. Is your head spinning yet?
On top of all this is Geithner’s yet to be named, planned, or rolled out blueprint to save the world from economic collapse. We don’t know what it is and he won’t tell us, but we do know it will cost at least $2 TRILLION. In addition are the trillions in bank, insurance, and auto bailouts.
Now then, the report I read said that the new administration was left with a $1.3 trillion deficit when it took office. Politicians prefer to say it was left with a $9 trillion deficit. To-may-toe, to-mah-toe? To try and reconcile these numbers, I dug a bit deeper. Guess what I found? They are both right! What I learned is that there is a difference between Federal deficit and National deficit. Say whaaat!? You read that right folks. There are two sets of books. I know some of y’all already knew this but keep in mind… I am aspiring to be a butter knife.
So, when the President says he is going to cut the Federal deficit in half, he just might be able to do it; by moving pork spending and pet projects outside the budget and into spending bills, instead of within the proper budget appropriations where they rightfully belong (remember the stimulus bill).
Now that those trillions are no longer on the Federal books how is he going to halve what is left? Well, he is going to raise taxes. He said he will raise them on businesses and on the wealthy. Now, I take issue with the term “wealthy” because by his definition you are wealthy if your household earns more than $250,000. Right now, those poor schmucks who work hard, pay their mortgages, pay their bills, and earn $250,000 are paying $87,500 of their earnings in income tax. When Obama gets through they will be paying $99,000 in income tax. That’s just income tax, folks! It doesn’t take into account social security, medicare, and for some, State tax. Now, if the median household income is $40,000 then that means for every household earning $250,000, there are two jobs that could have been created had they not been taxed. But Obama doesn’t really want to create jobs, does he? No, he wants to take money from the so called wealthy and give it to the “poor” so that the “poor” doesn’t actually have to work.
Finally, Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address, “We can’t generate sustained growth without getting our deficits under control.” He said his budget will be “sober in its assessments, honest in its accounting, and lays out in detail my strategy for investing in what we need, cutting what we don’t, and restoring fiscal discipline.” How can this guy keep a straight face when he knows he is spewing a bold faced lie!? To add insult to injury, he is meeting tomorrow with business and union leaders, academics and lawmakers to discuss ways of cutting the deficit. Then on Tuesday he is addressing a joint session of congress with his budget. If I were a business leader invited to this faux meeting, I wouldn’t go. It’s an insult to say you want input on something when you have already made up your mind. Kinda like when he wanted input from Republicans on the stimulus bill when he had no intention of listening.
One more thing before I go repair the hole in the wall left by my Texas Instrument. Remember the $13 per week we are to receive? Evidentally, Obama is using a different calculator because in his address he claims it is $65 per month. I still haven’t figured that one out. If anyone can enlighten me please do!
