Biased Media
Internal Memos from Media Matters ~ Enemies List (Should They Continue To Be Tax Exempt?)
From the DAILY CALLER:
An internal Media Matters For America memo obtained by The Daily Caller reveals that the left-wing media watchdog group employs an “opposition research team” to target its political enemies. Included in the list of targets are right-leaning websites, conservative think tanks, prominent financiers and donors, and more than a dozen specific Fox News Channel and News Corporation employees.
“We will conduct extensive public records searches and compile opposition books on individuals,” declares the memo, likely written in late 2009. Investigations, it says, “will focus on the backgrounds, connections, operations and political and financial activities of the individuals.” (RELATED: Media Matters sources, memos reveal erratic behavior, close coordination with White House and news organizations)
One of those singled out for scrutiny in the memo is PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, a self-described libertarian. Thiel “directly funded, through a small government group, prior racist attack videos by James O’Keefe, the right-wing operative who staged the recent ACORN video sting,” states the memo. “Thiel’s role in funding such attacks has gone completely unremarked and largely uninvestigated.”
“An opposition research team will serve to hold Thiel and others like him accountable.”
In addition to Thiel, the memo contains this list of “preliminary targets”:
News Corp
- Fox News Channel
- Fox Business Network
- Fox News’ websites
Conservative news sites
- WorldNetDaily
- BigHollywood.com
- NewsMax
- BigGovernment.com
Conservative think thanks
- The Heritage Foundation
- American Enterprise Institute
- Cato Institute
News Corp executives
- Rupert Murdoch
- Chase Carey
- David DeVoe
- Lawrence Jacobs
- James Murdoch
Conservative donors
- Peter Thiel
- Richard Mellon Scaife
- Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
- John M. Olin Foundation
- Koch Family Foundations
Fox News executives
- CEO Roger Ailes
- Senior vice president Michael Clemente
- Vice president of news Sean Smith
- Vice president of new editorial product Jay Wallace
- Fox Business Network executive vice president Kevin Magee
Fox personalities
- Glenn Beck
- Sean Hannity
- Bill O’Reilly
Fox senior production and corporation staff
- Hannity executive producer John Finley
- On the Record executive producer Meade Cooper
- O’Reilly Factor senior executive producer David Tabacoff
- Fox & Friends executive producer Lauren Petterson
Political figures
- Carly Fiorina
- David Vitter
- Eric Cantor
- John Boehner
- Mitch McConnell
- Michele Bachmann
- Steve King
“In all likelihood,” the memo concludes, “we will produce volumes of useful data week after week.”
Democratic Drama Queens! Stopping the Leftist Narrative from Taking Hold in the American Psyche
Gateway Pundit astutely mentioned the truth in the matter, as, you can see the narrative immediately above and below set by liberals:
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a hearing today on Barack Obama’s unprecedented attack on religious freedom. Democrats invited the notorious Christian-hater Barry Lynn to represent them. Then they withdrew his invitation. And, then they stormed out of the committee hearing hoping to deflect all of the media’s attention away from Barack Obama’s assault on religious organizations.
Think Progress predictably reported that the Republicans would not allow any females on the panel. Not true. Rep. Darrell Issa (R_CA) the committee’s chairman explained to Greta Van Susteren On The Record tonight that the minority party historically is allowed one panelist at a typical hearing. The democrats picked Christian-hater Barry Lynn. Then they switched and chose a young woman to come in and talk about birth control. That was not the topic of the hearing so Issa told democrats they could not bring her in to represent them. Then they walked out. It was all planned.
Of course, the state-run media will never report these important facts.
After the hearing started democrats still tried to disrupt the proceedings and turn it into a sideshow. They were determined to hide from the American people their disdain for religious freedom.
Just a few years ago this narrative may have been embedded in the psyche of the general public, but the new media (sites like these) and Fox News, can correct the leftist media in their attempt to create a story:
Kirsten Powers & Peggy Noonan School Mainstream Media`s Perception of Contraception Debate (Updated: George Will & Liz Cheney)
Via NewsBusters & MRCTV
Newt Details The Attack on Religion
Joe Scarborough Brings to the Forefront Medias Incompetence in Comparing Negative Ads Between Obama and Republicans
Via NewsBusters:
Muppets Go Partisan, They Probably Prefer Self Admitted Socialists and Marxists At MSNBC
Lawrence O’Donnell admitting he is a socialist:
Rachel Maddow admits she is to the left of Marxist Mao:
Liberals Causing Liberals to `Face-Palm` ~ Priceless!
Via NewsBusters and MRCTV:
ELEANOR CLIFT: The capital gains has not always been at 15 percent. You know, when Reagan came to town, the marginal rates were very high, and he got money as a movie actor, so he wanted to bring those down which he did. When the Bushes came into office, they wanted to reduce capital gains because a lot of their money came from investment income. The 15 percent, [Camera pans to Zuckerman doing double facepalm], the 15 percent we arrived at when W. Bush was in office, and it has not always been that low.
Got that? Reagan and Bush only cut taxes to help themselves. It had nothing to do with stimulating the economy.
I agree with Mort [to the right].
The Inquisitions Bush`s Fault? Almost ~ The Tale of Two Books
NPR has a left leaning bias, we all know that and I have proven it in the past. So reviews of a book they laud connecting the fanciful imaginations of the progressive in regards to history and Bush is a dream come true. In two reviews of the book/topic with the author of the book, God’s Jury, you can see a creeping bias, much like the pre-war Germany propaganda, has on the cover a “hooked nosed” Pope designating (implicitly or explicitly) the secular leftist hatred for anything Christian.
Cullen Murphey’s Cover:
WWII Propaganda:
Some NPR stories on the book/author:
1) The Inquisition: Alive And Well After 800 Years
2) The Inquisition: A Model For Modern Interrogators
NewsBusters has this in what they call a Liberal Two-Fer:
This book is at odds with the most renown scholar and author of the book, The Spanish Inquisition, Henry Kamen. Take note of the difference in tone and most probably scholarship — as this interview shows… his [Cullen Murphey] connections are so general that any religion or government can be connected to this event. These generalities are not to connect a historical event to a modern one but in progressive fashion the goal of stoking emotions rather than basing something in fact/history is the prime mover.
From an Amazon book reviewer and author of Author of “Mission,” an African novel set in Kenya:
One of my favorite quotes comes from a debate between Dinesh D’Souza and the late atheist Christopher Hitchens:
✦ Atheists regimes killed more people in a week than the inquisition could kill in three-centuries
And another reviewer:
A great video by a fellow arm-chair apologists is a good introduction to the topic:
Al `not so sharp` Sharpton Showing His Lack of Knowledge on MSNBC (Plus: Congressman John Campbell)
Forbes explains the gig
…[Romney’s] low rate is due to the fact that almost all of his income was in the form of dividends and capital gains, which are currently taxed at only 15%. (As he pointed out in the last debate, he would have paid almost nothing under his opponent Newt Gingrich’s proposal to not tax investment income at all.) He then used large charitable contributions and other deductions to further reduce his taxable income.
While this doesn’t apply much to those of us with earned income (which is taxed at higher ordinary income tax rates plus the FICA tax), there are lessons for how we can similarly minimize our taxes on our investments. Specifically, we can take advantage of the differences in how various investments are taxed. Qualified dividends and long-term capital gains are taxed at a maximum 15% rate while cash and bond interest are taxed at ordinary income tax rates, which can be as high as 35%. By keeping as many of our tax-inefficient investments like bonds and cash in retirement accounts as possible, we can pay more of our investment taxes at the 15% capital gains and dividend rate and less at the higher ordinary income tax rate.
Let’s take an example. Imagine you have a total investment portfolio of $500k and you want to have $300k of that in stocks and $200k in bonds and cash. Let’s say that you have a pre-tax 401(k) with $300k. To minimize your taxes, you would have the entire $200k of bonds and cash in the 401(k) plus an additional $100k of the money in the stocks. The remaining $200k in taxable investments would all be in stock so that most of your taxable investment income would be at the 15% rate for long-term capital gains and qualified dividends.
There’s another advantage of having stocks and stock funds outside of retirement plans. In this case, you can actually make the volatility of the stock market work for you. That’s because when we have an investment that loses value (and who didn’t have at least one over these last few years) we can sell it at the end of the year and write the loss off of our taxes. These capital gain losses can offset gains we have that year or even better, up to $3k of regular income tax if we don’t have any capital gains. You can carry losses over $3k to future years.
Sen. John Campbell explains the issue with how the press twists Romney’s tax return info to suit their needs:
Warren buffets Secretary makes $200,000 dollars or MORE! Rush Limbaugh Weighs In (plus: Ronald Reagan Acknowledging Lenny Skutnik-1982)
This nugget is from Forbes Magazine:
Warren Buffett’s secretary, Debbie Bosanek, served as a stage prop for President Obama’s State of the Union speech. She was the president’s chief display of the alleged unfairness of our tax system – a little person paying a higher tax rate than her billionaire boss.
Bosanek’s prominent role in Obama’s “fairness” campaign piqued my curiosity, and I imagine the curiosity of others. How much does her boss pay this downtrodden woman? So far, no one has volunteered this information.
We can get an approximate answer by consulting IRS data on tax rates by adjusted gross income, which would approximate her salary, assuming she does not have significant dividend, interest or capital-gains income (like her boss). I assume Buffett keeps her too busy for her to hold a second job. I also do not know if she is married and filing jointly. If so, it is deceptive for Obama to use her as an example. The higher rate may be due to her husband’s income. So I assume the tax rate Obama refers to is from her own earnings.
Insofar as Buffett (like Mitt Romney) earns income primarily from capital gains, which are taxed at 15 percent (and according to Obama need to be raised for reasons of fairness), we need to determine how much income a taxpayer like Bosanek must earn in order to pay an average tax rate above fifteen percent. This is easy to do.
The IRS publishes detailed tax tables by income level. The latest results are for 2009. They show that taxpayers earning an adjusted gross income between $100,000 and $200,000 pay an average rate of twelve percent. This is below Buffett’s rate; so she must earn more than that. Taxpayers earning adjusted gross incomes of $200,000 to $500,000, pay an average tax rate of nineteen percent. Therefore Buffett must pay Debbie Bosanke a salary above two hundred thousand.
We must wait for further details to learn how much more than $200,000 she earns. The tax tables tell us about average ranges. For all we know she earns closer to a half million each year, but that is pure speculation.
I have nothing against Debbie Bosanke earning a half million or even more. Buffett is a major player in the world economy. His secretary deserves good compensation. At her income, however, she is scarcely the symbol of injustice that Obama wishes her to project.