The Tea Party's "Grassroots"

Went and checked out the "Contract From America," which consists of 10 principles that the teabaggers have thankfully embraced, grateful to finally have principles to stand for as opposed to just hanging out being angry all the time. HuffPost reported that the principles were chosen by teabaggers who visited the Contract website and selected the ones they liked the best from a list. The question on my mind was "Who made up the list?" According to the website, this initiative represents "a grassroots-generated, crowd-sourced, bottom-up call for real economic conservative and good governance reform in Congress." So, supposedly this was all formulated by "real Americans" of the kind that Sarah Palin loves -- you know, those ordinary patriots with no political experience who have risen up to create this great grassroots movement to protest Obama and his socialist agenda. You know, call me cynical, but I'm just not so sure about that.

The "About Us" section of the site thanks several Tea Party Patriots from local chapters as being instrumental in getting the intitiative going, before going on to thank operatives from a number of organizations that the site lists as "Founding Partners."  Let's see who those "Founding Partners" are:

• Tea Party Patriots - According to SourceWatch, "TPP consists of a website (http://teapartypatriots.org), the ownership of which is masked by ProtectPrivacy, located in the Netherlands." There is no no staff listing or other information identifying any individual as responsible for the site. SourceWatch also states the group was founded not by ordinary patriots, but by FreedomWorks; according to SourceWatch, is still tightly controlled by that organization. A Facebook page listing its National Officers pushes Glenn Beck's 912 Project. One of these officers, Rob Neppell, is the owner of a privately-held new media corporation in California.  Another, Mark Meckler, bills himself as an "internet lawyer" and new media consultant, and moonlights as a GOP operative. A third, Jenny Beth Martin, is a former GOP operative who became a teabagger after she and her husband filed for bankruptcy when their temp agency went belly-up in 2008-- they owed the Feds half a million bucks, so they must have been doing pretty well before that. A fourth, Amy Kremer, left TPP for Tea Party Express, which the TPP regards as overly tied to the GOP. Martin and Kremer are both from Georgia, which is also where the TPP trademark was registered. Hmmm.. isn't that where Newt Gingrich is from?
• American Solutions - Speaking of Newt, he happens to be the founder and chairman of this group, which bills itself as a "citizens' action network." I thought that "Contract From America" title sounded familiar!
• Americans for Tax Reform - founded by Grover Norquist at the request of Ronald Reagan, according to their website. Norquist was also part of Iran/Contra, helped get George W. Bush elected, was a co-author of "Contract With America" along with Newt Gingrich, and served as a staffer on the GOP's Republican Platform Committee in 1988, 1992 and 1996.
• National Taxpayers Union -- group with heavy funding from Big Tobacco. Grover Norquist worked here before going on to found Americans for Tax Reform.
• Liberty Central -- founded by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' wife, Virginia
• The Liberty Lab -- one of several sites run by Scott W. Graves, another "new media and political communications" guru and head of an outfit called "Partisan Media Group." Really.
• Let Freedom Ring - Founded by the son of millionaire philanthropist John Templeton, recent projects include a documentary about the faith of George W. Bush, Sen. Rick Santorum and Sen. Zell Miller that the organization hopes will mobilize envangelicals to vote.
• FairTax - founded by three Houston multimillionaires who put up $1.5 million each as seed money.
• Regular Folk United -- founded by Lori Roman, whose previous jobs include stints as Executive Director of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and Chief of Staff of the Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives at the U.S. Department of Education. ALEC pushes legislation that favours big business and rollbacks environmental regulations.
• The Heartland Institute - libertarian think tank founded by the millionaire owner of a Chicago investment securities firm
• The Next Right -- founded by Soren Dayton, best-known for getting fired from John McCain's presidential campaign for tweeting a link to a video linking Obama to Malcolm X; Jonathon Henke, who served as New Media Director for the Republican Senate caucus and Online Brand Manager for Fred Thompson's campaign; and Patrick Ruffini, a well-known Republican party new media strategist.
• TeaParty365 - the New York City branch of Tea Party Patriots.

Ya know, there's not actually a lot of plain ordinary folks on this list, are there? It amazes me how easily-led the teabaggers are -- a bunch of rich guys and GOP operatives have created their umbrella organization and now have written their guiding principles, and they still think not only that they're a grassroots organization, but that they actually control their own thoughts and actions. Amazing.

The Global Warming Naysayer Experts

Some time back in the pages of the NJ there was a letter from another tinfoil-hat wearer, telling us that that the 31,000 global warming deniers who've signed up at www.PetitionProject.org are more knowledgeable and more reliable than anyone else who says that global warming is a fact. John Greeg of Wilmington told us:

 Petition signers do not claim to be climate experts but instead that they have earned a bachelor of science degree or higher, giving them a solid foundation for evaluating scientific evidence. Over 18,000 hold advanced degrees.
The site says that credentials are evaluated and identities verified before names are added to the petition, contrary to the writer's claim. The letter writer said he could not verify petition signers, but I verified 25 signers from a list of Delaware licensed professional engineers and another seven from personal knowledge.

I got curious about that, and decided to do a little web research of my own on about who the signers from Delaware are and why they might be uniquely qualified to debunk global warming.

First of all, here's what the Petition Project says about its signers:

All of the listed signers have formal educations in fields of specialization that suitably qualify them to evaluate the research data related to the petition statement. Many of the signers currently work in climatological, meteorological, atmospheric, environmental, geophysical, astronomical, and biological fields directly involved in the climate change controversy.

If you want a real good laugh, check out the form that signers mail in to sign the petition and verify their credentials.

On to what I found out about the "licensed professionals" whose word carries so much weight about climatology and global warming. A few observations of my own to start:

1. In my opinion, being a chemist does not make you an expert on climatology, meteorology or global warming
2. If you've been retired for 20 or 30 years, there's a chance you're not quite up to snuff on the latest scientific research and methodologies
3. If you are indeed an acknowledged expert in something, there's going to be information on the web about you; if there isn't, you ain't an expert.

On to the Delaware signers:

• Earl Arthur Abrahamson, PhD - Chemist with Dupont, at 84 probably retired
• Albert W. Alsop, PhD - Chemist with Dupont, several patents in polymers
• Giacomo Armand, PhD - Chemist with Dupont, patents in polymers
• Joseph Bartholomew Arots, PhD - Chemist with Hercules, 86 years old, speaker on corrosion rates at a water conference in 1977, so he's probably retired
• Charles Hammond Arrington, PhD - inconclusive, although OzoneAction lists him under the "Scientists whose fields of specialization are in Chemistry, Biochemistry, Biology, and other Life Sciences." There is a Charles A. Arrington who's quite prominent in chemistry fields, and a C. Arrington who taught physics at UVa and authored at least one paper on magnetic properties. Charles H. Arrington has some connection to UD (he's made donations) and used to live in Charlottesville, VA, so he could be the same guy as the physics prof.
• Andrejs Baidins, PhD - Chemist with Dupont, 78 so probably retired
• Lewis Clinton Bancroft - Chemist with Dupont, at 80 probably retired
• Theo C. Baumeister - Mechanical Engineer with Dupont, 83 years old so probably retired, co-author of Mark's Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers
•  Paul Becher PhD - Chemist with Dupont, 90 years old. Editor of Encyclopedia of Emulsion Technology
• Scott K. Beegle - Inconclusive, although this is probably the same Scott K. Beegle who's a Technical Project Manager at BAE Systems, a Philadelphia defense contractor that provides surveillance systems to the military. He's also a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Aerospace; there's no evidence of what his credentials to belong might be, although I'd surmise that he's eligible because of his employment at BAE.
• Oswald R. Bergmann, PhD - Dupont chemist, has written  papers on explosives and made presentations at mining societies, 76 years old so probably retired
• Robert Paul Bigliano - DECEASED 5/2/2008. Former Dupont employee with medical device patents
• William A. Bizjak - U of D mechanical engineering alum. 60 years old, unable to find any professional information about him
• William L. Blackwell - Undetermined, although the phrase "William L. Blackwell, P.E., Mechanical Engineer, Delaware" shows up in a Google search as being used in online comments for a Pennsylvania newspaper
• Charles G. Boncelet, PhD - UD professor, Electrical Engineering
• Frank R. Borger - no Delaware address or phone, no information about profession or qualifications. The only Frank Borger on the web seems to be a doctor in Chicago.
• Ernest R. Bosetti - Engineer. Listed as "Ernest R. Bosetti, P.E." under donations to UD's mechanical engineering program
• John Harland Boughton, PhD - Chemist with Dupont, at 76 probably retired
• Charles J. Brown Jr., PhD - Undetermined. Unable to find any information on a Dr. Charles Brown, Charles J. Brown Jr., or Charles Brown Jr. in Delaware.
• Thomas S. Buchanan, PhD - Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Delaware
• Bruce M. Buker - Principal of Karins and Associates, a consulting firm specializing in land and transportation engineering
• Charles B. Buonassisi - DECEASED. Former Dupont textiles researcher, degree in mechanical engineering
• Donovan C. Carbaugh, PhD - Graduated from University of Maryland in 1962 with a degree in chemical engineering. No other web references except for a high level of activity in local Republican Party politics, including numerous campaign donations
• Louise M. Carter -- only references to a Louise M. Carter from Delaware are campaign donations to local Republican candidates
• William B. Carter - Undetermined, name too common
• Leonard B. Chandler, PhD - DECEASED 9/2/2008. Former chemist for Dupont.
• Robert John Chorvat, PhD - Former chemist for Dupont, now Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry at Jenrin Discovery, Inc., a pharmaceutical research and development company
• Emil E. Christofano - Industrial Hygienist at Hercules, 79 years old
• Alexander Cisar - Physics Professor at Wesley College in Dover
• Ian Clark - possibly formerly with Ciba Specialty Chemicals, although main references now seem to be to a California company, Genentech
• George Rolland Cole, PhD - Wrote his doctoral thesis on "Photoconductivity and Formation of Color Centers in Potassium-Chloride Containing Strontium Additive" in 1957. Possibly the author of physical science textbooks/workbooks, may be associated with U of DE. Age 84.
• Albert Z. Conner -- Chemist with Hercules. Possibly retired now, since he was lauded a couple of years ago by UD's chemistry alumni group for being a member of the ACS (American Chemical Society?) for 60 years, and he was presenting papers at pharmaceutical conventions in the 70's.
• Nancy H. Conner - No info other than a Wilmington address. Possibly married to Albert Z. Conner?
• Harry Norma Cripps, PhD - Chemist for Dupont. 83 years old, so possibly retired.
• R. D. Crooks- Chemist, but I don't know where. Only reference is a paper he co-authored on corrosion published in 1995 by the Swedish Corrosion Institute.
• William H. Day, PhD - Biologist with the USDA's Beneficial Insects Research Laboratory in Newark
• Daniel M. Dayton -  no information except an address in Hockessin
• Lawrence De Heer - President of Blaze System Solutions, a company providing prepackaged information/database software "typically employed in manufacturing, petro/chemical, pharmaceutical, biotechnology and environmental laboratories."
• Pamela J. Delaney - No information except that she is married to a "Bill Delaney" and lives in Hockessin. Appears to be the wife of the next signer.
• William E. Delaney II, PhD -- Lives in Hockessin. The only Dr. William E. Delaney in our area is an oncologist practicing just over the line in PA. Among his relatives is listed a "Pamela Delaney."
• Dennis O. Dever - Degree in chemical engineering from UD, 1987. Has given seminars on polymers, associated with Drexel University
• Seshasayi Dharmavaram, PhD -- Appears to work for the Department of Defense on issues involving proper disposal of waste solvents
• Walter Domorod - Deceased at age 84 on 12/31/09. According to his obituary, he had a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and worked first for for Educational Testing Services ((the SAT people) then for Kalex Corporation, a Pennsylvania real estate enterprise.
• Roland G. Downing, PhD - Member of "SAFE" (Secure America’s Future Economy, formerly SENIORS AGAINST FEDERAL EXTRAVAGANCE), a Wilmington organization for people who think the AARP is too liberal, and former Secretary General of Sons of the American Revolution. I''ve found no references to what he might have done before he retired.
• Francis J. Doyle - With the Mechanical Engineering Department at U of D
• Arthur Edwin Drake, PhD -- no information other than he's 90 years old, has made a contribution to the Republican party, and lives in either Dover or Wilmington
• C M Drummund - no references to a CM Drummund in Delaware
• Eric James Evain, PhD - Wilmington attorney with a PhD in Organic Chemistry, represents chemical companies in patent cases
• Elizabeth W. Fahl, PhD - No information on a professional career. 78 years old, plays tournaments in the Mid-Atlantic Bridge Conference, active with The Junior League of Wilmington.
• Stephen R. Fahnestock, PhD - Chemist with Dupont
• Eric R. Fahnoe - Director of Finance and Planning at Elsicon, Inc.,  a company dealing with the research and manufacture of LCDs
• Enrico Thomas Federighi, PhD - Mathematician, but I don't know where. 82 years old.
• Thomas Aven Ford, PhD - Chemist with Dupont. Graduated from the U of Wyoming in 1932 with a BA., had Dupont patents in the 50's -- this would put him somewhere around 100 years old.
• John Frederick Gates Clark, PhD -- the only reference I could find was to an entomologist with the National Museum of History in D.C.
• William J. Geimeier, MD - a Newark pediatrician and allergist
• Joseph Edmund Gervay, PhD - Chemist with Dupont
• Wayne Gibbons, PhD -- Vice President of Elsicon, the same LCD research company that petition signer Eric R. Fahnoe works for.
• Roderick J Gillespie Jr. - Newark architect
• David A. Glenn - Undetermined, name too common
• William H. Godshall -- Bill Godshall of Dover was my spouse's grandfather's best friend. We think he used to work for Playtex, but aren't sure -- he was retired for a long time before he died. He had no qualifications that we know of that would qualify him as a global warming expert. Bill Godshall died two years ago.
• John E. Greer Jr. - Mr. Greer is the author of the letter in the News Journal that sparked this post.  He's a member of the Delaware Rail-Splitters Society (a Wilmington Tea Party group) and is a 1967 UD graduate who played in the marching band. In 1975, a John E. Greer (no "Jr.") was named Director of Purchasing at Hercules, but since the letter-writer is a Jr., I believe this, and most other online references, are to his father. Most frequently the name is mentioned in conjunction with charity work and donations to nonprofits like Hagley Museum and Winterthur.
  
• Alfred A. Gruber - Chemical engineer, retired.
• Lachhman D. Gupta- Professional Engineer, retired.
• Earl T. Hackett Jr. - Chemist with Dupont. In 2003, he was in the medical packaging division.
• R. M. Hagen, PhD - There are emails addresses listed for a Robert Hagen and a Randolph Hagen in Delaware, but no online information about a professional career.
• Thomas K. Haldas - Mechanical Engineer.
• Charles W. Hall - Undetermined. "Charles Hall" too common; only reference to a "Charles W. Hall" in Delaware is a memorial contribution to UD, and an address for a 74-year-old in Newark.
• Priscilla O. Hamilton, PhD - The only reference to a Priscilla Hamilton in Delaware is an address for an 82-year-old in Wilmington. The only "Dr. Priscilla Hamilton" in online references is a Fort Belvoir, VA dentist. No other professional references.
• Thomas W. Harding, PhD - Undetermined, aside from a Wilmington address. A Thomas W. Harding with Lehigh University filed for a patent in 1985 for an apparatus that produces negative ions.
• Charles R. Hartzell, PhD - Chemist, Dupont Institue/Nemours and UD chemistry department
• James R. Hodges - Retired, profession undetermined. Graduate of M.I.T., 1950. Frequent donor to Republican political candidates.
• Winfried Thomas Holfeld, PhD - Chemist for Dupont
• Anthony R. Hollet -No record of any sort for an Anthony R. Hollet, Tony Hollet or A.R. Hollet in Delaware; only one in whole U.S., and he appears to be a teenager
• Roger L. Hoyt - only info on a Roger Hoyt in Delaware is that he's 74, lives in Wilmington, and has spoken at a public hearing and to New Castle County Council about the Brandywine School District.

To be continued...

The Sunday Funny Pages

Today's Forecast: Mostly Conservative Letters, Followed by Partly-Conservative Op-Eds

First, commentary on some of today's articles:

TNJ ratchets up the noise about Attorney General Beau Biden, placing him squarely in its sights with a huge "exposé" on the number of cases where charges were dropped under his watch. The guy may very well be incompetent - he's young and has no experience as AG, plus his office may be in disarray due to his forced vacation in Iraq for most of his term  -- but I wonder if TNJ would be paying this much attention to him if his name wasn't Biden. Online, TNJ's most unbalanced conservatives are going nuts over this one, although the more rational ones appear to be staying away. Liberal commenter BlueTEa, however, states the following:

How can anyone continue to complain about the NJ being too "liberal" when they present a story this way.
Buried in the text, are the facts that the AG's office has recently seen a doubling in the number of homicide cases taken to trial between 2007 to 2009. Also - that the number of murder cases closed by the AG offices in 2009 was 50 - double the 17 to 25 cases closed each year during the end of the Jane Brady years.
Moreover, the % of homicide cases dropped by Brady's team after indictment was 20% - compared to Biden's 16% over the past 3 years. 
This story is told in a way to sell papers to teabaggers and wingnuts who only read the Headline and look at the pictures.

Well said.

A short AP wire article about Obama reinstating "pay-as-you-go" ends, as do most AP political articles that TNJ selects to print, with the Republican talking point on the subject. Although the bill that Obama signed requires that all spending increases include a corresponding spending cut, a process used during the Clinton years that resulted in surpluses, it also raises the debt ceiling - to keep the U.S. out of default. But the article ends like this:

Republicans mocked Obama for signing the “paygo” bill behind closed doors. “With a simple stroke of his pen, President Obama now has the ability to continue his binge spending agenda to the tune of an additional $1.9 tril­lion, the largest one-time in­crease in our history,” Repub­lican Party Chairman Michael Steele said Friday. “Taxpay­ers will continue to foot the bill for the Democrats’ fiscal irresponsibility.”

The conservatives haven't commented at all on this story, probably because it didn't include any pictures or shiny objects to attract their attention.

An unusually liberal AP wire article that lays out the consequences of not overhauling health care attracts three online conservative comments, all agreeing with other that the current Democratic health care bills need to be thrown out. They all contend that all that's needed to overhaul the health care system is tort reform, no denial of pre-existing conditions, and allowing insurance companies to sell across state lines.

The Letters
Writer #1 questions why one party needs to "show deference" to the other party, and asks "Why should loyalty to the competition be expected?" I'm assuming what he really means is "Why should Republicans do anything the Democrats want? They'd be disloyal to their party if they did." His solution? Eliminate the Democrats and move to a one-party system. Da, comrade.

Writer #2 protests a recent Wilmington law setting buffer zones around clinics offering abortion services, saying it infringes on free speech and "prevents anyone from approaching a desperate mother to offer help and explain alternatives." Apparently this jackass thinks women are too stupid to know that there are alternatives to abortion unless some sidewalk counselor like himself screams in their face. The liberals trounce the religious fanatics in the comments on this one, but then they're fighting with the unarmed.

Letter #3 is a love song to Republican Congressman Mike Castle, telling us he'd make a terrific senator.

Writer #4 complains about both parties, then offers this deep thought: "We all agree that unemploy­ment is a very important issue that also affects a very skiddish (sic) stock market." (TNJ editors were apparently asleep at the wheel the day they got this one.)
The writer offers no solutions and finishes up with this tantalizing final sentence: "Politicians can’t do a states­man-like job if they are con­stantly looking over their shoulder at the next election." Uh... what? Is he proposing we do away with elections, and... what? Descend into anarchy? Maybe institute a monarchy? Establish a dictatorship? Yet another half-baked, meaningless letter using up ink on the editorial pages.

Writer #5 thanks TNJ for its lovely editorial promoting abstinence-only sex ed programs that appeared earlier in the week. 


The Op-Eds

TNJ declares "a pox on both their houses" as it chastises Congress for not being able to pass a meaningful jobs bill. Our editor tells us that "(e)ven last year’s huge stimulus package tended to help govern­ment workers more than those in private industry." Presumably this was written with a straight face. But what really made me stop and go "HUH?"was this jaw-dropper: "More disturbing is the fact that this recession is taking its greatest toll on men." Um... precisely why is this more disturbing? There are still more men than women in the workforce, so it's understandable that more men than women have lost their jobs. Would this (male) editor have found it LESS disturbing if more women than men had lost jobs? I'm willing to bet a big fat "yes" on that one.
What's really hilarious about this editorial is that TNJ moans and cries about party partisanship, while totally ignoring the role it and other members of The Fourth Estate have played in fomenting the current discord and division between the parties. 

TNJ darling George Will tells us that Democrats are trying to get as many people as possible dependent on government. His main gripe is that Democrats don't support government vouchers for private school education. Excuse me, George, but how does asking the government to pay for your private school tuition make you less dependent on government?

Dewayne Wickham takes the Obama administration to task for being proud that joblessness declined for whites and Hispanics in January and ignoring that it rose by three-tenths of 1% for blacks.

David Broder chides both parties for not being able to get along and says the public is fed up with them. Tell us something we don't know, David.

Economist Isabel Sawhill also restates the obvious, telling us that government needs to cut spending and balance the budget. She also believes in pay-as-you-go rules, but "in a more serious way than the weakened form in which they were recently enacted." Sawhill is one of the more liberal members of The Brookings Institute, which TNJ doesn't tells us is a right-wing thinktank.

Stephen C. Fehr, staff writer for Stateline.org, which is a part of the Pew Center on the States, lays out the difficulties states are having in the current recession and predicts they'll probably get worse. The article is neutral, but conservative groups have targeted the Pew Charitable Trusts, which funds Stateline.org, for its funding of what they deem "liberal environmental causes."

The Tuesday Funny Pages

Today's Forecast: Partly-Conservative Letters, Followed by Neutral Op-Eds

Today's Biased Letters to the Editors:

I'm assuming this one is a conservative, because the rant is about "do-gooders" who are ruining everything for everybody with rules and regulations, like making companies print calories on menus and warnings on cigarette packs. Conservative buzz-phrase: "In the meantime, the rest of us pay the bills."

Conservative #2 tells us that we should halve the salaries of all politicians until they start working to earn it. Conservative buzz-phrase: "What would happen if we stopped paying taxes?"

Liberal environmentalist is mad at Obama for his lack of support for the environment. Liberal buzzword: "green."

Liberal writer tells Mike Castle to put a cork in his whine about pork, because if funding comes through for Amtrak, Castle will be first in line to get his photo taken at the ribbon-cutting. Liberal buzz-phrase: "The Party of No."

Conservative thinks Senators and Reps should telecommute instead of living in DC because it would save money and keep them away from the party leadership. Conservative buzz-phrase: "when our country was started."

Today's Op-Eds: A Wash

Four op-eds today, none of which takes an obviously partisan side.

• UD prof Muqtedar Khan teaches us more about Islam. I haven't decided if the NJ has given him a regular column because they want to promote peace and understanding, or because they want to make the conservatives mad. I suspect the latter; if they wanted to promote peace and understanding, they'd put this on the religion page.
• David Broder tells us we're headed for fiscal disaster because nobody on either side has a clue.
• Al Hunt, Washington chief at Bloomberg News,says the same stuff as David Broder, except Al singles out Republican congressman Paul Ryan for having sort of a clue.
• Another Bloomberg Newsian, Celestine Bohlen, piles on Switzerland for allowing tax cheaters to have secret Swiss bank accounts.

The Monday Funny Pages

Today's Forecast: Conservative Letters, Followed by Partly-Liberal Op-Eds

Today the NJ offers us five Letters to the Editor, four of them from conservatives:

Conservative #1 is a National Guard wife whose husband has been deployed to Afghanistan several times, complaining about the paper's coverage of Delaware doctors who went to Haiti. Since this is the second letter in a week from a Guard wife complaining about this, I'm wondering if the Wives' Club had a meeting about it. Her claim that neither the black doctors who went to assist in the disaster nor the black victims of the quake are as worthy of coverage as routine National Guard deployments -- which she says are covered, but only with "a small photo with text of each deployment or return" -- is disturbing on many levels.

Conservative #2 informs us that "Obama’s 'I am not an ideologue' refrain is reminiscent of Richard Nixon’s “I am not a crook,” and warns us that Obama and the liberals are out to destroy our country in the next three years with "European-style socialism." He's a little behind the times -- conservatives have been saying this in the blogosphere since the SOTU when Obama said it, but this guy probably heard it the other night when Rick Santorum said it on Fox News.

Conservative #3 tells us that the refusal of unions to accept low wages for its members is the reason all our factories are moving their operations to Mexico.

Conservative #4 is on a rant about the money that might get spent on security for civilian trials of terrorists. Conservatives are terrified of these all-powerful superhuman terrorists, who require a lot more security than American criminals to protect ourselves from them. If I belonged to the Mob, I'd be insulted.

Fruitcake Alert: Letter-writer #5 might be a liberal, because he writes about using wind turbines. But he's proposing using turbines and power lines on railroad lines and superhighway cloverleafs to create a new power grid, which causes me to wonder whether he's got his tinfoil hat on straight.
 
Three Op-Ed pieces today:

Big liberal op-ed piece from Ann Woolner pointing out that conservatives didn't get all tied up in knots when the Bush administration tried Richard Reid as a civilian. Score one column for the libs. 

Today wraps up with one normally-liberal columnist and one normally-conservative columnist writing apolitical columns. Liberal Eugene Robinson writes about his visit to the Washington Car Show and what's wrong at Toyota. Arch-conservative Paul Greenberg tries his hand at creative writing with a mock interview with Holden Caulfield talking about the death of J.D. Salinger.

The Sunday Funny Pages

Today's Forecast: Neutral Letters, Followed by Mostly-Conservative Op-Eds

Today's Biased Letters to the Editor:

Conservative chastises the News Journal for referring to the Senate seat formerly held by Veep Joe Biden as "Joe Biden's seat." This is the second letter of this ilk that we've seen on the NJ Opinion page -- either that, or the NJ liked the first letter so much they reprinted it. A splendid illustration of the apoplexy the name "Biden" generates among certain groups in this state -- they'd probably be happier if the seat was referred to as "the seat formerly held by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named." This letter also makes me wonder which Repub-... oops, conservative --talk show host first told their followers that "the seat doesn't doesn't belong to the Bidens, it belongs to the people of Delaware."

Letters to the Editor balance out today with a liberal pointing out that the right-wingnuts currently living in a permanent state of "the economy sucks because of Obama OMG we're all gonna DIE" need to remember that it was 8 years of Republican rule that got us here.

Today's Biased Op-Eds:

Article by Roy C. Smith on how wrong the current administration is in their approach to fixing the banking industry. The NJ tells us that Mr. Smith is a professor at NYU. It doesn't tell us that Mr. Smith was an investment banker at Goldman Sachs for more than twenty years before retiring to write books and magazine articles defending investment banker-ing. A tiny samping of Professor Smith's other articles: "Greed Is Good" and "Five Myths About Executive Pay," as well as several articles for The Independent Institute, a libertarian organization whose policy position on the economy is that an unregulated free market will solve everything. Evidently he woke up and smelled the coffee a couple of days ago, though, with an article entitled "How to Protect Taxpayers From the Biggest Banks."

Local Gay Guy Douglas Marshall-Steele tells us gays are mad as hell with Obama and everybody else and aren't gonna take it any more, and vaguely threatens revolution. The real story here is that as of late Sunday morning, not one comment has been posted online in response to it.

Uber-conservative George Will rounds out today's funny pages with an article showcasing his rich fantasy life as he forecasts life in 2013, when our next president is Mitch Daniels and our new Veep is Paul Ryan. Yeah, "Who?" was also the first thing that popped into my mind. Apparently these geniuses -- actually a former Illinois governor and a former Wisconsin congressman -- are going to get elected by virtue of an innovative approach to solving our economic woes, one so bold and new that Will calls Ryan a one-man think tank for dreaming it up, and anoints him as living, breathing proof that Repuglicans actually have Ideas with a capital I. His Idea? Wait for it... A FLAT INCOME TAX. Now, that made me wonder: has Will got his Pauls mixed up? Did he maybe say Paul Ryan when he really meant Ron Paul? No, Ryan's idea is new and different -- it's a 2-tiered flat tax, which nobody has ever thought of before. 10% for poor people and 25% for rich folks. But here's the real kicker: it will guarantee "universal access to the health care system." New. Different. Genius.

The Saturday Funny Pages

Today's Forecast: Conservative Letters, Followed by Neutral Op-Eds

Today's Biased Letters to the Editor:

The NJ revives that reliable old chestnut sure to generate lots of comment, global warming, with the usual crank letter, this time from a "Mr. Whipple" in Middletown. Mr. Whipple states unequivocally that there's no such thing as global warming because NOAA says "the aver­age temperature in 2009 was only '1.01 degree F above the 20th-cen­tury average.'"

Continuing the crazy old fart rant, we have a letter from a disgruntled Repub-... oops, I mean conservative... who wants to point out that our current governor is responsible for the sorry fiscal mess Delaware is in right now because he was treasurer under Minner. Of course, Delaware's current situation has absolutely nothing to do with George Bush running the entire US economy into the toilet, does it? Nah.

Today's Biased Op-Eds:
 The Delaware Voice column is a conservative hymn in praise of St. Ronald - Reagan, that is - from a former Reagan appointee to some obscure committee I've never heard of, now living in Rehoboth Beach and dreaming of glories past. 

Chuck Raasch's neutral column reports on Obama's Q&A with Republicans in Baltimore last week and what various commentators are saying about it.

Liberal columnist Margaret Carlson points out that Sarah Palin is a hypocrite (duh) because she hasn't jumped all over Rush Limbaugh for repeatedly using the word "retard" in a rant against "political correctness," although when Rahm Emmanuel said it (once) last week, she tore him a new one.

The Weekly News Journal Bias Tally, Jan. 10-17 2009

This week: The global warming debate finally runs its course, a huge amount of front-page real estate is devoted to football, we're bombarded with no fewer than 9 front-page human-interest pieces on Obama, Biden and inauguration preparations, and after enjoying nearly a full week of professional editorial cartoons drawns by cartoonists who can actually draw, we go down in flames with yet another wretched cartoon by Jack Jurden that leaves us scratching our heads.

Biases of the Week

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This week's tally: Liberal Bias: 10 Conservative Bias: 23 Do What?*: 2 Read further for the day-by-day breakdown. Letter = Letter to the Editor Saturday, January 10 2009

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Liberal Bias: 1

• Columnist: Jimmy Carter. Diplomacy could have prevented the war in Gaza. Liberal buzzwords used: psychological damage, acute malnutrition, humanitarian, comprehensive peace

Conservative Bias: 4

• Letter: Veterans' rights are being whittled away by Congress. Conservative buzzwords used: proud servicemen and servicewomen, uncaring do-nothing Congress, undeserving people and companies, pork projects.
• Letter: Gun control doesn't work. Conservative buzzwords used: street-smart thugs, lawful owners, drug dealers, pimps.
• Cartoon: Ordinary citizens aren't allowed into DC until after Obama's "coronation."
• Columnist: Charles Krauthammer. Diplomacy doesn't work, Israel needs to obliterate Hamas Conservative buzzwords used: farce, terrorists, French, radical Islamist movements

Do What?: 1

• Letter: Glaciers are not melting because of global warming, they're melting because radioactive fallout is inhibiting rain, which is actually a good thing for Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Sunday, January 11 2009

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Liberal Bias: 2

• Letter: Bush is destroying our system of checks and balances. Liberal buzzwords used: pros and cons, debate, balance
• Letter: Republicans are focusing on the Blagojovich scandal because they lost. Liberal buzzwords used: alleged corruption, Republican bitterness

Conservative Bias: 2

• Letter: Global warming is a myth because sea ice isn't melting. Conservative buzzwords used: editor bias, alarmism, supposed threat
• Columnist: David Broder. Obama got outsmarted by Blagojovitch. Conservative buzzwords used: Bill Clinton, gays, Harry Reid, race card, Congressional Black Caucus

Do What?: 2

• Letter: Social problems don't cause violence, drug laws do.
• Letter: Why are all you people feeling sorry for Hamas when you should be feeling sorry for American Indians who didn't get anything for their land except trinkets and baubles?

Monday, January 12 2009

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Liberal Bias: 1

• Columnist: Rekha Basu. Hooters restaurants degrade women. Liberal buzzwords used: sexism, domestic assaults, victim, sexual harrassment, rights Ummm... duh.

Conservative Bias: 2

• Cartoon: Obama is filling his Cabinet with TV celebrities.
• Letter: Congress and Obama are going to pass a law that takes away states' rights to regulate abortion even if it helps women, so check out what Catholic bishops have to say about the Freedom of Choice Act Conservative buzzwords used: radical, right to life, extreme legislation

Do What?: 1

• Letter: Politicians' pensions should be based on how popular they are with their constituents. Oh, and they shouldn't be allowed to be lobbyists.

Tuesday, January 13 2009

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Liberal Bias: 2

• Letter: Obama's inauguration represents fulfillment of America's destiny. Liberal buzzwords used: hope, change, equal, Dr. Martin Luther King, truth, love
• Letter: I grew up with Jack Markell and knew his father, and he's a good guy And Muffy says his backhand is absolutely deadly, but he's always good for a round back at the clubhouse

Conservative Bias: 4

• Letter: All Democrats are corrupt Conservative buzzwords used: Nancy Pelosi, drain the swamp, snakes from Chicago, "Promised One," filthy system, crooked balloting, Barney Frank, bailouts, Democrat cronies, pay for play
• Letter: Taxpayers shouldn't pay pay for state employees to have pet insurance Fact check: The state does not pay for pet insurance for state workers. State employees who elect to purchase pet insurance get a 10% group discount.
• Letter: Good riddance to Minner

Wednesday, January 14 2009

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Liberal Bias: 3

• Letter: Earlier letter saying anyone who likes the Bidens is stupid and shouldn't be allowed to vote was nasty. Liberal buzzwords used: democracy, rights, battered women, working men and women
• Columnist: Eugene Robinson. George Bush needs to be investigated when he leaves office
• Columnist: Tim Rutten. 401(k) plans have been a failure tht let American workers down.

Conservative Bias: 3

• Letter: I hate the UAW because they crossed our picket lines
• Letter: Israel should obliterate Gaza Conservative buzzwords used: Zionism, mindless Islamic murderers, Hezbollah
• Columnist: Paul Greenberg. Liberals are trying to suppress conservative speech in politics, on the air, on the internet, and on college campuses. Conservative buzzwords used: gag rule, rig the system, competition, centralized government, arbiters of thought, indoctrination

Thursday, January 15 2009

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Liberal Bias: 2

• Letter: Teenagers aren't helped by adults who stereotype Liberal buzzwords used: focus on the behaviour, hope, change
• Editorial: Obama's nominee for Treasury Secretary has tax problems because the tax code is too convoluted even for him to understand So God help the rest of us poor schmucks.

Conservative Bias: 3

• Letter: Voters need to stop electing the same (liberal) politicians and their relatives Conservative buzzwords used: insanity, Beau Biden, Caroline Kennedy
• Editorial: Margaret Spellings. Bush's Secy. of Education justifies No Child Left Behind.
• Columnist: Ruben Navarrette. Bill Richardson, a Hispanic, would have made a great Commerce Secy. if Obama hadn't dumped him because he was being investigated for improprieties as Gov. of New Mexico. Oh, and Obama is incompetent, because his vetting team tapped Bill Richardson when he was being investigated for improprieties as Gov. of New Mexico.

Do What?: 1

• Letter: If I were king of Delaware, I'd make sports betting legal, I'd let poor people use the Cleveland Ave. housing complex in Newark instead of selling it, I wouldn't let illegal immigrants work here, and I'd make employees of out-of-state corporations pay Delaware taxes. So there. King me.

Friday, January 16 2009

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Liberal Bias: 1

• Columnist: Tim Rutten. Los Angeles mayor has a right to speak out on foreign affairs

Conservative Bias: 4

• Cartoon: Fireman Obama pours money into financial institutions while Main Street goes begging.
• Letter: Obama will be like FDR, who prolonged the Depression and packed the Supreme Court with liberals Conservative buzzwords used: Democrat-controlled Congress, increasing taxes, liberal justices, brave Americans, liberal media
• Letter: The state put small business owners out of business with higher workmen's comp rates while reducing rates for large corporations.
• Columnist: George Will. Liberal California Attorney General Jerry Brown is undermining the people of California by trying to overturn Proposition 8. Conservative buzzwords used: same-sex marriages, sexual lifestyles, universal definition of marriage, judicial fiat, abortion, judicial highhandedness
• Columnist: David Broder. Love letter to Bush's outgoing Health and Human Services Secy., Mike Leavitt

Do What?: 1

• News Journal editors: Letter was titled "Celebrated smoking ban harmed small businesses," when the letter wasn't about the smoking ban, it was higher workmens' comp rates harming small businesses.

Saturday, January 17 2009

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Liberal Bias: 1

• Letter: George Bush is a war criminal Liberal buzzwords used: neo-con, axis of evil, torture, detainees, propoganda network, atrocities, Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Genghis Khan, Tojo Wow -- not just a knee-jerk liberal, but a raving lunatic liberal. Wipe the spittle up off the floor before you go, please.

Conservative Bias: 4

• Letter: Obama can't be compared to Martin Luther King because he's pro-choice. Conservative buzzwords used: the blacks, the unborn Favorite quote: "I hope our new president equates the greatness of Martin Luther King when it comes to justice and equality of the unborn."
• Columnist: Chuck Raasch. Obama's is already being fiscally irresponsible by throwing a bunch of parties on Inauguration Day. Fact Check: Raasch says Obama is paying for the festivities by raising money from "ordinary Americans." He doesn't mention that the inauguration balls going on throughout DC are private, invitation-only events, and that the vast majority of them are unofficial.
• Columnist: Charles Krauthammer. George Bush is a martyr whose policies have been so perfect and wise that Obama is planning to continue them. Grasshopper, follow in the clown shoes of the Master.

Do What?: 2

• Letter: I'm old and I lived in the same house for 63 years with my 90-year-old husband until he died last year, and I read about Roosevelt in school but because my husband was really old, he remembered Roosevelt and the Depression, and I learned something when I read an article in your newspaper about Obama. Oh, and Lincoln, Kennedy and Roosevelt were great and Obama will be too. I'm afraid if she ever reads anything else ever again, her head may explode from having too much knowledge stuffed in there.
• Jack Jurden Cartoon: Unidentified cartoon man says"We'll miss you Ruth Ann" into what looks like the wrong end of a megaphone, which is inexplicably mounted on a tripod and pointed toward a woman with a bun -- has he ever seen Ruth Ann? -- dragging luggage labeled "Ex-Gov." Good-bye I get. Ruth Ann I get. Luggage I get. But what the hell is going on with that backwards megaphone thing?

News Journal Round-Up, Jan 4-9

Now that I'm no longer on vacation, as I was over the holidays when I started this blog, it's a little too difficult to stay on top of this thing on a daily basis, so I'm probably going to continue as a weekly. I've also decided that I'm only going to look at articles with a decidedly conservative or liberal bias, so I won't be bothering with researching the authors of the fluff pieces or those on a single hobbyhorse, i.e. former Israeli prime ministers or Arab college professors writing about the war in Gaza, where the bias is obvious and not necessarily pushing a liberal or conservative viewpoint. I've also decided not to limit myself to the syndicated op-ed pieces, as was my original intention; I will also provide commentary on local editorials and letters to the editor that show an obvious liberal or conservative bent. This Week's Comic Relief: The Battle Over Global Warming Continues A letter to the editor on December 21 from a guy who teaches in the UD computer department, citing the usual conservative "experts" from the gas, coal and mining industries who say global warming is a myth, has provided us with a whole series of letters on the subject, and hundreds of posts at delawareonline.com. I wrote the following, which was published on 12/27, in response to the original letter:

Charles Boncelet’s letter “Global warming reports exaggerated,” (Dec. 21) presented impressive-sounding statements, but his facts and figures are based on information produced by the usual global warming conspiracy “experts,” most with ties to the oil, gas and mining industries. His claim that “global temperatures peaked in 1998 and have declined since about 2003” is found on Web sites run by organizations whose mantra is that of unfettered trade and deregulation, such as Fox News and the Heartland Institute, or on right-wing blogs.The theory can be traced to a single paper written by Vincent Gray, a retired New Zealand coal chemist, whose main hobby is calling for the abolition of the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.Gray touts himself as an “expert reviewer for the IPCC.” He asked to review their reports; he was not invited to be a member of the panel and has no training or experience in climatology.

The contention that rising levels of atmospheric CO2 stimulates plant growth and is good for the environment is promoted primarily by Ray Evans, who spent most of the 80s and 90s as executive officer of Australia’s Western Mining Corporation.He’s is also secretary of an Australian global warming skeptics group composed of 90-some retired scientists from the mining, manufacturing and construction industries.

The global warming argument has resulted in some hilarious letters and online comments from Flat-Earth-type conservatives, including several of the infamous "ice cubes in a glass" variety. The sheer volume citing the same flawed experiment has me wondering whether Rush Limbaugh teaches a course on "Refuting Real Science Using Simple Items From Your Home or Garage." Most of the liberal writers pointed out that the problem is not with melting sea ice, it's the melting glaciers from Antarctica and Greenland that's the problem. Like, duh. My favorite letter in the debate this week, though, was one from Fred Patrick of Milton, who offers this sage observation:

"Water+frozen= Ice. Just as Ice +thawed = water. So if you fill an empty glass with ice cubes and they melt, surprise – you get water."

Huh? I'm not sure which side of the debate he was on, but it continued the whole global warming thread, so of course the News Journal printed it without question. Possibly without even reading it. Proving once again that they're more interested in stirring up controversy than in actually presenting facts. On to the weeks biases! Biases of the Week This week's tally: Liberal Bias: 10 Conservative Bias: 14 Do What? Bias*: 2 Read further for the day-by-day breakdown. Letter = Letter to the Editor.

Monday Liberal Bias: 3

• Harry Themal's column: a love letter to Jack Markell.
• DeWayne Wickham's syndicated column: a love letter to Roland Burris, Illinois-governor-under-indictment Rod Blagojovich's Senate appointment.
• Delaware Voice column by Al Matlack, President of the Natural History Society of Delaware: what Toll Bros. could do to build greener housing developments.

Conservative Bias: 0

Do What? Bias: 1

• Letter: Fred Patrick's incomprehensible "melting ice=water" on global warming.

Tuesday Liberal Bias: 2

• Another Letter on global warming, this time refuting the ice-in-a-glass experiment.
• A Letter saying the Bible has been rewritten many times, in response to a Bible-thumper's letter stating the Bible is inviolable truth.

Conservative Bias: 1

• Letter suggesting that when the Powerball Lottery totals $50 million or more, there should be more than just one winner. This one's weird: The News Journal titled this letter "A socialistic solution to improve economic woes." Bias is on the part of the NJ alone. And points to the NJ for trying to stir something up and falling flat on their arse, as this letter generated no response either in the LttE or online.

Wednesday Liberal Bias: 3

• NJ Editorial: love letter to Jack Markell for keeping Carol Ann Wicks as Transportation Secy.
• Letter: Pastor Rick Warren is a bigot who hates gays.
• Letter: God bless the UAW, from a former auto worker. (Liberal at least on this issue!)

Conservative Bias: 5

• NJ Editorial: griping about the stimulus package and Medicare, saying the money will probably be wasted.
• Letter: Companies that make cars in Mexico should receive no aid.
• Letter: Send Bernie Madoff to the Big House.
• Letter: Republican fantasy about Joe Biden being Obama's press secretary, with a lot of invective about Reid, Pelosi and others. This one gets points for being Uber-Conservative.
• Letter: Changes need to be made at the VA, with lots of buzzwords about fighting terrorism, paying the ultimate price, and protecting our freedom.

Thursday Liberal Bias: 0 Conservative Bias: 4

• Letter: Minner's administration was miserable, good riddance.
• Letter: Obama, Biden, Minner, Hillary Clinton and Caroline Kennedy are proof that the electorate is getting ripped off with Senate appointments
• Paul Greenberg's syndicated column: handwringing over what to do about Gaza, criticising the UN for not acting until Israel took action
• George Will's syndicated column: GMAC has no business sponsoring a bowl game while taking a handout from the Treasury

Friday Liberal Bias: 2

• Letter: Another response to earlier Bible-thumper's letter, stating that God and the Bible are fiction
• Letter: Another global warming letter, again pointing out that land-based ice is the problem.

Conservative Bias: 4

• NJ Editorial from John Sweeney: Senators spend too much time on TV catering to national constituencies while ignoring the locals
• Letter: Rahm Emanuel shouldn't be chief of staff because he holds dual American-Israeli citizenship and has served in the Israeli army. FACTCHECK: This claim is false. Emanuel could take dual citizenship if he wanted to, as can all Jews. He served as a citizen volunteer during the 1991 Gulf War repairing Israeli tanks for a few weeks. He has never served in the Israeli military.

  From The Jewish Journal: Emanuel got his first glimpse of politics as a candidate, and faced an immediate test. A nasty primary battle included a rare public case of anti-Semitism, when the president of the Polish American Congress, Ed Moskal, who was supporting candidate Nancy Kaszak, claimed that Emanuel was an Israeli citizen and served in the Israeli army. Moskal also called Emanuel a "millionaire carpetbagger who knows nothing" about "our heritage." Emanuel had served a noncombat stint as a volunteer in the Israeli army during the Gulf War, but he never held Israeli citizenship. Emanuel responded coolly, supporters said, bringing a coalition of Chicago clergy together to denounce the incident. "One of the proudest moments of my life was seeing people of my district from all backgrounds demonstrate our common values by coming together in response to this obvious attempt to divide them," Emanuel said.

• Letter: Another global warming letter -- since the ice-in-a-glass argument has been roundly debunked six ways from Sunday, this writer is left with whining about liberals who want to suppress conservatives' right to free speech. This one's a hoot!
• Letter: Bidens make the writer sick, and anyone who votes for them is stupid.

Do What? Bias: 1

• Letter: in addition to the 2 global warming letters that I already mentioned, today we were treated to another incomprehensible ice-in-the-glass letter, stating you need to let the ice melt and mark the glass both before and after it melts.

Deconstructing the Op-Ed Writers: Columns on 1/4/09

Senate is losing some real talent by DAVID BRODER BIAS: CONSERVATIVE Broder is sometimes described as a centrist, and is able to acknowledge the achievements of "the other side."

• Writes a twice-weekly op-ed column for the Washington Post
• Pulitzer Prize winner for political commentaryGenerally critical of Bill and and Hillary Clinton. Broder speaking to Sally Quinn about Bill Clinton: "He came in here and he trashed the place, and it's not his place."
• Generally supportive of George Bush. From Broder's February 2007 column: "But just as Clinton did in the winter of 1995, Bush now shows signs of renewed energy and is regaining the initiative on several fronts. More important, he is demonstrating political smarts that even his critics have to acknowledge."
• Generally supportive of Karl Rove. Broder on the Valerie Plame case: "[Newsweek] and other publications owe Karl Rove an apology. And all of journalism needs to relearn the lesson: Can the conspiracy theories and stick to the facts."

Unintended consequences of well-meaning laws by GEORGE WILL BIAS: CONSERVATIVE

See previous George Will entry

GOP must really stand for something by RICHARD A. VIGUERIE BIAS: CONSERVATIVE

• Pioneered the use of direct mail funding campaigns for conservative causes
• Chairman of ConservativeHQ.com
• Founded Conservative Digest magazine in 1975
• Cofounder of American Freedom Agenda , a conservative coalition dedicated restoring traditional Republican "small government" values

On the economy: Worst is coming by NOURIEL ROUBINI BIAS: Liberal. There is disagreement about whether Roubini is a liberal or a libertarian

• Professor of economics at the Stern School of Business, New York University
• Held several advisory positions at Treasury during Clinton administration
• Chairman of RGE Monitor, an economic analysis consulting firm

Delaware Voice: Why we need same-gender marriages by DOUG MARSHALL-STEELE BIAS: LIBERAL

• Doug and partner Corey Marshall-Steele are local gay-rights activists
• Frequently contributes articles and letters on GLBT issues to newspapers throughout the state
• Website: Towardequality.org