Libs do not care for "family values" but, then again, they are nowhere near in the majority.

Editor's notes: this country has been "center right" for 50 years or more - to the tone of 2 to 1 when people are asked to identify themselves as "liberal" or "conservative" but without identifying with a political party. --- jds

This PEW survey adds to this opinion:

“Socialism” is a negative for most Americans, but certainly not all Americans. “Capitalism” is regarded positively by a majority of the public, though it is a thin majority. There are certain segments of the public – notably, young people and Democrats – where both “isms” are rated about equally. And while most Americans have a negative reaction to the word “militia,” the term is viewed more positively by Republican men than most other groups.

These are among the findings of a national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press that tests reactions to words and phrases frequently used in current political discourse. Overall, 29% say they have a positive reaction to the word “socialism,” while 59% react negatively. The public’s impressions of “capitalism,” though far more positive, are somewhat mixed. Slightly more than half (52%) react positively to the word “capitalism,” compared with 37% who say they have a negative reaction.

A large majority of Republicans (77%) react negatively to “socialism,” while 62% have a positive reaction to “capitalism.” Democrats’ impressions are more divided: In fact, about as many Democrats react positively to “socialism” (44%) as to “capitalism” (47%).

Reaction to “capitalism” is lukewarm among many demographic groups. Fewer than half of young people, women, people with lower incomes and those with less education react positively to “capitalism.”

The survey, conducted April 21-26 among 1,546 adults, measured reactions to nine political words and phrases. The most positive reactions are to “family values” (89% positive) and “civil rights” (87%). About three-quarters see “states’ rights” (77%) and “civil liberties” (76%) positively, while 68% have a positive reaction to the word “progressive.”

Reactions to the word “libertarian” are evenly divided – 38% positive, 37% negative. On balance, Republicans view “libertarian” negatively, Democrats are divided, while independents have a positive impression of the term. “Militia” elicits the most negative reaction of the nine terms tested: Just 21% have a positive reaction compared with 65% who have a negative response.

How many of you would buy a newspaper funded by Obama ?? Ahhhh, we didn't think so.

Editor's comments: first Obama said "The Banks need help" but he only helped a chosen few; then, the auto industry needed help but he only helped two; there is his claim that free speech cannot be extended to corporate speech but approved unions and utilities companies (GE and PG&E) spend billions funding political speech; and now, the news industry needs our help - but only for certain news services, approved by Obama . . . . . . . . . wanna bet ??!! -- jds

Obama's FTC plan to reinvent America's news media

June 2, 2010 our of the LA Times and written by Andrew Malcom

What's widely-known is that Americans are not buying newspapers anymore in droves.

What hasn't been widely-known, until now, is that a year ago the new Democrat administration of Barack Obama launched a major internal study intended to design a major government rescue plan for the nation's financially-troubled information media, primarily newspapers.

That strident sound you hear are the alarms going off in minds and offices across the country: Government helping the press? Which press? How help? In return for what?

Well, two years ago who'd have thought the feds would own General Motors with major holdings in a bunch of banks and financial institutions, reshaped the healthcare industry, spent $787 billion on who-knows-what to create some jobs, have rewritten a package of new financial regulations to corral Wall Street and still not be securing the U.S.-Mexico border?

The Federal Trade Commission has just released a major staff study of modern American media titled "Potential Policy Recommendations to Support the Reinvention of Journalism." And....

...silly you thought the private business of journalism was doing that by itself in its own stumbling ways without the help of the Washington branch of the Chicago Democratic political machine.

The study notes those industry-wide revival efforts and adds:

There are reasons for concern that experimentation may not produce a robust and sustainable business model for commercial journalism. History in the United States shows that readers of the news have never paid anywhere close to the full cost of providing the news. Rather, journalism always has been subsidized to a large extent by, for example, the federal government, political parties, or advertising.

True, there have been government subsidies over the decades in the form of below-cost postal rates and printing contracts. But this FTC study is rated R for anyone who thinks the federal government, the object of copious news coverage itself, has no business deciding which sectors of the private media business survive and thrive through its support, subsidies and encouragement with things like tax incentives.

Yet that's what this Obama administration paper is suggesting as another of the ex-community organizer's galactic reform plans.

Would you believe: major changes to the copyright law, including government licensing provisions; government pilot programs to investigate potential new media business models, antitrust changes to allow media companies to unite on imposing online pay walls, establish a journalism division of AmeriCorps with government underwriting the training of young journalists, tax incentives per news employee, increased funding of public broadcasting, a 5% tax on consumer electronics and/or assessments on users of public airwaves.

Another idea would be to allow taxpayers to direct a portion of their taxes -- perhaps up to $200 -- to a specific media institution as payment for media services rendered. (Now, if taxpayers could direct such sums to individual bloggers.... )

Our thanks to Mark Tapscott of the Washington Examiner for his trenchant observations titled "Will journalists wake up in time to save journalism from Obama's FTC?"

Over at BuzzMachine, Jeff Jarvis aims his usual provocative analysis at the FTC paper, a main point being that Obama's folks are, quite likely too late, plotting to "help" the oldest, most-troubled part of the news media business: newspapers. With but one lone mention of something newer called blogs.

An equivalent task might be the feds helping U.S. car companies revive the densely-chromed, high-finned gas guzzlers of the 1950-60's. How many of you folks, for instance, bought and read an actual newspaper this morning?

(some of our readers, not friendly to this blog, have no idea what the following caveat means -- they are liberals, of course, but most will get the message: note: red highlights are Midknight Review's. )

In defense of Israel -- Netanyahu gives a morning press conference.

click on image to enlarge

This morning, 10:15 am pst, Israeli Prime Minister Ben Netanyahu held a press conference defending the actions of this past week regarding their effort to police supplies coming into Gaza. He made these points:

1. There were six ships out of Muslim Turkey in the convoy.

2. Israeli troops had boarded 5 ships without a problem.

3. As they boarded the largest ship, the 6th in the convoy, they were attack by Hamas extremists bent on killing those who were trying to do nothing but inspect the ships cargo.

4. While Netanyahu offered regrets for the 9 dead, he reminded the press conference of the daily missile attacks from Gaza into Israel, killing or injuring hundreds if Jews each year. Two missiles were fired just yesterday. These missile attacks have been the case since 2006 and the rise of Hamas. Literally thousands of missiles have been fired into Israel over the past 4 years --- 1600 missiles each year.

5. Netanyahu spoke of an Iranian naval port being constructed "next door to Israel," and warned the world that those who were critics of Israel's actions would be next on the Iran's list.

6. He pointed to the fact that some 10 tons of food, medicine and clothing come into Gaza each week. He asserted that there is no shortage of these critical supplies.

A Midknight Review of the Arizona effort to protect that state from the continuing illegal flow of "immigrants" across our Sourthern borders.

Headline --- Obama decides that he DOES have time for Jan Brewer, Governor of Arizona. it was announced on Monday of this week that Obama would not have time to meet with Governor Brewer on Thursday. This morning, he has changed his mind. There will be a meeting -- Thursday afternoon. Of course, his rather large ears are closed to anything Brewer might say as she asks Hussein, once again, for help. Three related considerations most people do not know are these:

1. The Federal law governing immigration has been on the books since the Reagan Administration (1986). Much of this law is mirrored in the Arizona law with amendments that make the Arizona law less repressive than the Federal Code. As an example, under the Federal law, suspects can be stopped for no reason and asked to produce papers. This is expressly forbidden under Arizona law. The fact is this: Obama is refusing to enforce established Federal law that has been in force for 26 years !!

2. What is not mentioned in the Minion Media is the fact that the revolt to the Arizona law is being driven by revolutionaries who believe in open border polices. There is evidence that Obama holds this same idealistic notion as evidenced with words such as these: "We are not defined by our borders . . . . . but by our bonds."

3. Obama's 1,200 National Guard troop "surge" being sent to the Southern border region will not be used to police the border and arrest illegals. Understand border services run on a 24 hour cycle which means that if the 1,200 troop "office help" is divided by the 4 border states and the 3 shifts of a 24 hour cycle, we are talking about 100 Federal officers per shift per state. Obama's offering of troops to the region is a pathetic sham for the reasons just discussed --- text by the editor, jds.
.

June 1st, 2010
Republicans Jump Out To Historic Lead In Gallup Generic Ballot
Posted by Sean Trende

Gallup's generic polling shows the number of voters saying that they would vote for Republicans rising three points from last week, while the number saying they will vote for Democrats dropped four points. The 49%-43% lead for the Republicans is the largest that the pollster has ever recorded for the party. Moreover, Democratic enthusiasm for voting this fall fell a point, while enthusiasm among Republicans stayed about fifteen points higher. This indicates an even wider lead for Republicans once Gallup imposes a likely voter screen this fall.

There's any number of reasons for this: the public's perception of Obama's response to the oil spill, the shaky stock market performance last week, continued concern about the economy and spending. The bottom line is that, despite what is perceived as an underperformance for the Republicans in PA-12 a couple of weeks ago, there are still plenty of Democrats in trouble for this November.

The numbers for incumbents get worse, especially for the Democrats. Good news for patriots everywhere.

Numbers from RealClearPolitics

President Obama Job Approval

RCP Average

Approve ....................................................................Midknight Review commentary:

47.4

Disapprove ................................................................We believe that of these three categories, the single most

46.3 ............................................................................important the one showing the measure of confidence

......................................................................................folks have in the direction of this country.

Congressional Job Approval

RCP Average .............................................................Midknight Review believes this to be the least partisan

Approve .....................................................................question in the mix and, as a result, the item the voting

21.4 .............................................................................populace will unite to change -- and change will occur.

Disapprove

72.0 ............................................................................We note that these numbers have moved "right" notably,
.....................................................................................giving cause for concern within the neo-Marxist ranks.

Direction of Country

RCP Average

Right Direction

34.3

Wrong Track

59.3

Generic Congressional Vote

RCP Average

Republicans

42.4

Democrats

41.6

Donny Shaw at Open Congress does a great job of keeping us all informed as to the workings of Congress. Here is our weekly post from this great site.

The picture in this post is one of folks standing in line waiting for jobless benefits. The reason why they are there, after 17 months of Obama, is more than obvious. Do they need help? Yes, of course, BUT the only thing that Obama has done since becoming the Leader of this Country is to give away money. He has no plan except to hope and pray the capitalist system he despises will begin to work. The problem with that is this: the host of restrictive and regressive laws passed by this Administration have put a cap on the private sector jobs market. How long will Obama and his neo-Marxist minions flounder before coming to their senses? Will we have to wait until 2012 ?? -- jds

Thanks to Donny Shaw May 28, 2010 in Open Congress

After cutting COBRA health care benefits for the unemployed and Medicaid funds for states with budget problems, the House has finally passed their economic recovery bill, the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010.

But they are a day late. The Senate adjourned this afternoon and won't be back to vote on the bill until Monday, June 7. The current unemployment benefits extension that was approved by Congress in April is set to expire on June 2. According to the Department of Labor, more than 300,000 unemployed people will exhaust their current tier of benefits and be left without a lifeline by the time the Senate gets back to take up the bill.

What Obama's minion media refuses to tell you about the current Israeli crisis.

We must never forget the alliances working against Israel and the United States; they include radicalized Islam, Communists and Socialists the world over. When you realize that some of these folks are in our own government, you know just how serious the situation is. With Obama as "president," the enemies of our country smell blood in the water . . . . bad news for us and the Israelis whom we support -- jds

Thanks to Cristy Li for this story.

Answer Coalition.org the pro-Islamic Jihad organization formed in 2001 in association with the Marxist Workers World Party, Party for Socialism and supported by the Muslim Student Association a front for the Hamas Supported Muslim Brotherhood which has ties to 9/11 mastermind Osama bin-Laden organized this protest outside the Israel Embassy today in Washington, after the Gaza Ship raid by Israel Commandos turned deadly.

Despicable—Children are easily manipulated and this little girl is carrying a Socialist sign to further the pro-Islamic Jihad, Marxist message outside the Israel Embassy today in Washington protesting Israel’s attack on a Gaza bound flotilla.

Did anyone tell these children that the so called “peace activists” transporting aid to Gaza, ignored orders by the Israel Navy to to turn back and then acted anything but peaceful, using knives, clubs and weapons to attack Israeli Commandos that attempted to board the vessel armed with non-lethal weapons. . . . . end of text.

Editor: we would add this; did anyone tell these children that the Israeli Navy had boraded and inspected 5 other ships that day, without incident and the video we have of them borading the 6th ship shows the violence being initiated by the Muslim activists on board - a brutal initial attack with the boarding Navy Seals being beaten with iron rods before they could get their footing ?

Israel, deserted by the American President, is facing its last days unless, of course, the anti-Semitic Obama changes course.

Editor's notes: more Palestinian lies about a country (Israel) just trying to survive . . . . that is our summary of the current Israeli/Palestine crisis. Understand that the Iranian sponsored terror organization known as Hamas stands in full approval by Hussein Obama. They received nearly one billion dollars of aid last year from the new US leader - a billion dollars of aid given to Hamas with no serious set of controls. Hamas is fully aware of Obama's anti-Semitic stance as are the Israelis. Just last week, it came to light that Obama supports and will drive a UN move to create a nuclear free Middle East. While that might sound noble to a few who know nothing about the Middle East, the fact remains that only Israel would be effected by such nonsense. We must know the only reason Israel continues to exist in a region of the world wholly dedicated to its utter destruction is it's nuclear abilities. Take that away and Israel is a dead state. Obama has surrounded himself with advisors and staff who are aligned with the Palestinian cause. Because of his subversive treatment of Israel, that country faces its most challenging chapter since its inception by UN decree. As you read the following "fair and balanced" reporting, understand that the Hamas rules Gaza because of a bloody coup completed in 2007. Here is a part of their Charter or Covenant, words that have no similar counterpart in Israeli writings or intentions. In other words, it is not Israel who resists peace and these words picture just how serious the situation is for Israel:

"Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it." (The Martyr, Imam Hassan al-Banna, of blessed memory).

"The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Muslim generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up. "

"There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors."

"After Palestine, the Zionists aspire to expand from the Nile to the Euphrates. When they will have digested the region they overtook, they will aspire to further expansion, and so on. Their plan is embodied in the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion", and their present conduct is the best proof of what we are saying."

Our source is the "Mid East Web." While the press talks about Israel and the "activists," the truth is "Israel versus jihadist Muslims." Turkey is right in the middle of this particular incident and it is a Muslim nation. Obama has painted himself into a corner with poorly thought out rhetoric and thoughtless "fence riding." His childish idealism with regard to war and weaponry is taking Israel to the brink. Some believe he has faith in man's more noble intentions, that Palestine will back off its stated purposes toward Israel if it is treated with the respect it demands. We think he is just a stupid man.

Finally, we must note the charge of aggressive imperialism against Israel. It is the same charge leveled against the United States. Neither Israel or the United States are imperialist nations but those who work for the overthrow of both nations persist in this lie. We see this trash talk on our own college campuses. While the charge is laughable, it is the line of propaganda most often leveled against each county. This is what Midknight Review knows - all past accords and peace treaties have been broken by the Muslim Jihadists without exception. If Israel was imperialistic in its intentions, the violation of these treaties would not be a one sided affair. If that does not put some of this crisis into context, nothing will. Read this related story - The Terror Finance Flotilla --- jds.

********

JERUSALEM (AP) - a story by Amy Teibel - Pro-Palestinian activists sent another boat to challenge Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday and Egypt declared it was temporarily opening a crossing into the Palestinian territory after a botched raid on an aid flotilla that ended with Israeli soldiers killing nine activists.

The raid provoked ferocious international condemnation of Israel, raised questions at home, and appeared likely to increase pressure to end the blockade that has deepened the poverty of the 1.5 million Palestinians living in the strip. Turkey, which unofficially supported the flotilla, has led the criticism, calling the Israeli raid a "bloody massacre."

The pro-Palestinian flotilla had been headed to Gaza with tens of thousands of tons of aid that Israel bans from Gaza. After days of warnings, Israel intercepted the flotilla under the cover of darkness early Monday, setting off a violent melee that left nine activists dead and dozens of people, including seven soldiers, wounded. Most of the dead were believed to be Turks.

Israel said 679 people were arrested, and about 50 of those had left the country voluntarily. Hundreds who refused to cooperate remained jailed and subject to deportation.

Israel says the Gaza blockade is needed to prevent the Iranian-backed Hamas, which has fired thousands of rockets into the Jewish state, from building up its arsenal. It also wants to pressure Hamas to free an Israeli soldier it has held for four years. . . . . . . read the full text here

Is the United States about to lose its Number One rating in the world of computer dominance ?

Editor's notes: the Pentagon spends more than $200 million a year defeating and repairing itself against cyber attacks from a 100 or more countries including China and Russia. Know what a "petaflop" is ? A 1000 trillion computations per second (Link). Of the top 500 fastest computers in the world, the US, alone, owns 288. While this article suggests the loss of dominance for the US, this editor sees just the opposite. The Chinese are working to develop the fastest computer. If they succeed, that will not change the fact that the US will continue to own 280 or more of the top 500 and the US is working to develop a computer that will function at 1000x the current petaflop rate.

SAN FRANCISCO (NY Times) - by John Markoff — A Chinese supercomputer has been ranked as the world’s second-fastest machine, surpassing European and Japanese systems and underscoring China’s aggressive commitment to science and technology.

The Dawning Nebulae, based at the National Supercomputing Center in Shenzhen, China, has achieved a sustained computing speed of 1.27 petaflops — the equivalent of one thousand trillion mathematical operations a second — in the latest semiannual ranking of the world’s fastest 500 computers.

The newest ranking was made public on Monday at the International Supercomputer Conference in Hamburg, Germany. Supercomputers are used for scientific and engineering problems as diverse as climate simulation and automotive design.

The Chinese machine is actually now ranked as the world’s fastest in terms of theoretical peak performance, but that is considered a less significant measure than the actual computing speed achieved on a standardized computing test.

The world’s fastest computer remains the Cray Jaguar supercomputer, based at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. Last November it was measured at 1.75 petaflops.

In the previous year’s ranking, the Chinese had the fifth-fastest computer, a system that was based at a National Supercomputing Center in Tianjin, China. That machine has now dropped to seventh place.

The United States continues to be the dominant maker of supercomputers, and is the nation with the most machines in the top 500. The United States has 282 of the world’s fastest 500 computers on the new list, an increase from 277 when the rankings were compiled in November.

But China appears intent on challenging American dominance. There had been some expectation that China would make an effort to complete a system based on Chinese-designed components in time for the June ranking. The Nebulae is based on chips from Intel and Nvidia.

The new system, which is based on a microprocessor that has been designed and manufactured in China, is now expected later this year. A number of supercomputing industry scientists and engineers said that it was possible that the new machine would claim the title of world’s fastest.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if by the end of this year they surpass the scientific computing power of the E.U. countries combined and have a computer system with an achieved performance to reach the No. 1 position on the top 500,” said Jack Dongarra, a computer scientist at the University of Tennessee and one of the researchers who has organized the twice-yearly rankings.

Americans designed the first machines that were defined as supercomputers during the 1960s, and the United States has rarely been dislodged from its controlling position as technology leader. In 2002, however, the Japanese government’s Earth Simulator set off anxiety in Washington when that system briefly claimed the top position.

The United States then began investing heavily in the computing systems, breaking the petaflop barrier in 2008.

It is now preparing to begin a sustained push to build systems capable of computing at what is known as exascale performance — one thousand times faster than today’s fastest systems. The goal is to realize that technological achievement between 2018 and 2020.