The Snarky Files - Euripides' Views on the Week (September 25)Anz Internet

Narrowing the gap. Obama's approval rating continues its steady decline while his disapproval rating continues its steady rise. Maybe he needs to go on more television shows and push his defunct healthcare plan?

The Snarky Files. Snarky means several things. I prefer the definition of "sharply critical." Here's my take on some news stories this past week. No real news here, just snark.

The Joker's Wild
I'll call this weeks roundup The Joker's Wild (the joker being me). After reviewing the news stories I picked to snark at ("at which to snark" for you English majors), they seem to be all over the board. I attribute the scattered stories to an evil plot by Congress to take over the news and confuse everyone with random details of little importance - kind of like President Obama's media blitz to push his defunct healthcare project this past the weekend.

Free Speech in Schools
I've known for a long time that, in the university system, if you want to keep your job you don't say anything contrary to liberal dogma. Any disloyalty to the party line (so to speak) is not tolerated by colleagues nor by administration. Case in point is this week's threat to Professor Thomas Thibeault at East Georgia College. Professor Thibeault

posed a scenario involving a false accusation of harassment against a faculty member and then asked if the school’s policy had any provision to protect against malicious charges. He was told by vice president for legal affairs Mary Smith, who was in charge of the session, that the policy had nothing in it to protect the accused.

Not realizing that he was already on thin ice, Thibeault then commented that the policy was “flawed.” (Pope Center)

For Thibeault's lack of decorum and breech of college "free speech" policy, the college president hauled him into his office and told Thibeault to resign or he would be fired. Apparently posing theoretical questions and questioning school policy is now a firing offense at East Georgia. Thibeault refused to resign, so the school has started dismissal proceedings against him.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident, but one repeated on a weekly basis in this country. Fortunately, FIRE, a free speech advocacy group has taken up the case and will be defending Thibeault. FIRE's defense record is nearly 100% in favor of the defense of free speech at institutions of higher learning. We can look forward to East Georgia's policy getting hauled over the coals of that pesky First Amendment.

Sly as a Fox
Fox News came under fire (again), this time for advertising itself at the expense of the other major news agencies. A Fox News ad for the Washington Post showed:

Over photos of protesters gathering for an "anti-tax" rally in Washington last Saturday, the ad asked: "How Did ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC and CNN Miss This Story?" (Washington Post)

Bent out of shape, the other agencies did what we've come to expect from them, they ran stories trying to defame Fox News. (By the way, don't you love the Washington Post's use of quote marks around "anti-tax" to debunk the protesters?) Yet the question remains:

"Generally speaking," Michael Tammero, Fox News's vice president of marketing, said in a statement, "it's fair to say that from the tea party movement . . . to ACORN . . . to the march on 9/12, the networks either ignored the story, marginalized it or misrepresented the significance of it altogether." (Washington Post)

Like putting quote marks around "anti-tax."

Now, I don't watch Fox News (or ABC or CBS or NBC or MSNBC or CNN) but I do have to wonder why all the other agencies in the US hate Fox News so much? Are they so afraid of opposing viewpoints that they have to threaten Fox News at every turn? Or are these news agencies merely jealous of Fox News for taking away their viewers?

Another Bailout
Speaking of the news agencies, newspaper readership has dropped to critical levels to a point where President Obama admits he'd like to see legislation to bail out the failing companies. As he puts it:

"I am concerned that if the direction of the news is all blogosphere, all opinions, with no serious fact-checking, no serious attempts to put stories in context, that what you will end up getting is people shouting at each other across the void but not a lot of mutual understanding." (The Hill)

Maybe, just maybe, if the news agencies started reporting real news, instead of being scooped by the evil Fox News agency or by two college kids with a video camera, their readership would improve. Maybe if these news agencies stopped being stooges for the political left and catered to mainstream America, their readership would improve. Just some thoughts....

A-CORNered
ACORN and two former employees who worked in the Baltimore office have chosen to hide their shame and embarrassment at being caught conspiring to commit felonies by suing James O'Keefe, Hannah Giles and Andrew Breitbart (the owner of BigGovernment.com which broke the story). (AP)

The lawsuit claims the video damaged ACORN's reputation and asks for injunctions barring its further broadcast or distribution. It seeks $2 million in compensatory damages — $1 million for ACORN and $500,000 for each of the two former employees — as well as $1 million in punitive damages from each of the three defendants. (AP)

I'm certain we all feel sorry for ACORN's damaged reputation and these employee's emotional distress after getting fired for aiding prostitution, loan fraud, tax evasion, sex trafficking, illegal immigration, and trafficking minors into slavery. We certainly wouldn't want to see ACORN's reputation damaged for such trivial charges or for being shown up by a couple of college kids in bad costumes.

Iran Nukes
Isn't anyone in the current administration the least bit worried that Iran revealed it is making medium-range missiles (Washington Times) and now has a second uranium enrichment facility (Washington Post)?

I suppose these don't really matter since the current administration seems content to sever ties with Israel anyway and to become BFF with Iran's current dictator, Ahmadinejad.

Overrated
President Obama's approval rating continues to decline. Compared with other presidents at the same time during the first term, Obama now ranks lower than both Bushes and Jimmy Carter. That's some record. (Gallup)

Which brings us to the question: Why is everyone saying no to President Obama? Can it be his policies, or is there some nefarious force at work here to bring down the most liberal president in US history? The Jerusalem Post speculates that, like all other presidents before him, Obama's suffering from a bad economy.

That makes sense. And here I thought it was because we're a country full of racists.

Or maybe Obama's approval rating keeps dropping because he insists on supporting and pushing a liberal healthcare bill through Congress after shoving through dubious stimulus spending and a badly written cap and trade bill. In fact, CBS reports that Nancy Pelosi seeks to make the healthcare bill even more liberal, meaning the "public option" of nationalized healthcare is back on the table. At least the bill won't raise taxes on condoms. (AP) That's very important in this day and age.

Or maybe Obama's dropping in the polls because of episodes like this: