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Double standard?

Red Robin

Well-known member
between the lines Joseph Farah Media double standard on candidates
Posted: February 22, 2008
1:00 am Eastern

© 2008

Let me get this straight.

Presidential candidate A is accused of having a risky homosexual dalliance with someone he picks up in a bar, scoring powdered cocaine for his partner and crack cocaine for himself in an incident that allegedly occurred about nine years ago. The named alleged partner makes his charges public, agrees to a polygraph and files a lawsuit reiterating the charges and accusing the candidate of harassment and intimidation. The candidate refuses to deny the allegations.

Presidential candidate B is accused by unnamed sources of having a romantic interest in a female lobbyist in the same year. There are no specific allegations of sexual or drug-related incidents. Both the candidate and the lobbyist adamantly deny any untoward activity took place between them.

Yet, for the Big Media, there is no story involving presidential candidate A, but there is a raging mega-story involving candidate B.

I've been a newsman for 30 years. This is what we call a double standard as big, wide and deep as the Grand Canyon, which happens to be in candidate B's home state.

(Column continues below)

Candidate A is Barack Obama. You may not have heard anything about the incident described above. It has been reported in only one news venue – WND.

Candidate B is John McCain. I'm sure you've heard about his relationship with Vicki Iseman. It has been reported in every major news venue, including WND, and was broken in the New York Times.

What's the difference – besides the severity of the charges? I suspect, for the Big Media, the only difference is the candidate.

The Big Media are swooning over Barack Obama. And now that John McCain has all but wrapped up the Republican nomination for the presidency, the Big Media are, predictably, turning on the candidate they wanted all along to oppose the Democrats' anointed one.

If I hadn't watched this kind of thing happen over and over again for the last 30 years in the news business, I would be shocked.

But I have watched it. In fact, it is this kind of duplicity, partisanship and bias that led me to launch WND more than 10 years ago.

I believed it was time for a real media alternative – one that not only had professional journalism standards, but applied them evenly without fear or favoritism.

It is also why I wrote my most recent book, "Stop the Presses! The Inside Story of the New Media Revolution."

It was time, I believed, for Americans to understand the truth about the way they are spoon-fed lies and deception in a shameless effort to manipulate their behavior.

What am I missing about these two stories?

Is there more than meets the eye?

I can ask these questions as an independent journalist who supports neither Obama nor McCain. In fact, I can promise you WND would report both stories regardless of whether I supported either candidate.

That's independent journalism.

That's the American tradition of reporting.

The Big Media may be losing their hammerlock, monopolistic grip on the eyes and ears of the American public, but its bias and double standards are still a threat to the republic.

The American people have a choice – not just about candidate A and candidate B. You also have a choice about media.

I urge you to exercise that choice – while you still have a chance. Because, if the Big Media have their way, they would happily take you back to the days of media monopoly – the days of no choice at all.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Except candidate B is accused of doing it while on government time- involving government (taxpayer) money - with witness's (including his own campaign staff that questioned and made moves to end the relationship) -that concerns exchanging favors for Congressional votes- involving a current Congress that is rife with scandal and corruption- and who is basing the major part of his campaign on fighting the exact thing he is now being accused of doing...... :shock: :wink: :(
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
I wonder if McCain or his "tootsie" will take a polygraph :???:

ELECTION 2008
Obama accuser fails polygraph
Deception indicated in tests on drug, sex charges


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: February 24, 2008
7:58 pm Eastern

© 2008 WorldNetDaily


WASHINGTON – The Minnesota man who accused leading presidential candidate Barack Obama of cocaine use and having sex with him in the back of a limousine nine years ago has reportedly failed two polygraph tests administered by the website WhiteHouse.com.

The tests were administered to Larry Sinclair Friday by Ed Gelb, former president of the American Polygraph Association, according to the site. One dealt with the sex claim and the other with the drug allegation. Deception was indicated in both, the report said.

The complete results and analysis are expected to be released tomorrow.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=57248
 

Cal

Well-known member
Hey, why not ask Bill and Hillary to take polygraphs as well? Oh that's right, they're not accurate enough to be admissable in a court of law...but go ahead and trust the folks at some website with something that could alter the course of a nation.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Cal said:
Hey, why not ask Bill and Hillary to take polygraphs as well? Oh that's right, they're not accurate enough to be admissable in a court of law...but go ahead and trust the folks at some website with something that could alter the course of a nation.

Bill and Hill would blow the machine up walking into the same room.... :wink: :shock:

And I forgot Cal- you only want info that supports your "neocon" Repub idols...
 

Cal

Well-known member
Oldtimer said:
Cal said:
Hey, why not ask Bill and Hillary to take polygraphs as well? Oh that's right, they're not accurate enough to be admissable in a court of law...but go ahead and trust the folks at some website with something that could alter the course of a nation.

Bill and Hill would blow the machine up walking into the same room.... :wink: :shock:

And I forgot Cal- you only want info that supports your "neocon" Repub idols...
McCain is my "neocon" Repub idol? Thanks for enlightening me. :???:
 

cutterone

Well-known member
Throughout the campain and watching some of the news shows yesterday and the today show this morning what I find significant is that there is a double standard for who the media decides who is a viable canidate for the public to vote on. This morning some gal said that Hillary has not been given a fair shake because she is a woman - bull! They almost crowned her in November.
The real sham is that the polictical and media circus is alot like American Idol. Even Nader, who really is not the alternative canidate choice, will not be given any respect as a canidate by the media soley based on his views and platforms. Paul and others, even Huckleberry who is still running doesn't get mentioned. No real substance about the issues - it's a popularity padgent!
What has really came out of this campain is that there is no real canidate left out there on either side (R&D) with any subtance, honesty, and loyality to the America - only the party bosses and corporate business.
This campain has really exposed the worst of politics and the media.
As I've said before, that no one individual who will become President will make changes - it takes a complete cooperative initative by the President, his administration, and congress to move things in a corrective direction. The real double standard is what is good for politics and what is good for the country and citizens.
The Proof ?? Immigration is the biggest root of evil to most all of the issues facing this country. There are 12000 ++ illegal immigrants using housing, flooding the medical system, school systems, taking jobs, draining the government tills for care, sending earned dollars back to the Mexican economy, creating a drain to the law enforcement sector, and driving more autos creating more emmissions just mention a few problems. We have had to spend more tax dollars creating ways to deal and take care of them than spend on citizen issues. Yet very little attention with any substance has been voiced by the "popular accepted canidates" that would be willing to take a stance of real corrective action for fear of loosing the latino vote.
There will be no change - only a different car in the garage.
 

fff

Well-known member
These people are out of business this year and they've been hiring their workers legally.

For Circus Chimera, the show won’t go on

In Jim Judkins’ Rio Hondo backyard, trailers of circus equipment sit locked and immobile, monkeys curl their fingers around the bars of a metal cage, a massive tent — the big top itself — is furled and stored behind a row of unused generators.

“Circus Chimera — Coming soon,” reads a spray painted sign on a trailer’s broadside.

Judkins laughs. No circus, he says, is coming to Brownsville in the near future.

Because of recent changes in the United States’ temporary-work visa program, Judkins had to cancel Circus Chimera’s itinerary for the first time in its 10-year history.

Like most circuses, Circus Chimera is dependent on seasonal workers from outside the U.S. All 51 of the company’s non-performing members, whose jobs range from setting up benches to selling tickets, are from Mexico.

When the provision for returning workers with previous H-2B visas expired in September, Judkins was not able to secure a temporary work visa for a single worker. These jobs, he says, could not be filled by an American workforce, leaving the circus with no choice but to cease operation.

Since 1990, the H-2B visa program has granted a maximum of 66,000 visas annually to seasonal laborers from outside of the U.S. Demand for these visas steadily increased since the program’s conception. When the cap was reached for the first time in 2004, leaving many employers in crisis, legislators acted quickly to create another avenue for temporary workers.

In 2005, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., and Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest, R-Md., introduced the “Save Our Small and Seasonal Businesses Act of 2005.” The act exempted temporary seasonal workers who had participated in the H-2B visa program during one of the previous three fiscal years and abided by all its rules — including returning to their country of origin — from counting towards the cap.

But on Sept. 30, the act expired, leaving a shortage of visas for South Texas’ entertainment, shrimping and tourism industries.

Judkins, who in addition to his duties at Circus Chimera handles temporary work visas for more than 30 carnivals and circuses across the country, helped submit applications for 3,000 H-2B visas this year. Not a single one was granted, devastating not only Circus Chimera, but operations as large as the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, which attracts nearly 2 million visitors per year.

“The (Houston show) will probably go on this year, but it will be significantly slimmer than it has been in previous years,” said John Meredith, of Meredith Advocacy Group, who works with the amusement industry in Washington D.C.

Brownsville’s annual February circus, which has attracted approximately 15,000 visitors for the last 10 years according to Circus Chimera, has already been cancelled.

“Those of us who have been working with the program for almost 20 years, making sure that everything is legal — we are going to be badly hurt,” Judkins said.

According to Judkins and Meredith, the circus industry’s most significant disadvantage is its schedule. Employers may only begin applying for H-2B visas 120 days before work will begin. Because circuses and carnivals tour late in the visa-granting season, the businesses get a late start in applying for temporary work visas. The 66,000 available visas had already been depleted by October, when circuses were first able to begin the application process for the 2008 season.

In late October, Judkins began making phone calls to his employees to inform them of the bad news. Without a 2008 tour, he was forced to tell his Mexican and American employees that their jobs had been lost.

He called the company’s office in Oklahoma and fired seven full-time employees.

He called homes in Veracruz, Mexico and explained to more than 50 men and women that they should begin looking for new jobs.

“It was hard to do,” Judkins said. “These people had done everything right. They work hard and they go home.”

Judkins’ workers make a $100 deposit at the beginning of the season, and get the money back only after they’ve returned to their home country. Of the 3,000 workers he helps bring over ever year, he estimates that 30 “disappear” after the season ends.

“I’ve never thought about staying after my visa expires,” said Isauro Collo Apodaca, who has worked in the circus industry on temporary visas since 1991. “I work in the U.S. to earn money for my family, and I return to Veracruz to deliver it.”

Last year, Apodaco earned $550 per week with Circus Chimera, most of which he sent back to his mother and children in Mexico. This year, because he was unable to secure a visa, he is working part-time for a construction company in Veracruz, earning $230 per week.

“My family was dependent on that income,” he said. “Now we are hurting.”

Judkins, who studied classics and political science at Haverford College before taking a full-time position at a Pennsylvania circus in 1978, has devoted much of his past year to defending his industry’s position in the H-2B visa debate. He has flown back and forth between Brownsville and Washington D.C., where he has made several allies in Congress, including Rep. Solomon P. Ortiz.

Industries in South Texas are deeply affected by the ongoing issue of the expiration of the H-2B visas, particularly those who work in shrimping, entertainment, and tourism, all staples of the South Texas economy,” Ortiz wrote in a prepared statement. “That is why I have co-sponsored legislation (with Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan) that would exempt returning guest workers on H-2B visas from being counted against the overall H-2B cap.”
Although Judkins has become, as he calls himself, “the de-facto lightning rod for the H-2B issue,” he is looking forward to resuming a less political livelihood.

“I miss watching the show,” he said. “I miss listening to people clap and bringing happiness to the cities we visit.”
 

fff

Well-known member
cutterone said:
Press 1 for English

Cute. But seven (7) full time employees are out of jobs. Dozens of small towns will not have their circus this year. Business in those towns will lose business because people don't come into town to see the circus, cutting their revenue and the city/country sales tax revenues.

Probably hundreds of towns will be affected because it's not just this one small circus that won't take to the road this year because they can't get legal workers.
 

cutterone

Well-known member
Well by American math that's only 7 of 11,993 + others that are out of jobs by illeagal immigrants.
My guess is that if the govt says 12,000 it's most likely closer to 24,000.

But -
If 12,000 earn a wage of say $280/wk that's $336 million and if they send 50% back to Mexico that's $168 million/week that does not go into our economy while they drain all the serivce providers and govt tills.

Check the local newpapers and see what % of police calls and court dockets have latino names.

If of those 12,000 1/3 drive an auto for an average of 30 miles/day and get an average of 15mpg that's 8000 gals of gas/day of consumption.

If of those 12,000 if 1 in 100 visits a emergency room / day that's 120 spaces/day that legal citizens have to wait for and if the average cost of that visit is for $300 that's $36,000 absorbed by the medical system and government.

California is building a new school at the rate of 1 new school / day to accomidate the expansion growth of new students - mainly latino.
 

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