Crush Liberalism

Pink slips in the Inbox?

No, this isn’t an article about Barney Frank’s fashion tastes. It’s about a personnel move from Radio Shack that is, to say the least, pretty damned dehumanizing. From Breitbart/AP:

RadioShack Corp. notified about 400 workers by e-mail that they were being dismissed immediately as part of planned job cuts.

Employees at the Fort Worth headquarters got messages Tuesday morning saying: “The work force reduction notification is currently in progress. Unfortunately, your position is one that has been eliminated.”

Company officials had told employees in a series of meetings that layoff notices would be delivered electronically, spokeswoman Kay Jackson said. She said employees were invited to ask questions before Tuesday’s notification on a company intranet site.

Derrick D’Souza, a management professor at the University of North Texas, said he had never heard of such a large number of terminated employees being notified electronically. He said it could be seen as dehumanizing to employees.

“If I put myself in their shoes, I’d say, ‘Didn’t they have a few minutes to tell me?’” D’Souza said.

While I do not dispute the legality of this move by Radio Shack, I guess I’m still from a different era when it comes to human resources. I think that if you’re going to lay people off (or just flat out fire them), bring them in and let them know face-to-face. If you fear some kind of confrontation, then have security in there. A little decency in such a sensitive situation doesn’t seem to be too much to expect…does it?

August 30, 2006 Posted by crushliberalism | Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

UN "demands" of Israel?

Kofi Annan “renewed his demands Wednesday that Israel immediately lift its sea and air blockade of Lebanon.”

Israel said “Kiss my tuchus!“

Notice how Kofi seems more concerned with Israel abiding by the “cease-fire agreement” than he is with the Lezbos abiding by the same deal? If Israel doesn’t watch it, she may find out the hard way that the UN will enforce its resolutions with the same famous iron-fist approach to which we’re accustomed from them! For those of you on the left, the prior sentence was sarcasm.

August 30, 2006 Posted by crushliberalism | Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Kennedrunk laments Bush reaction to Katrina

From the moonbatosphere:

Americans still remember vividly the scenes from a year ago when Hurricane Katrina swept away entire communities, sent thousands of families for shelter in the Super Dome, and left hundreds of thousands more homeless and jobless. Americans throughout the land were moved to help in any way they could – sending donations and aid and volunteering to meet the needs of our fellow citizens. We responded because that’s what Americans do. We care for our country, help our neighbors, and lend a hand to those in need.

However, as we all painfully know, the Administration did not live up to those values in our government’s response to the crisis. Our fellow citizens were facing the worst devastation imaginable, and FEMA was nowhere to be found. The President stayed on his Texas ranch for days after the storm. Instead of joining local leaders in responding to the tragedy, he chose to fly over New Orleans for a brief look from Air Force One, well above the suffering below.

Are my eyes deceiving me, or is Uncle Teddy accusing Bush of…pulling a Chappaquiddick?

Kennedy is lamenting the suffering of people “below” while Bush did nothing, pondering his options, walking along the streets (or, in this case, flying the skies) while impervious to the plight of the submerged? This Chivas-induced chutzpah is quite a sight to behold!

August 30, 2006 Posted by crushliberalism | Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

MSM knew there was no Plame crime, but didn’t care

The damage from the Plamegate non-affair has been done, thanks to the willing accomplices of the left…aka the MSM. As the Godfather notes:

Real damage to real people, to a real country, during time of war, and it was done on purpose, and I cannot stress this enough. The whole thing is scandalous to me. It reeks of a purposeful fraud because these people that are reporting all of this about Bush and Cheney and Rove and Scooter Libby had to know that it was Armitage, they had to know.

They couldn’t possibly not know, not during the whole two-year period. They might not have known during the first four months, but at some point during this they had to know that it was Armitage and yet it didn’t matter, didn’t fit the template. So cast it aside. Armitage isn’t talking so what do we got to lose by reporting that it’s Rove or that Fitzgerald thinks it’s Rove or that Fitzgerald is going to indict Rove?
…
But there is an interesting story here by our old buddy Nedra Pickler in the Associated Press. This is the last little bit here on the Plamegate story. “Karl Rove was not ‘frog-marched’ out of the White House in handcuffs as his detractors had hoped, but the past year was certainly a low point for President Bush’s close friend and chief political strategist.” Why? Why was it a low point? Nothing Rove did made it a low point. Not one darn thing that Rove did made it a low point, Nedra. You had a bona fide media scandal here that targeted people who had nothing to do with it, and most of you in the Drive-By Media knew it all along.

“A criminal investigation put Rove under scrutiny for months, then he was forced to surrender a key policy role in a move that raised questions about his authority in the White House. Rove fell under a legal cloud after a grand jury began investigating the leak.” That just infuriates me. The investigation was pointless as well! The investigation — you know what? There would not have been a crime were it not for the investigation! The only crime in this whole thing, unless you want to say Armitage committed one. (laughing) The only crime occurred as a result of the investigation which should not have happened in the first place once the justice department found out it was Armitage. What’s the point? Why go any further with it?

The whole thing was who leaked her name to Novak. Answer: Richard Armitage and his buddy, Colin Powell. I would love to know his involvement in this, too. I really would. You know, Armitage is the kind of guy that would take a bullet. But I, ladies and gentlemen, am not going to speculate about things I don’t know. I’m sharing my curiosity with you, but I am making no claims. This whole thing is ridiculous. It is worse than an example of how the media can poison the minds of the population. Staking out Karl Rove at his home, following him home from the White House, seeing if he stopped off at a phone booth, you know, change into the Superman suit and go destroy somebody else at the CIA or what have you, all the while the people doing the investigation knew it was Armitage!

How soon until the MSM and the left (pardon the redundancy) demand that Armitage be “frog-marched” out in handcuffs, hmm?

Ray Robison illustrates how the damage had been done:

But what was the real damage and is it calculable? Interestingly enough, there are numbers that show what the damage was to the President’s credibility. Polling Report has a page devoted to the Plame leak case. Let’s review:

ABC/Washington Post asked in September of 2003:

“The U.S. Justice Department has opened an investigation into whether someone in the White House broke the law by identifying a former diplomat’s wife as an undercover CIA agent. The former diplomat claims this was done to punish him for criticizing U.S. policy on Iraq. Have you heard or read anything about this situation, or not?”

09/03 Yes- 68% No – 32%

So over two-thirds of American’s had heard the allegation. Now compare that to the recent survey that indicated how few people could name two SCOTUS justices at only 24%. I bet Ford and Coca-Cola would love that kind of market exposure.

So how effective was the marketing of this lie? The same poll asked:

“Just your best guess, how likely or unlikely do you think it is that someone in the White House leaked this classified information: very likely, somewhat likely, somewhat unlikely or very unlikely?”
Very Likely – 34%
Somewhat Likely – 38%
Somewhat Unlikely – 13%
Very Unlikely – 10%
No Opinion – 5%

That’s right, the reporting was so damning that 72% of American’s indicated they believed the White House did it. Close to three-quarters of the United States populace were duped by the media reporting that the Bush Administration had done it in retaliation.
…
So 78% of Americans heard that George Bush personally leaked documents to undermine war critics. Of course, the fact that it is not a leak since the President has de-classification authority was not included in the question. The really interesting part is now that we know for sure that the administration didn’t go after Plame, how did people determine that these documents indicated the President did it? In other words, they were all just going off media reports that were wrong.
…
A phenomenal 63% of the public believed the President acted at least unethically based on mainstream media reporting.
…
…Another CNN poll reported that only a staggering 10% of the public believed the Bush administration was innocent on this matter.

Now contrast this to coverage of the Lewinski scandel in which President Clinton actually admitted to committing wrongdoing (eventually). Polling report

“As a result of his actions in the Monica Lewinsky investigation, do you think Bill Clinton should lose his license to practice law, or should he keep his license to practice law?”

58% of respondents indicated in May of 2000 that a lawyer should keep his law license even after committing perjury.

This is a phenomenal indicator of the power of the media to create a news story, form the reporting template, and hammer it in until it becomes ingrained as fact. Of course, it goes without saying the media owes some balanced coverage to offset the political damage the Plame affair created. Riiiiggghhhtttt.

Not holding my breath for that kind of balance, Ray.

Nope…no liberal media bias!

August 30, 2006 Posted by crushliberalism | Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

How to "fast" properly

From Indepundit, talking with a Code Pinko:

Next, I ask Carrie how she’s coping on her “Troops Home Fast” hunger strike. (audio)

“So, the last time I ate was on the Third of July…”
“Hungry?”

“…No, not really. I’m occasionally a little bored with fruit juice and water. And I also allow myself, occasionally, wine or some beer. A couple of nights ago, it was Amelia’s birthday, and we were down on the Eastern Shore, and they were eating lobster and soft-shell crab. I had beer… (laughs) and water.”

I never realized one could drink beer during a hunger strike.

I might have to try that sometime.

Commenter Skul (who leaves great comments here, too) made the following humorous comment:

“Dang!! I’m starting my hunger strike just as soon as I get home from work. Oh boy!”

Happy Hour = Fasting…cool!

August 30, 2006 Posted by crushliberalism | Uncategorized | Leave a Comment