Posted on December 29th, 2008 by Walter Brasch
The New York Yankees just bought a first baseman for $180 million. For the next eight years, Mark Teixeira will earn about $22.5 million a season. The week before, the Yanks bought seven years of pitcher CC Sabathia’s life for $161 million, about $23 million a season—and five years of A.J. Burnett for $82.5 million, [...]
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Filed under: Consumers, Credit Crisis, Economy, In The News, Movies, Sports, TV, Walter Brasch
Posted on December 21st, 2008 by Walter Brasch
WANDERINGS, with Walter Brasch
December 19, 2008
brasch@bloomu.edu
by Walter Brasch
The chairman of the Republican National Committee may have begun an irreversible descent into a future as a fear-bound paranoid victim of functional amnesia, possibly caused by a hysterical post-traumatic event such as the overwhelming victory of Democrats in the 2008 election and the nation’s [...]
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Filed under: In The News
Posted on December 8th, 2008 by Walter Brasch
by Walter Brasch
Congress should bend over, dig into the public coffers once again, and give the auto industry everything it wants—even though 61 percent of Americans oppose a bailout, according to a CNN/Opinion Research poll.
A couple of weeks ago, CEOs from GM, Ford, and Chrysler, known collectively as the Big 3, revved up their corporate [...]
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Filed under: In The News
Posted on November 30th, 2008 by Walter Brasch
My local newspaper editor, as he does regularly, once again attacked unions as the problem in America. This is the same editor who once said “all the laziest goof-offs and goldbricks in the newsroom” where he began his career were union officials—and that the unionized New York Times editorial writers are nothing more than [...]
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Filed under: In The News
Posted on November 21st, 2008 by Walter Brasch
by Walter Brasch
President Bush, as has every president since his father began the practice in 1989, annually pardons a Thanksgiving turkey.
Amid hundreds of spectators, most of them members of the media, the president makes a few cute comments, issues a pardon for the turkey and a “runner-up” (in case the Main Bird [...]
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Filed under: In The News
Posted on November 14th, 2008 by Walter Brasch
by Walter Brasch
During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama was called mentally unstable; his supporters were called unpatriotic. At Sarah Palin rallies, in newspaper letters-to-the-editor, on conservative radio and TV talk shows, supporters spewed hatreds, resorting to the Bush tactics of fear mongering to support their own candidate.
At many rallies, the word “kill” was often [...]
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Filed under: In The News
Posted on October 29th, 2008 by Walter Brasch
by Rosemary and Walter Brasch
There are a lot of scary things in this world, but one of the scariest is that Halloween and the Presidential election are only five days apart. It’s hard to miss the parallel between tricks-and-treats and the promises-and-panderings of politicians masquerading as the most caring, most vital, most sincere candidate. While [...]
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Filed under: In The News
Posted on October 25th, 2008 by Walter Brasch
by Walter Brasch
It’s a little more than a week before the presidential election, and I’m worried about what happens afterwards. I’m not worried about the candidates, the people, or the country. I’m worried about the media.
First, I’m worried about the TV ad salespeople. For more than a year they haven’t had to do much other [...]
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Filed under: Election '08, Gov. Sarah Palin, In The News, John McCain '08, McCain-Palin '08, News Media, Presidential Election, Walter Brasch
Posted on October 20th, 2008 by Walter Brasch
by Walter Brasch
During the final debate last week, Barack Obama called John McCain on the negative ads, saying that 100 percent of his radio and TV ads were negative. Not true, replied McCain. True, according to the Advertising Project at the University of Wisconsin. Almost every ad in a one-week period before the debate was [...]
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Filed under: Barack Obama '08, Bush Admin, Campaign Ad, Colin Powell, Election '08, General Election, In The News, John McCain '08, News Media, Presidential Election, Walter Brasch
Posted on October 12th, 2008 by Walter Brasch
by Walter Brasch
The Sunbird Conservatives, a student group, put out some pro-McCain literature at a recruiting table at Fresno Pacific University a week ago.
Seemed innocent enough. The conservatives weren’t harassing anyone, nor were they blocking any sidewalks.
But, administrators at this Christian-based college didn’t like it. A dean told the students to either [...]
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Filed under: In The News
Posted on October 4th, 2008 by Walter Brasch
by Walter Brasch
The vice-presidential debates proved one thing. At the very least, Sarah Palin can be trained.
For several days, she had camped out in one of John McCain’s Arizona houses, where she underwent Debate Boot camp conducted by drill instructors who make Marine DIs appear to be slaggers.
With a few “darns,” “betchas,” and “ya”s, Palin [...]
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Filed under: Afghanistan, Alaska, Barack Obama '08, Bush Admin, Congress, Economy, Election '08, Energy, Environment, Global Warming, Gov. Sarah Palin, Healthcare, In The News, International, Iran, Iraq, John McCain '08, McCain-Palin '08, News Media, Obama-Biden 08, Presidential Debates, Walter Brasch
Posted on September 30th, 2008 by Walter Brasch
The Republican leaders of the House of Representatives grabbed a half dozen bags of sincerity, looked directly into every TV camera they could find, and lied.
The House had just defeated, 228–205, a bipartisan $700 billion bailout bill. But it was the Democrats who were the subject of vicious rhetoric.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) [...]
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Filed under: Barack Obama '08, Bush Admin, Congress, Consumers, Credit Crisis, Democrats, Economy, Election '08, George W. Bush, House of Reps, In The News, John McCain '08, Politics, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Republicans, Wall Street, Walter Brasch
