• Criminals,  Liberal Morons,  Media,  Media Bias,  Morons,  Politics

    Air America Scandel: Inside Air America, An Investigative Blog Report Part Two

    AAR/Scandal graphic by Darleen Click

    Michelle Malkin and Brian Maloney have collaborated and published an investigative piece on the Air America Scandel involving the misappropriation and theft of $875,000 from an inner city New York Boys and Girls Club.

    Read all of the piece, INSIDE AIR AMERICA: AN INVESTIGATIVE BLOG REPORT PART TWO here.

    Brian Maloney and I take a close look at the financial plans of Sheldon and Anita Drobny, the deep-pocketed, far left Illinois Democrat couple who dreamed up Air America and have been involved in its many strange and dubious business reorganizations. The key questions that curious radio industry veterans, financial observers, skeptical investors, and business reporters should be asking Air America:

    What is Nova M? And why now?

    There may be an easy explanation for Nova M. It will be the replacement company for Air America Radio after Piquant LLC files for bankruptcy.

    Of course, the poor kids at Gloria Wise will never be repaid and the federal government will now after exposure of this scandel search out, indict and convict Evan Cohen and the rest of his cohorts for various federal crimes. Then, the New York authorities will file their charges.

    Nova M will be the purchaser of the bankrupt assets of Air America Radio.

    A shell game, you betcha.

    What do you have to say Al Franken?

    Michelle Malkin has more on the tardiness of the New York Times in reporting this scandel here.

    Others weigh in about the hesitiancy to report his story or the outright biased coverage:

    Ed Morrissey:

    If the Times wants us to believe that it objectively reports the news, especially that which occurs in its own back yard, then we expect to see some in-depth coverage of the apparent fraud involving Piquant Media, Progress Media, Air America, and Gloria Wise, and not just a bloodless regurgitation of facts already well known to anyone with an Internet connection.

    Medicarity:

    Barney whipped out his Sherlock Holmes hat and magnifying glass, conducted a thorough investigation, and found that the Times is not a liberal newspaper! Yup, here are his exact words: “There’s another reason to get to the bottom of the scandal. It’s the perception problem — a perception of liberal bias for which I haven’t found any evidence after checking with editors at the paper.”

    Reassuring, isn’t it? Liberal bias at the Times does not exist. It is a “perception” problem “inspired by conservative bloggers.” It is all in your imagination. The Great Oz has spoken! Besides, Calame has proof. He called the editors who ignored the Air America story, and they denied that liberal bias was the reason. So the Times is not liberal. Time to go back to the divan.

    Thomas Lifson at The American Thinker:

    Mediacrity is justifiably stunned that he cannot uncover any evidence of bias. But I also find it stunning that he admits his search for bias consists of asking the editors. They will never admit their bias because they don’t see it. And neither does Calame.

    ***
    Leon H. at Macho Nachos:

    Yet more activity from the Drobnys that skates right on the borderline of legal and illegal, and wanders squarely into the territory of slimy. I don’t want to belabor the point that Brian has already hammered home with great efficiency, but this Nova M maneuver is the most Enron-esque move we’ve seen from the Drobnys and their Air America partners, yet. Switch the name “Drobny” with “Fastow” and you’ve got something straight out of Conspiracy of Fools. Will Al Franken condemn this shell game maneuvering?

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  • Media,  Media Bias,  Politics

    Cindy Sheehan Watch: Sick Mother Forces Cindy to Leave Crawford

    The ASSociated Press has ‘Peace Mom,’ Her Mother Ill, Leaves Camp.

    The grieving woman who started an anti-war demonstration near President Bush’s ranch nearly two weeks ago left the camp Thursday after learning her mother had had a stroke, but she told supporters the protest would go on.

    Cindy Sheehan told reporters she had just received the phone call and was leaving immediately to be with her 74-year-old mother at a Los Angeles hospital.

    “I’ll be back as soon as possible if it’s possible,” she said. After hugging some of her supporters, Sheehan and her sister, Deedee Miller, got in a van and left for the Waco airport about 20 miles away.

    Michelle Mulkey, a spokeswoman for Sheehan, said Sheehan hoped to be back in Texas within 24 to 48 hours. Mulkey said Sheehan’s mother, Shirley Miller, was in a hospital emergency room and Sheehan didn’t yet know how serious her condition was.

    The Cause Celeb of the anti-war Left most probably will be back in Crawford soon.

    How can the press give this crackpot so much attention?

    Sheehan and the other demonstrators have camped in ditches along the road to Bush’s ranch since Aug. 6. After complaints from some neighbors, they planned to start moving the camp site Thursday and Friday to a private one-acre lot owned by Fred Mattlage, who opposes the war and offered his property to give them more room and safety.

    FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley and Sen. Becky Lourey, a Minnesota lawmaker whose son died in Iraq, were expected to join the demonstrators later Thursday.

    But, where is the darlin’ of the Democrats Hillary Clinton?

    Why does she not come down to Crawford to support Cindy?

    Where is Joe Biden?

    And….. where is Howard Dean who was an anti-war candidate for President?

    Why is the mainstream Democrat Party shunning these anti-war activists?

    Flap and all of you know the answer.

    Actor Richard Dreyfuss holds up a sign at a candlelight vigil in the North Hollywood area of Los Angeles on August 17, 2005. Anti-war protesters held candles, sang, and chanted in vigils across the country on Wednesday in support of Cindy Sheehan, who has camped out near President George W. Bush’s ranch to urge him to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq, where her son was killed a year ago. Sheehan has become a magnet for anti-war protesters who have crowded around her since her vigil began on August 6 in Crawford, a community of 705 people, where Bush is on a month-long vacation.

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  • Business

    Re/Max Real Estate WebSite to Show All U.S. Listings

    The Los Angeles Times has a piece today, Re/Max Site to Show All U.S. Listings.

    The nation’s second-largest real estate brokerage is expected to announce today a plan to pool all U.S. residential property listings on its website, a move that would create a formidable national competitor to industry-backed Realtor.com.

    The move by Re/Max International Inc. also could eventually help reduce consumers’ costs of buying and selling homes, as competition with other Web-based brokerages heats up.

    This is a great move for homebuyers for it will give them real time information. No more opening up the newspaper to look at too many ads and never find the home(s) you desire.

    This is good news for homesellers since increased competition for the display and marketing of sales will lower the standard 6% commission here in California. No need to pay for print advertising and other marketing tools when your property will have high visibility.

    This is BAD news for newspapers, especially local and regional ones who sell real estate print advertising.

    Online real estate companies and consumer advocates have long complained about the real estate industry’s efforts to limit access to property listings on the Internet. They see it as an attempt to thwart competition from Web-based upstarts, which typically charge lower commissions or charge referral fees.

    The issue has attracted the attention of federal antitrust officials, who have been investigating the online policy of the industry’s powerful trade group, the National Assn. of Realtors, which gives its members the right to withhold their listings from online brokerages.

    But Re/Max, which has supported the trade group’s policy, will announce today that it will compete head-on with online companies and create a national database that would include any property listing, whether it is a Re/Max listing or not.

    “It’s a very big positive for consumers,” said Steve Murray, an industry consultant and editor of the trade newsletter Real Trends. “With competition and with more choice, my bet is this will lead to more efficient pricing.”

    Indeed.

    H/T: Hugh Hewitt

  • Arnold Schwarzenegger,  California,  Politics,  Special Election 2005

    Bob Hertzberg to Broker a Compromise on California Special Election?

    Dan Weintraub interviewing former California Assembly Speaker and L.A. Mayoral candidate Bob Hertzberg, listening in is Patterico.

    The San Jose Mercury News has Democrat is drafted to broker ballot talks.

    In a last-ditch effort to strike a deal with legislators and avoid a divisive fall campaign, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has turned to Democrat Bob Hertzberg to help broker a compromise.

    The former Assembly speaker who served on Schwarzenegger’s transition team has injected new life into the negotiations over the Nov. 8 special election and several of the eight initiatives on it, according to sources familiar with them, and spurred talk of an agreement that aims to modify term limits.

    Is Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger getting SQUISHY again?

    Is he lacking the political will to proceed with an election which he has already won?

    A legislative compromise could forestall a costly battle over issues including measures to limit state spending, undercut public-employee unions’ campaign funds and redraw legislative and congressional districts.

    The talks involve the Republican governor, Hertzberg, administration Finance Director Tom Campbell and Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles.

    “The fact that Hertzberg’s in the room means that these are serious talks,” said Dan Schnur, a GOP strategist who worked for former Gov. Pete Wilson. “Probably no one in the state of California is better equipped to get both Schwarzenegger and Núñez to find any common ground. He’s one of the few people that both Schwarzenegger and Núñez trust.”

    “Conversations ebb and flow,” said Margita Thompson, the governor’s press secretary. “It’s a dynamic situation.”

    The Governator should concentrate on raising campaign cash and come out guns ablazing!

    He really has little choice without alienating his conservative Republican base.

    The deal could temper term limits to allow lawmakers to serve 12 years total in one of the Legislature’s two houses, instead of being restricted to six years in the Assembly and eight in the Senate. In exchange for the governor’s support for that change, which would have to be passed by the state’s voters, Democrats would back a rewritten redistricting measure to protect it from court challenges — one that would give redistricting power to a panel of retired judges instead of the Legislature.

    Talks also center on education spending, the provisions of the Schwarzenegger “Live Within Our Means” initiative that would limit spending and whether to give the governor authority to cut the budget midyear.

    Still, some lawmakers and legislative observers said they remain skeptical any deal can win approval from both Republicans and Democrats.

    And time is running out. Today is the deadline for the Legislature to put any more measures on the special-election ballot, but it could vote to place them on a supplemental ballot — at an added cost to taxpayers — as late as Sept. 2.

    A deal to change the term limits law would not curry favor with the people of California who have not supported the change in any recent poll.

    Also, the Governor should make the Democrats run on opposing Proposition 77 and explain the blatant Democrat gerrymander to the voters.

    Any late back-room deals brokered by Democrat and Former California Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg or anyone would break the Governor’s moral authority of reform for holding the special election, lead to a splintering of his coalition, hurt his fundraising efforts, alienate already mistrustful conservatives and make him look a GIRLIE- MAN.

    Bring on the election, Governor.

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    Cross-posted to the Bear Flag League Special Election Page