We Are Americans II

I was at the bank today. Doing my business at the ATM machine, behind me played a talk radio show. They were talking about Judge Sotomayor from a transistor speaker.
The portly guard was glued to it. He said she might not make it, and I remarked that it was moot. The Latina judge was going to slide right on through. Sixty votes is sixty votes. The fix is in.
He said, “I don’t like the way things are going.”
I said, “You know, neither do I. Yet, all I see is people carping on message boards and whining on talk radio. The question is whose going to do something about this. Well what are you doing about it? What am I? When the hell are we going to stand up, get off our couches and organize?”
The guy kinda nodded in the way one would when confronted with a relative who he wished would go back to the food table.
I get e-mail and Facebook stuff all week about how bad it’s getting. Okay. Fine. So what the hell are we going to do about it?
Do you know what we are up against?
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now or ACORN.
Am I wrong?
I won’t go totally into it save to provide these links:
Inside Obama’s ACORN

More ACORN Voter Fraud Comes To Light:
ACORN”S PATTERN

What Is Acorn?

I’ll tell you the God’s honest truth, here kids, it’s Paul Revere Time.
ACORN is going to run the census. We are going to have to have political meetings along the lines of Amway meetings. That’s how we won in 1980: People in neighborhoods sick of our “malaise.”
We are going to have to put down this whole Republican/Democrat thing.
Now!
It’s not working out.
I am calling for the American Party to replace the two. The platform is simple: Low taxes, drilling for oil, encouragement for individual entrepreneurship, pride in our uniqueness, slam the door on illegal immigration by whatever lawful means, an incredibly reduced federal government, a strong military, a balanced budget, and a strict constructionist court system.
Why is this considered right wing?
What part of this is hate?
We are allowing these people our minds if not our hearts.
Take it back. Say no! Say Enough!
Things are going to going to get tough, but as David Crosby said, “You know the darkest hour is just before the dawn.”
There is a book coming to infect the far left already feeling empowered by the election of Obama.
It’s called “The Coming Insurrection.”
Publisher’s description: in the wake of the riots that erupted throughout the Paris suburbs in the fall of 2005 and presaging more recent riots and general strikes in France and Greece, The Coming Insurrection articulates a rejection of the official Left and its reformist agenda, aligning itself instead with the younger, wilder forms of resistance that have emerged in Europe around recent struggles against immigration control and the “war on terror.”
Coming soon to a theater near you.
We still have time to take this country back.
It’s time we did. I call for the American Party formulation.
We can do it.
We are Americans.

Elizabeth: Death to Radio?

Radio stations around the country are in a panic. The ‘Performance Rights Act’ is pending in the House and Senate and has the potential to force local stations to reduce staff, at the very least, or to go dark, at the very worst. It seems after 80 years, record companies have found a copyright loophole. This ‘Act’ is essentially a tax that would require all AM/FM stations to pay fees to performers and record companies.

The thinking has always been that it was a perfectly symbiotic relationship—free play for free promotion. Makes sense. How many more albums does an artist sell once their music is being played on rotation at hundreds of stations around the country? A Stanford economist estimates that value to be about $1.5- $2.4 billion annually in music sales.

Dennis Wharton, an executive VP of the National Association of Broadcasters, says this tax is, “the biggest threat to radio in 50 years” and warned that, “the fee could decimate the radio business.”

Musicians contend that they are hurting, too and feel this boils down to an issue of ‘fairness.’ Artists are complaining they must now perform into their 70’s to continue earning revenue, and the fee would allow them to retire earlier. Problem is, 50% of the performance tax would wind up in the pockets of the record labels—most of which are based overseas.

Radio broadcasters are already experiencing decreases from 10-40% not only because of the economic climate but also because of competition from new media sources. The new tax would cost radio stations hundreds of millions of dollars each year and, obviously would be even more detrimental to non-commercial stations who rely on donations rather than paid advertising.

The good news is that more than 200 lawmakers agree with the opposition and are co-sponsoring, with the N.A.B., the Local Radio Freedom Act declaring opposition to any new performance fee, tax or royalty. Petitions are being worked and most radio stations are addressing the issue on air and on their websites. Of course, Martin Machowsky, a spokesman for the tax initiative believes, “If you look at the level of angst on the other side—the amount of radio airtime they are devoting to this issue…it’s really indicitive of the progress we’re making.”

I, for one, hope that is not the case. I would hate to see the end of an era with the extinction of free radio. If you would like to learn more or lend your support, please visit www.nab.org.