Associated Press not so into this whole "journalism" thing

You heard it here first: Barack Obama's inauguration "could" cost $350 billion dollars. There. I just scooped the AP, at least by the shoddy standards of what they consider journalism lately.

Media Matters is reporting on the Obama inauguration cost "nontroversy" at their website. It seems outlets like Fox News, the New York Daily News and London's Daily Mail have been getting their neocon panties in a twist over the cost of Obama's inauguration, which they are reporting "could" cost as much as $160 million dollars, making it the "most expensive ever." They don't, naturally, give any sources, backup or reasoning for that number, but they do compare it to the $42.3 million the soon-to-be-thankfully-departed Dubster spent on his second inauguration. But, as Media Matters points out, the $42.3 million figure does not include security costs. Since no "news" outlet has given a rationale for the $160M figure, no one knows what's included in that, but Media Matters reports that, for the inauguration to cost anywhere near $160M, security costs must be included in that number. So if we compare apples to apples and add the security costs of the 2005 inauguration to the $42.3 million figure, the total for the Dub's second ceremony comes to $157 million. Awfully damn close to $160 million, no?

Now, I never trust anything I hear from outlets like Faux News, so I'm not particularly outraged by their latest right-wing-propaganda-disguised-as-news campaign. But what does make me mad is that the Associated Press has jumped in on this clusterfuck. In a schlock piece filed by Matt Apuzzo, the AP reports that the cost of "Obama's inauguration gala is expected to break records" and goes on to quote "some estimates" at $150 million. The piece quotes no sources and gives no indication of how it verified that this was an accurate estimate, except to say that it included "massive" security costs. So not only is this shoddy reporting, the assertion is just plain wrong: if the inauguration costs $150 million, as they "report," it wouldn't even "break the record" of $157 million set by Dubya in 2005. The AP has taken a non-story fabricated by right-wing partisans and is reporting it without any effort to verify it or even get their facts straight. Death. Of. Journalism.

So I'll do the AP one better and tell you how I got to my number. Barack Obama has said that, once inaugurated, he'll move to immediately start using the $350 billion in bailout money. So his inauguration will end up costing the country $350 billion. Crazy logic, I know, but at least there is some logic behind my number, unlike the made up, fake controversy figure that the AP has been spreading far and wide. Liberal media, my ass.

Hail to the (Outgoing) Idiot-in-Chief

Tonight in his "farewell address," the Dubster said:

"You may not agree with some of the tough decisions I have made, but I hope you can agree that I was willing to make the tough decisions."

Which is kind of like saying "you might not agree with the things I did, but I hope you'll agree I did things."

It'll be so nice to have a President who sounds presidential again. Heck, it'll be nice to have a President who sounds like he graduated from the eighth grade.

Dubya calls for new taxes on working people

Nice work, Dubster. I didn't see the State of the Union last night (I was at my writing group), but I woke up this morning to learn that Bush is an even BIGGER enemy of working people then I thought. He's proposing to TAX working people on the health insurance they receive from their employers, if the employer pays over a certain level. So people whose employers do the right thing and buy them quality health insurance will get a tax penalty. As I said, nice work.

I'm all for creating a tax deduction for people to buy their own health insurance. In fact, I think all healthcare costs should be tax deductible. But you don't pay for that new deduction by penalizing workers for having good, responsible employers! How about just rolling back a small fraction of the billions of dollars of tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires that were instituted earlier in the administration?

But that would mean he would actually be helping working people. And he'd hate to do that.