Drudge Headline Misleads on Historic Egyptian Revolution

Drudge Report became one of the infamous alternative media when it started to go after Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Throughout the Bush Administration, it linked articles critical of the administration's policies. During the Obama Administration so far, it has linked articles critical of the administration's policies. It has a conservative leaning, but not "Neocon" Conservative.

But when the ordinary people of all walks of life and religions in Egypt rise up against the dictator heavily favored and supported by the successive US administrations that it's been critical of and these people successfully and peacefully throw him out of office, what does Drudge do?

Earlier, the headline screamed "Military Coup", which is now changed to "Military Takes Command". And it shows a picture of army tanks blocking the street, with a man in Islamic religious garb knelt before the tank to offer his prayers.

Huh?

Yes, there were men in religious (Islamic) clothes, but THEY WERE FAR OUTNUMBERED by people in ordinary, secular clothes. What Drudge Report tries to do is just a blatantly and patently false, cheap trick - to give the impression that the uprising was all about militant Islam agitation, and it ended with the military coup.

It must be extremely difficult to find a picture like Drudge has, among literally millions of photos taken throughout this Revolution and posted and shared all over the Internet.

Shame on you, Drudge. I am disappointed, so much so that I'm thinking of removing the link to Drudge Report from my blog. Aside from the links on Egypt, its headlines these days read more like a tabloid magazine (I guess it' just returning to the origin - Monika Lewinsky scandal...) and news is not fast.

The Egyptian Revolution in the eyes of Drudge Report:


The same Revolution in the eyes of Egyptians on the streets (now how many men like the one on Drudge can you spot?):

The video now has the caption, so you can read what they are singing.

And when they knew they threw Mubarak (and Suleiman) out, they were shouting, singing, crying, dancing, jumping up and down...

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Drudge Headline: "Military Coup in Egypt"

Huh?

Mr. Drudge, your site is slipping. Have you allowed your site to be hijacked by some Gen-X neocon and/or Zionist editors?

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Drudge and Alex Jones 1, Big Sis and Obama 0

November 24 was a National Opt Out Day at the nation's airports in protest against the new TSA sexual harassment aka naked body scans and heavy, intrusive patdowns with a dirty pair of latex gloves.

It was apparently a non-event; no serious disruption was reported. And statist MSM pundits who welcome and support fondling by strangers so that they can feel "secure" say the protesters were a minority paid by Koch brothers to stir up trouble for the hard-working government.

Uh huh.

It turns out that the day was a non-event because the TSA backed down at the busy airports. Naked body scanners were turned off, and intrusive groping was replaced by a regular patdown.

Matt Drudge and Alex Jones won in their relentless campaign against the TSA.

From Infowars.com:

Despite the establishment media presiding over another mass hoax in claiming that Americans were completely happy with invasive airport security measures, contrary to polls showing a majority in opposition, and that the national opt out day was a failure, the fact that the TSA was forced to change its policy by mothballing naked body scanners and curtailing aggressive pat downs clearly goes to show that the man who almost single-handedly drove the issue, Matt Drudge, fought the TSA and he won.

The big networks and the so-called progressive borg hive, who instantly tried to spin the lack of delays at airports over Thanksgiving as proof that the opt-out protest had failed, conveniently failed to mention the fact that major airports across the country had deliberately mothballed their naked body scanners in a crass PR ploy aimed at deflating the momentum behind the demonstration.

Early reports began to pour in from Twitter users who said that body scanner machines were roped off and out of use in airports such as LAX, Seattle, San Jose and Columbus, Ohio. They also said that pat downs had reverted back to the standard procedure and were not the new grope downs that the TSA had announced a couple of weeks before.

The New Jersey Star-Ledger subsequently reported that, “The majority of Newark’s full-body scanners were idle throughout much of the day, depriving most passengers of the chance to opt out of the controversial screening procedure even if they had wanted to.”

At the nation’s busiest airport, Atlanta-Hartsfield, there was,”limited, if any, use of the controversial full-body scanners,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Later reports confirmed that, the TSA had “backed down and resorted to using the old screening procedures — metal detectors and less-intrusive pat-downs.”

...In addition, many people took part in the protest by avoiding airports altogether. Traffic was jammed on the highways, with the Massachusetts Turnpike playing host to a 30-mile hold-up. According to AAA, more drivers were on the road than ever before during a Thanksgiving holiday.

The establishment media echo chamber attempted to pull a hoax by claiming that the vast majority of Americans were completely happy with having their genitals groped by federal goons and naked pictures taken of their children. In reality, after Drudge relentlessly drove the issue, polls of Americans that were previously in support of body scanners had reversed dramatically and the ACLU received an avalanche of new complaints.

Janet Napolitano, aka Big Sis, and Obama have both said that naked body scanners and intrusive patdowns are the only way to prevent terrorist attacks.

Apparently, PR consideration was more important than prevention of terror attacks.

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Getting Rich the Federal Way

I really love the way Drudge Report organizes the news headlines. Today (9:51 AM PST), we have, in the middle column:

Obama: 'I Do Think At A Certain Point You've Made Enough Money'...
[Comments on the website say "It's none of your business Mr. President.." and "Tell that to your pal Oprah.." So, here's Oprah..]

Oprah Winfrey $100 Million Deal With PROCTER & GAMBLE Rocks Industry...

Want to get rich? Work for feds...

The last link goes to an editorial at today's Washington Examiner:

"For decades, public sector unions have peddled the fantasy that government employees were paid less than their counterparts in the private sector. In fact, the pay disparity is the other way around. Government workers, especially at the federal level, make salaries that are scandalously higher than those paid to private sector workers. And let's not forget private sector workers not only have to be sufficiently productive to earn their paychecks, they also must pay the taxes that support the more generous jobs in the public sector.

"Data compiled by the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis reveals the extent of the pay gap between federal and private workers. As of 2008, the average federal salary was $119,982, compared with $59,909 for the average private sector employee. In other words, the average federal bureaucrat makes twice as much as the average working taxpayer. Add the value of benefits like health care and pensions, and the gap grows even bigger. The average federal employee's benefits add $40,785 to his annual total compensation, whereas the average working taxpayer's benefits increase his total compensation by only $9,881. In other words, federal workers are paid on average salaries that are twice as generous as those in the private sector, and they receive benefits that are four times greater."

I'm afraid, though, the editorial board of Washington Examiner didn't check the numbers carefully. The average federal salary AND benefits in 2008 was $119,982. See this Cato Institute's article by Chris Edwards from last year showing the 2008 numbers.

The article continues to describe the difference between state/local government salaries and private sector salaries. Not as bad as the federal, but still a widening gap.

Here are two charts from the Cato Institute article that show the gaping gap between the federal worker and the private sector worker. And did you know that it has been like this for at least 10 years?

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The End of the End of the End of the .....

"Endgame" or the health care "reform" itself (hopefully for the majority of Americans).

Another sarcastic entry today from Drudge Report, which was briefly banned by the Senate Sergeant at Arms for supposed "virus" attack, which coincided with the government's Cybersecurity agenda, which Obama may simply sign into law by his fiat (executive order), which is .... (you get the idea, don't you?):

'END' OF THE 'END GAME' OR 'THE END'?

TODAY: Obama pushing on health
care end game (AP)

Last year:

July 28: Healthcare endgame on
Capitol Hill (Reuters)

August 21: Analysis: Health care endgame near but
uncertain (AP)

October 14: Senate, administration begin healthcare
endgame as Dem leaders express unity (Hill)

October 25: Senators say
health care bill endgame is in sight (Politico)

October 27: End Game: So
When Will Health Care Really Happen? (TPM)

October 30: Health reform
inches closer to endgame (WaPo)

November 23: The Health Care Endgame
(NPR)

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OT: Pictures on Drudge Report

Drudge Report is always so good at picking the most horrendous pictures of political leaders, here and abroad. But this one is so bad I almost feel sorry for Nancy. (Did she forget her hourly botox injection?)

The link goes to a Politico story (3/9/2010) on how Nancy's grip on House is slipping

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Curious Entry At Drudge Report 7/31/09

"The government plans big revisions to historical economic data... Developing... " No link yet.

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