May 1st, 2009 at 2:03 pm
Swine Flu cases up to 141 with still only 1 death.
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Please, Obama and the pork industry would prefer that term be dropped in favor of “H1N1″, lest pork sales decline.

From wiki:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza_A_virus_subtype_H1N1

Influenza A virus strains are categorized according to two viral proteins, hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N). All influenza A viruses contain hemagglutinin and neuraminidase, but the structure of these proteins differs from strain to strain due to rapid genetic mutation in the viral genome. Influenza A virus strains are assigned an H number and an N number based on which forms of these two proteins the strain contains.

The Spanish flu, also known as La Gripe Española, or La Pesadilla, was an unusually severe and deadly strain of avian influenza, a viral infectious disease, that killed some 50 million to 100 million people worldwide over about a year in 1918 and 1919. It is thought to be one of the most deadly pandemics in human history. It was caused by the H1N1 type of influenza virus.[4]

[snip]

And yes, the video was positive on HRC and Sarah.

Gee, whatever happened to that Obama fella? Oh, that’s right, it was picks for “influential LEADERS”.

Obama is a fake leader. He has a podium. He has an adoring media. But he’s never lead, has no idea where to lead, he’s just a quiltwork of fuzzy ideals that can be repeated for commercials and speeches.

I know in New Mexico they have 4 in for testing, so we might pop up on the table shortly.

States # of laboratory confirmed cases Deaths
Arizona 4
California 13
Colorado 2
Delaware 4
Illinois 3
Indiana 3
Kansas 2
Kentucky 1
Massachusetts 2
Michigan 2
Minnesota 1
Nebraska 1
Nevada 1
New Jersey 5
New York 50
Ohio 1
South Carolina 16
Texas 28 1
Virginia 2
TOTAL COUNTS 141 cases 1 death
International Human Cases of Swine Flu Infection
See: World Health Organization

time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1894410_1894780_1895199,00.html

The company I spent most of my career working for was a wonderful organization and it did what most companies cannot do. It competed against two giants that had superior name recognition and economies of scale. Its success was in part niche driven. But the key element was as simple as this: it was the low cost operator. Ultimatley it was bought out by the largest company in the world in that industry and it failed spectacularly. They did not understand the importance of low cost. I would go so far as to say any company that can provide a quality good or service at the lowest price will always win and always survive. That is the core problem the newspaper industry is struggling with now and they have not found the right answer. The product they produce today is pure crap, and there are cheaper ways to get if if that is what you want. Low cost and cash rich is the key to it. FOX will own the market if it can keep its costs in line.

The question you raise is a good one: who will fill the gap and by implication restore the standards of objective jouranlism. The honest answer is I do not know.

I am sure that there are journalists out there who are just as frustrated as we are with the corruption in their industry. It is no different with doctors who are so driven by schedules and deadlines that they cannot spend the time they need to with their patients–which was the reason why they entered the profession in the first place.

It is so easy and so cost efficient to take what is served up by organizations like Associated Press. The trouble is that AP is infected with the journalistic equivalent of the AIDs virus, and it corrupts the quality of your own newspaper to accept their twistifications as if they were truth. It is a bad organization and there is no other way to put it.

I am not speaking soley for myself when I say that about AP. It is a widely held view among a number of people. As noted before, I have friends who at one time ran what was generally regarded as the best small town newspaper in the country. That was thirty years ago, the paper has been sold and today it is a shadow of what it once was.

What made them a great newspaper was their editor who was someone who embodied the journalistic standards which are conspicuously absent today. Also, they were excellent investigative reporters. If they had a lead on an important story they would turn loose a couple reporters sometimes for months to do nothing but follow that story. And if at the end of the process they could not verify all the sources and connect the dots, they would not publish. In other words, it cost them money.

The ability of small newpapers to fill the void it therefore limited both for than reason, and because they do not have the assets that AP does around the world. That is what makes their editor so pernicious–the power that he has to mislead world wide audiences–a real live example of Citizen Kane.

They say you find love sometimes in the stangest places and the same goes for truth. Quite frankly, I was struck by the fact check which Jan posted above wherein one AP reporter had the courage to step up to the plate and show that Mr. Obama is in effect a liar, but I am quite sure he would not put it that way.

This in turn points to the larger truth which is that nobody can control the universe, and the forces in play are much more powerful than any ideolgue in journalistic grab can control. At some point the question for them will be whether to make provision or go down with the ship. The policies which Bambi has implemented will backfire. No doubt about that. And when that happens, and too much familiarity breeds contempt people will see him not as the solution but the problem.

At that point, those members of the press who inserted caveats about him in their stories, will be glad they did. Others, who swallowed his bullshit hook line and sinker will be in trouble. It may or may not end their careers. It will however render them irrelevant in the future debate over how to dig the country out of the hole which Bush began and Bambi dug deeper in service of the same masters.

who have no honor, no decency and no integrity, than it is to engage in the arduous task of investigative journalism.The question where small newspapers are concerned is whether they have the scope and the resources to take on an issue this large. It is far more econonomical for them to take the crap which AP puts out and run with that. And that is what is driving things these days. I am quite sure that a real fear is rippling through newsrooms across the country. It is not just the layoffs themselves but the fear of them that is felt. Will I be next, etc. In the broadest context, the companies who are cash rich are the ones that will survive. The comPAN