May 2009

Times are tough for poor Rupert, so he has decided the time is coming to charge people to read his news:

Rupert ­Murdoch expects to start charging for access to News Corporation's newspaper websites within a year as he strives to fix a ­"malfunctioning" business model.

Encouraged by booming online subscription revenues at the Wall Street Journal, the billionaire media mogul last night said that papers were going through an "epochal" debate over whether to charge. "That it is possible to charge for content on the web is obvious from the Wall Street Journal's experience," he said.

Asked whether he envisaged fees at his British papers such as the Times, the Sunday Times, the Sun and the News of the World, he replied: "We're absolutely looking at that." Taking questions on a conference call with reporters and analysts, he said that moves could begin "within the next 12 months‚" adding: "The current days of the internet will soon be over."

(emphasis added)

We have heard about the demise of free information on the internet for years. Does Murdoch think he can really change it? How many “exclusives” does any News Corp site have that people are interested in?

I have addressed this before and given my glimpse into what will happen. If a story is big enough, some blogger will pay to subscribe to that site. After that every other blogger will link to that one blogger. So the story will get out and with only one subscription.

Of course if a story is that big then you can bet some other news source will pick it up. Murdoch thinks he can change the internet, but the internet might just end up breaking him.

Obama had a celebration yesterday with Mexico’s ambassador and had a little gaff:

President Barack Obama is celebrating Cinco de Mayo a little early.

On the eve of the Mexican holiday, Obama on Monday had an event in the East Room of the White House with Mexico's Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan (sahr-oo-KHAN').

Obama joked that it was "Cinco de Cuatro," botching a play on the Spanish word for "four" when he meant to say "Cuatro de Mayo," or the Fourth of May. He tried again, but he still did not get it right.

The right is now going on about this and saying “if George Bush had said this”.. Allow me to explain the difference to the thick headed on the right.

When President Obama makes a gaff like this he is quick to acknowledge it and openly joke it off. Bush made these gaffs and didn’t even realize he had made them.

Also when Bush made “gaffs” like “bring em’ on” and “we will conduct a crusade”, those resulted in death. The simple gaffs Obama has made are the most innocent in nature.

Of course I doubt people like Michelle Malkin are even capable of comprehending something like this, but it was worth pointing out as it goes to the heart of the issue that the right lacks basic common sense.

That is what the U.K. has told right wing talked Michael Savage. They have published a list of entertainers who are barred from entering the country because they foster hatred and extremism. I would say that pretty much sums up Savage.

But it doesn’t stop there. Fred Phelps of “God Hates Fags” is also barred, along with former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard Stephen Donald Black and neo-Nazi Erich Gliebe.

Now how long before the cast and crew of Fox news is added?

From the HuffPo:

In a video obtained by Al Jazeera and broadcast Monday, Lieutenant-Colonel Gary Hensley, the chief of the US military chaplains in Afghanistan, is seen telling soldiers that as followers of Jesus Christ, they all have a responsibility "to be witnesses for him."

"The special forces guys - they hunt men basically. We do the same things as Christians, we hunt people for Jesus. We do, we hunt them down," he says.

"Get the hound of heaven after them, so we get them into the kingdom. That's what we do, that's our business."

Here’s the video of this idiot saying idiotic things in a dangerous place during a dangerous war:

Remember the thing when Bush said “we are going to conduct a crusade”? Most people brushed it off as some silly bushism. Well guess what? It wasn’t…