Must see TV

Molly and Murphy at the Fall 2011 Blogfest

My friend former Congressman Patrick Murphy has been a regular guest on MSNBC and today he will be hosting a show.






Dear Gort,

As a strong supporter, I wanted to let you know first about a special MSNBC event this Veterans Day weekend. I will be hosting "Taking the Hill" on MSNBC this Sunday, November 10, 2013, from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. "Taking the Hill" will focus on military service, progressive politics, and national service. For this special event, we’re partnering with the Wounded Warrior Project by highlighting the story of returning heroes during our program.

The show is airing live from the NYC 9/11 Ground Zero memorial. Please tune in to MSNBC

Upcoming events

Tonight is the Wilkes-Barre Township Fall Picnic at the American Legion, 54 Chestnut St, W-B Twp from 6-10PM.

Tomorrow you can catch Joe Valenti of Pittston Politics on Joe Holden's Sunday morning show along with Kristen Cook, Editor of the Wilkes University Newspaper, The Beacon and Sue Henry of WILK. It'll air Sunday morning on WBRE at 11:00AM and WYOU at 11:30.




Blogcon was a big success and the Fearsome Foursome are planning next year's event join them on Wednesday at

Rodano's

53 Public Square, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania starting at 6PM.

NEPA Blogcon Meetup 2: Electric Boogaloo


It's a meet up! Hang out, have some drinks, network, tweet about stuff, maybe even some hugs!!  pants required. Squirrels with light sabers will be there.

We can discuss NEPA BlogCon 2012, what we liked, disliked, and what we hope to see next year.


Conservative Voter Rally  

Saturday, October 20, 2012  11:30am until 3:30pm

 

 

Genetti Ballrooms Inn & Suites

1341 N Church St, Hazleton, Pennsylvania

 

Special guest speakers include: Lou Barletta (U.S. Congressman), Sam Rohrer (Pres., PA Pastors Network), Tarah Toohil (PA House of Representatives), David Madeira (The David Madeira Show), Bob Zaruta (Pres., Luzerne Co. Young Republicans), and Laureen Cummings (Candidate for U.S. Congress).

Organizations supporting & participating in the event: God in Government, Luzerne County Young Republicans, PA Pastors Network, 94.3FM "The Talker," First District Republicans, Victory Bible Church, The Voice of John (pro-life movie), Citizens Alliance of PA, and Tea Party Patriots.

Tiffany Cloud (Host of Storm Politics on WYLN-TV) will serve as Emcee for the event. Pastor Ron Radtke (Victory Bible Church) will lead the gathering in prayer.

 

Youth in Politics Sunday October 21st 5-8PM

The Luzerne County Young Republicans will be hosting our second annual Youth in Politics event! Youth in Politics is a celebration of the accomplishments of young people in politics. Last year's event was a huge success and we anticipate this year being bigger and better.

This year we will present the Young Republican of the Year Award to District Attorney, Stefanie Salavantis. The award will be presented by last year's winner, State Rep. Tarah Toohil.

We will also be presenting the first annual P.J. Stebbins Award. P.J. Stebbins was one of the founding members of Luzerne County Young Republicans. He passed away earlier this year and the YRs plan to honor him on a yearly basis by presenting an award in his name to a young person who has shown dedication not only in the political arena, but also in his or her community. This year's award will be given to fellow Young Republican, Aaron Kaufer.

 

S

 

 

 

WNEP- Proud to annoy 17 counties

WNEP just interrupted the Penn State v Virginia game to tell us it is going to rain and scare the  hell out of people over a slight chance of a tornado. This is the thing I hate about the local news. Be afraid, be very afraid. They don't cover what is going on in politics because the big news in such a large area is car crashes, fires and violent crimes with a cutesy story thrown in at the end.

If it bleeds it ledes.

The only time I watch the local news is election season just for the ads from the candidates.


Update:

From the inbox

Hi, Gort.

 

I saw your question to me on FB and did a little research before I responded.

 

“What is going on” is this:

 

I could not find any specific FCC rule or regulation that REQUIRES a broadcast television station to break into programming when there is severe weather. However, stations are mandated to serve the public interest in order to keep their licenses.

 

Broadcast television stations can basically break into regular programming at any time, for any reason. At WNEP, we have done so for breaking news events – such as significant developments in the Luzerne County Corruption case or Jerry Sandusky’s guilty verdict, or last year’s flooding. As far as I know, WNEP does not have a specific policy regarding when we will break in for news. It’s a case-by-case basis in terms of whether we will break in and how long we will stay on the air.

 

For severe weather, however, WNEP does have a specific policy and that is to break into programming when the National Weather Service issues a Tornado Warning (http://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/#warning1 ) for any part of our viewing area, which, as you pointed out, is rather large. A tornado warning indicates either that a tornado has been spotted or that Doppler Radar has detected rotation in a storm system. In other words, if there’s a tornado warning in effect, then the threat of an actual tornado is very real. WNEP’s policy dictates that we stay on the air continuously until the tornado warning is either lifted or expires. Because we cover such a large area, we’re often dealing with situations where a tornado warning in one county may expire while warning in other counties are still in effect. If the first tornado warning is in central PA (e.g. Williamsport), we could be on the air for an extended time if the tornado warnings follow the system as it moves east. There have been occasions where one warning has expired and we’ve returned to programming only to cut in again a short time later because another tornado warning has been issued.

 

So, the answer to your question “what is going on” is that WNEP will always interrupt programming for a tornado warning because, when lives are in danger, we feel it serves the public’s interest to do so. This has been WNEP’s policy for several years and is, I believe, pretty standard stuff for broadcast stations that have news departments. Stations that don’t, rely on crawls.

 

Just as an FYI – and to your point about us “not covering politics,” we received A LOT more emails and phone calls when we broke into the Penn State game than we did a few nights ago when we broke into Michelle Obama’s speech at the convention.

Comcast responds

From the inbox:


Hello,

I came across your post and wanted to reach out to you regarding your concerns. First, we are going all digital so that we can reclaim some of our bandwidth for more programming and increased internet speeds. For every 1 analog channel on our system, we can fit up to 10 SD channels or up to 2 HD channels. Also, we are working to bring speeds of 105mbps in Xfinity areas. If you are subscribing to our Expanded Basic tier and are losing channels as a result of the changes, we are offering up to two DTA devices (digital transport adaptors) to each home at no additional cost. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns regarding the changes and the options available to you. I’d be happy to have one of my colleagues from the regional corporate office reach out to you.

Regarding Keith Olberman, Comcast is not in any way involved with the decisions made currently by NBC news. As this transaction is still in negotiations and awaiting approval, the law prohibits our involvement.

Please let me know if there is anything I can help you with. Our team is here if you need us.


Kind Regards,

Melissa Mendoza
Digital Media Analyst
National Customer Operations

Comcast and Keith Olberman

This started out on my Facebook page and I will mix in some comments from some friends.


I've had enough of Comcast. They sent me a piece of mail today saying I won't be able to watch TV unless get one of their boxes. Blackmail. My TV's aren't that old but they are moving more channels to the digital tier that I will need a box to tune in. I miss Adelphia, they were run by a bunch of crooks but we had great service but I'm actually happy with the internet service. I've had it for 5 years and only had one brief outage. I'm reluctant to get a dish because many of my friends tell me they have weather issues and my late father-in-law would roll over in his grave if we defaced his brickwork on our house.

Keith Olberman has been suspended by MSNBC because he gave some money to Democratic candidates. A host of another MSNBC show gave money to Republicans

Joe Scarborough did the exact same thing


IOKIYAR

My friend Tony quotes Rachell:


"I know everybody likes to say, 'Oh, that's cable news, it's all the same. Fox and MSNBC, mirror images of each other.' Let this lay that to rest forever. Hosts on Fox News raise money for Republican candidates. They endorse them explicitl...y, they use their Fox News profile to headline fundraisers. Heck, there are multiple people being paid by Fox News now to essentially run for office as Republican candidates....They can do that because there's no rule against that as Fox. They run as a political operation; we're not."- Rachel Maddow

This should be a case of don't do that again because you violated company policy so take a few days off and don't do it again. But even MSNBC will grovel before the FoxNews/TeaParty/Republican noise machine.


What Role Did Comcast Play in Keith Olbermann's Suspension?--UPDATED with Comcast response

Kanjorski is a yes

WASHINGTON - Congressman Paul E. Kanjorski (PA-11) provided the following statement explaining how he will vote for the health care reform bill. The bill will be voted on later this evening.

"Today I will vote for legislation designed to improve the affordability and accessibility of health care. Americans already spend more on health care than the people of any other nation. If we take no action, health care costs are expected to double over the next ten years, just as they have over the last ten years. It is not the bill I would have written if it were up to me alone, but it is the best we can do at this time.

"This was one of the most difficult votes I have ever cast, primarily because there is a great deal of confusion about what this bill will do. Senior citizens do not have to worry about losing any benefits because of this bill. In fact, their coverage for prescription drug costs and preventative care will improve. No federal funding will be used to fund abortion. The bill does not empower the federal government to take over health care. If people are happy with the insurance they have, nothing needs to change.

"However, this bill allows the American people to choose the health insurance plan that best fits individual and family needs by creating a marketplace of insurance plans. For too long, private insurance companies have monopolized how health insurance operates. This bill attempts to rein in those private insurers by prohibiting their most egregious abuses: denying coverage for individuals with pre-existing medical conditions, imposing a lifetime cap on medical care, and limiting the ability of individuals to change jobs without the fear of losing insurance coverage. It will also enable young adults to stay on their parents' insurance until age 26.

"I thank the many Northeastern Pennsylvanians who have shared their thoughts with me on this important legislation over the past few months. When you are sick, the last thing you should have to worry about is how to pay the bills. Insurance is supposed to relieve this worry, but instead the current system has made that worry worse. Today, we are working to reverse this course."

The Democratic leadership ditched the Demon Pass approach that had so many of my Republican friends knickers in a twist. So the House will pass the Senate bill and after the President signs it that will be the law of the land. A separate bill to be sent to the Senate to fix the differences but even if they screw it up health care reform has passed.

This is a big win for President Obama, the Democratic Party and most importantly the American people. I hope that the news coverage will switch from process stories to explaining the benefits but I won't hold my breath. Right now Fox News is is off the air on my cable system which is probably a local problem but it could be that all their heads have exploded and took out the electronics.


ABFS, LuLac and LVR have been doing the play by play all day.


From one of my favs in Congress Allyson Schwartz:

Families across our nation understand that the status quo in health care is unacceptable and unsustainable.
And, they have called upon us - through millions of supportive calls, emails, and messages to Congress - to pass a uniquely American solution to ensure that all Americans have access to meaningful, affordable health coverage.
That moment is now.
It is time to put American families – not insurance companies - in control of their own health care.

It is time to hold insurance companies accountable to keep premiums down and prohibit the denial of care and coverage.

It is time to ensure that Americans have access to affordable health insurance choices.

It is time to finally fix the Medicare prescription drug gap, known as the donut hole, and provide seniors with greater access to preventive and primary care.

It is time to contain the rising cost of health care for Americans, and reduce the deficit for our nation by $1.2 trillion.

Later today, Congress will take action to bring down health care costs for middle income families, help small businesses afford coverage for their employees, improve coverage for seniors, reign in wasteful spending, and provide access to coverage to 32 million uninsured Americans.
This vote comes after hundreds of hours of debate, meetings, and bipartisan dialogue.
In the 13th Congressional District, health care reform will improve coverage for 443,000 residents, provide tax credits and other assistance to 135,000 families and 15,000 small businesses to help them afford coverage, and improve Medicare for 115,000 beneficiaries.

We interupt the coverage of Michael Jackson to bring you some news

I don't think that the death of the Pope John Paul II got this much coverage on the cable news channels.


So what else is going on?

Iran is having a revolution

The US health care system is going to be overhauled

North Korea is rattling sabers

US forces are leaving the cities of Iraq

Swine flu may kill us all

All this will take a back seat for the next few days while our librul media obsesses about MJ


MORE BREAKING NEWS

Anna Nicole Smith is still dead

Where are Rachel and Keith?

I usually watch Countdown and the Rachel Maddow show on MSNBC when I get home from work. Tonight both hosts are MIA.

What's going on?

YouTube weekend

Bill Ayers is not going to fill your gas tank.



Some talking head (strategist)on TV today said that because the Weather Underground was in the news so long ago that the people who remember that time will confuse them with the Velvet Underground.


I think Mrs Rain Man will like this song



The Velvet Underground - I'm Waiting For The Man

YouTube weekend

Hurricane Ike is slamming into the Texas coast and I hope that everyone that is in harms way stays safe. The cable news networks are showing the ususal images of reporters on beach being blown around by the wind and getting soaked by the rain. Weather is always a big story and around here the local channels always go into overdrive when we have a big snowstorm or just a prediction of one.


Neil Young - Like a Hurricane