My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on October 17, 2008

Shocking … but then I suspect Glenn is a better fit at Fox than at CNN? 😆

Info from MediaBistro blog:

It’s official. Glenn Beck is bringing his TV program to Fox News Channel in the Spring of 2009. The program currently airs at 7pmET and 9pmET on Headline News and will occupy the 5pmET slot on FNC. Beck will continue his daily radio show The Glenn Beck Program as well. Said FNC founder and chairman Roger Ailes, “As we embark on a new political landscape, Glenn’s thought provoking commentary will complement an already stellar line-up of stars at FOX News.”

Beck added, “I am thrilled and profoundly humbled to have the chance to bring my program to FOX News. Expanding my audience is exciting, but I’m really looking forward to joining Mr. Ailes and his world-class team.”

The 5pmET time slot has seen a variety of programs this year — The Big Story with John Gibson and Heather Nauert; Just In with Laura Ingraham and America’s Election HQ with a rotating cast of anchors.

In addition to his TV and radio deals, Beck is also the author of two best-selling books.

A Headline News spokesperson released this statement tonight: “Glenn has been a terrific employee and colleague to many of us at CNN. We wish him well.”

NEW YORK, Oct 16, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Glenn Beck has signed a multi-year agreement to join FOX News, announced Roger Ailes, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of FOX News. Beginning next spring, Beck will host FOX News Channel’s (FNC) 5 PM/ET weekday program as well as a weekend show on the network.

Currently, Beck serves as the host of Glenn Beck, a talk show on CNN’s Headline News which has grown more than 200% in viewership in both the 7pm and 9pm timeslots since its 2006 debut. He also hosts a daily radio show The Glenn Beck Program which is syndicated via Premiere Radio Networks to more than 300 stations nationwide as well as XM Satellite Radio, and ranks as the third most listened to radio talk show in America among adults 25-54.

In making the announcement, Ailes said, “As we embark on a new political landscape, Glenn’s thought provoking commentary will complement an already stellar line-up of stars at FOX News.”
Prior to his television career, Beck served as a talk radio show host at WFLA-AM in Tampa, FL where he took his program to number one within his first year there. He began his radio career in Corpus Christi, Texas as the youngest Top 40 morning show disc jockey in America at 18 years of age. Beck later moved on to become a top 40 disc jockey in major markets around the country, including Houston, Washington, DC, Baltimore, Phoenix and New Haven, CT.

Beck added, “I am thrilled and profoundly humbled to have the chance to bring my program to FOX News. Expanding my audience is exciting, but I’m really looking forward to joining Mr. Ailes and his world-class team.”

A recipient of the 2008 Marconi Award for Network Syndicated Personality of the Year from the National Association of Broadcasters, Beck is also the author of the New York Times bestseller An Inconvenient Book – Real Solutions to the World’s Biggest Problems (2007) as well as The Real America – Messages from the Heart and Heartland (2005).

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Posted By RichC on October 16, 2008

For those of you familiar with the book “Born on a Blue Day” by Daniel Tammet, you’ll enjoy his blog post on John McCain’s age. As a ‘numbers guy,’ he takes a look at both actuarial tables of a 72 year old man in the U.S., the McCain family history and lifespan of past U.S. Presidents and runners- up.

His conclusion: “There may be all kinds of reasons to oppose a McCain victory in November, but age isn’t one of them.”

McCain’s longevity prospects look pretty good. His mother, Roberta, is still active at 96, as is his aunt of the same age (Roberta’s twin sister). His maternal grandfather, Archibald Wright, also lived well into his nineties.

A final note: Modern presidential candidates (from the 1930s on) appear on the whole to have above-average lifespans. Presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan both lived to 93, while Herbert Hoover also reached his 90th birthday and Harry Truman lived to 88. Presidents Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush are both still active at 84.

Presidential runners-up fare well too: the 1972 Democrat nominee George McGovern is 86, while the party’s 1984 nominee Walter Mondale celebrated his 80th birthday this year. The 1996 Republican nominee Bob Dole is now 85, while the Republicans’ 1964 candidate Barry Goldwater lived to 89. The longevity prize, however, goes to the Republican’s 1936 candidate, Alf Landon, who died a month after his 100th birthday in 1987.

Full post

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Tags: blog, book, mccain

Posted By RichC on October 15, 2008

Long term investors and all who are saving for college or retirement through stocks or mutual funds are suffering yet again as the financial markets continue to slide. After a huge move up Monday, the trading on Wall Street headed down again, this time on gloomy economic warning from the U.S. Federal Reserve. After a optimistic Monday, the bad news sent the DJIA plummeting 733 points. The ‘fear’ over a slowing economy has spread world wide and the 2/3rds of American consumers that have been holding up the economy have finally bailed on spending. Companies that have been expecting a recovery due to the pumping of credit into the economy by world governments, are unfortunately now not even hoping for a decent 4th quarter. Even Fed Vice Chairman Donald Kohl after being confident that the efforts being made with ultimately be effective, he states that the drawn-out nature of the prospective adjustments in housing and financial markets will keep  the economy “subpar well into next year.”

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Posted By RichC on October 15, 2008

I monitor the RSS feed for Meghan McCain’s blog (McCainBlogette.com) and have been looking forward to reviewing her new children’s book about her father since it was published a few weeks ago. Although I haven’t picked the book up yet, I have read a few reviews on it. Below I’ll include an interview Meghan had on Tuesday afternoon with Neil Cavuto;  she’s a sharp young lady that must make her father proud. I think she is a real asset to his campaign for President considering that she has spent a significant amount of time traveling with him this year. Her new book is called “My Dad, John McCain” and it contains a “cliff note” history (her words) of her dad’s life, along with some family photos.

For those unfamiliar with his background, I posted a timeline of his life several months ago in my blog, but the book or the movie Faith of My Fathers is far more interesting. He has lived an exceptional and heroic life of service to our country and even if people do not agree with his politics, as an American he should respected for his service. If there is one thing John McCain has demonstrated, it is that he is a patriot and truly does put “country first.”

Posted By RichC on October 14, 2008

I wonder just how many lawsuits we’ll see popping up around the nation in the coming month?

ACORN sued on behalf of Warren County voters

“The right to cast a vote that is not diluted by fraudulent votes is a fundamental individual right,” Buckeye Institute President David Hansen said.

“ACORN appears to be recklessly disregarding Ohio laws and adding thousands of fraudulent voters to the state’s roles in the process,” Maurice Thompson, Director of the Buckeye Institute’s 1851 Center for Constitutional Law said. “Such voter fraud erodes the value of legally cast votes,” he added.

In the complaint, Thompson cites an accumulation of evidence showing numerous instances of admitted fraud by ACORN employees, as well as individuals solicited by ACORN.

I certainly looks as if the group ACORN knew exactly what it was doing when they began hiring people (and paying them based on number of registrations) to go out and register new voters. I seems they are encouraged to registered non-existent voters in some states and the same voter multiple times in others — they are targeting low income and urban areas and one Cuyahoga County Ohio resident was registered 73 times according to his testimony. Helping each person to vote is a worthy goal, but to be a bias group (openly support the Obama campaign and receives funding from them) is disturbing in our democracy to say the least. If this vote is close, there is going to be some significant speculation as to the legitimacy with these kinds of improprieties. The states receiving complaints about ACORN’s activities besides Ohio are: Colorado, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

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Posted By RichC on October 13, 2008

The traders on Wall Street had a busy day today as they put a few dollars back to work after the huge selling last week. The record day was the biggest single day more for the stock market in history, or at least since the Great Depression. The Dow Jones Industrials (3 day chart above) move up 936-point gain and gave investors and many worried politicians a breather after 8 consecutive down days.

While it will not be a big surprise to see some of the gains given back over the next few weeks, it may offer a signal that some are seeing stocks as over sold. The big move came as the leading banks look to be getting together in Washington DC at the request of the Bush administration in order to get loans moving again. The Europeans are already making move to pump $2 trillion on the line to protect their banks.

As I post this on Monday night, the markets in Asia are up on Wall Streets rebound, although I’d hang on for an uncertain ride.

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Tags: djia

Posted By RichC on October 12, 2008

It’s nice to have the kids home from college this weekend for my son to be able to return to his high school for the homecoming game and dance with is girlfriend (a high school senior). They had a great time at the dance and Lakota East even won their Friday night game. (it has not necessarily the best of seasons)

Sunday afternoon we finished up the laundry and are starting to get them ready to go back to school … while I take a moment check in on the Cincinnati Bengals struggle to play football against the NY Jets. My daughter completed her Jack O’Lantern to put in front of her apartment to welcome the trick or treaters.

Wow … excellent job of creatively carving this pumpkin!

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Posted By RichC on October 11, 2008

As the political campaigns near November, we’re starting to see more from each campaign attempting to discredit the other. Political action committees and independents from Hollywood to news organization are getting in the act to take swipes at either McCain, Palin, Obama or Biden. It is particularly noticeable with the Gov. Palin “troopergate” investigations (smears) being announced a couple weeks before the campaign and the questionable associations of Senator Obama (suggesting he has closer ties to domestic terrorist and radical leaders than he admits).

Here’s the kind of support from Louis Farrakhan floating around that is probably most disturbing for the Obama campaign … I doubt this kind of support for Obama goes over well in mainstream America?

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Posted By RichC on October 10, 2008

After reflecting on the doom and gloom of our economy and state of most investors, I thought I would go back a few days to a nice autumn weekend in western New York. We enjoyed pleasant weather and time with my mother and father-in-law at Letchworth State Park. If you’re looking for a great weekend trip with plenty of autumn color and hiking trails, I can highly recommend a visit to this area in October. What surprising is that over these past 27 years that I have never driven those couple of hours east of my wife’s home in Jamestown to even see this beautiful park.

The history and natural beauty of this 14,350 acre “Grand Canyon of the East” New York State Park on the Genesee River is impressive, considering a significant chunk of it was a gift from William Letchworth in 1906. It is located 35 miles south of Rochester and contain a huge canyon with 600 foot walls and three waterfalls. There is a trestle bridge at one end, a century home turned restaurant (the Glen Iris Inn) and many parking and short hiking opportunities — 66 miles of hiking trail in fact. While not quite on the grand scale of a hiking trip to Montana, the Grand Canyon or the Canadian Rockies, its a perfect weekend trip for those of us within a reasonable drive or a great place to rent a cabin or camp. While traveling from Jamestown NY to Letchworth Park, we passed through my mother and father-in-laws college alma mater  as well — Houghton College; it happened to be homecoming weekend and was fun to listen to them reminisce — a nice weekend.

EDIT: Additional Letchworth State Park photos

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Tags: hiking, new york, state park, Travel

Posted By RichC on October 9, 2008

Dow 8,579.19 -678.91 (-7.33%) | Nasdaq 1,645.12 -95.21 (-5.47%) | S&P 500 909.92 -75.02 (-7.62%)

No buyers on Wall Street — the collapse continues to drive stock prices lower and cut even deeper into ordinary Joe and Jane’s retirement and college savings. Not only has today’s drop put the DJIA to extremely low levels, it is frightening all who have savings associated with stocks and mutual funds.  Blood is flowing and the survival of many companies is also on the line. It is looking more and more as if this world impacting crisis might threaten what we see as normal life in the U.S. for a long time to come. I’m no longer worried about future prosperity, but am concerned more and more about today; job losses for many are right around the corner — start watching for company and store door closings. Without a fast change, its going to get very ugly.

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