Election

The Ted Cruz Plan To Kill ObamaCare: Speak Until He Can’t Stand

Posted by on September 24, 2013 at 3:39 pm. 9 Comments :

The Senate’s most prominent opponent of ObamaCare, Ted Cruz (TX-Teabagger), has been battling ferociously to defund or otherwise dismantle the President’s signature policy achievement. Today he may have finally come up with a winning strategy to defeat the health care law upon which he is so fixated.

Cruz’s new blueprint for overcoming the enormous odds against his obstructionism was articulated shortly after he took to the Senate floor and said “I intend to speak until I am no longer able to stand.” With that pronouncement, Cruz launched into a soliloquy that is still unfolding at this hour.

Ted Cruz
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Never mind that there is no one in the Senate listening, and that no one is watching on CSPAN, and that Fox News is only airing occasional snippets, Cruz is confident that this stunt will turn the political tide in his favor. And forget about the fact that his Senate colleagues are embarrassed and irritated by his antics, and that he is rambling incoherently, and that there is no chance that he will affect the legislative process or change anyone’s mind. And, finally, set aside the reality that his phony filibuster is scheduled to end due to Senate rules that are already in effect and will require him to shut his mouth for a scheduled vote on the bill he is pretending to delay.

None of that is significant when weighed against the underlying brilliance of his scheme. By threatening to go on speaking for an indeterminate amount of time it is possible that just the grating sound of his voice, and the annoying ignorance of his arguments, could result in unprotected bystanders caving in to his demands just to get him to shut the hell up. Having to endure his monotonous blabbering is a form of torture that might be too much to bear.

This legislative hokum will prove to be a real test of the mettle of members as they attempt to withstand the unyielding pain and suffering of exposure to Cruz’s rhetorical weapons of crass discussion. But if they can survive the assault, Cruz will be effectively rendered impotent – at least until he spots another television camera.

[Update:] We made it! Cruz finished his rant without crushing us with his droning blather. Interestingly, Majority Leader Harry Reid advised Cruz that he could continue speaking an additional hour, but Cruz declined. Perhaps it’s because he had a previous engagement to appear on the Rush Limbaugh radio program. Priorities, you know. And naturally, the Lie Factory Fox Nation lived up to their reputation with this bullcrap:

Fox Nation

RNC Votes To Ban CNN/MSNBC Debates – Which They Have No Power To Do

Posted by on August 16, 2013 at 12:07 pm. 4 Comments :

For the past couple of weeks there has been a flurry of fretful reporting about a threat by Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus to ban CNN and MSNBC from the GOP primary debate schedule. Priebus is disturbed by currently non-existent projects about Hillary Clinton that he is certain will characterize her favorably.

Today Priebus made good on his threat by shepherding a resolution though the RNC’s annual meeting that declares that they “will neither partner with these networks in the 2016 presidential primary debates nor sanction any primary debates they sponsor.”

Fun Fact: How many GOP primary debates did the RNC sponsor in 2012?
Answer: Zero
There were twenty debates held and not a single one was sponsored by the RNC. However, every debate on Fox News was sponsored by a state Republican Party affiliate. Also notable is that MSNBC held a debate co-sponsored by the Reagan Library, and CNN held debates co-sponsored by Tea Party Express, the Heritage Foundation, and the American Enterprise Institute.

There is, however, a small problem with the Priebus declaration. The RNC has no power whatsoever to prohibit any debate by an network. Sure, they can pass resolutions that make grandiose claims to authority that they don’t have, but reality trumps their hubris. The truth is that any network can announce its intention to produce a debate. They can invite candidates to participate. The candidates are free to accept or reject any offer as they see fit. Chances are, the second and third tier candidates will accept virtually any opportunity to promote themselves on national television. Subsequently, the frontrunners will be reluctant to let their competitors have the stage to themselves. So the debates will go on with a full cast of characters.

Priebus’ threat, therefore, is an impotent cry for attention. He is not empowered to force his will on the people who are vying to be the next leader of the free world. In a best case scenario he may be able to influence the number of debates, which is a goal he has previously articulated. After all, it is fairly obvious that the more Republican candidates are exposed to the American people, the more they will embarrass themselves, and the more votes they will lose. The GOP has a distinct interest in limiting their exposure, and that is what Priebus is aiming for.

The hypocrisy of Priebus’ resolution is apparent in the fact that he is only nixing CNN and MSNBC, even though there have been reports that Fox may be producing the NBC project. Priebus cannot extend his toothless ban to Fox or there would be no cable news networks available to host a GOP debate. But there is no reasonable explanation for why Fox would be given a pass (other than their role as the GOP PR division).

Fun Fact: What do you get when you remove the vowels from Reince Priebus’ name?
Answer: RNC PR BS

The full text of the resolution cites campaign donations by the head of NBC’s entertainment division to Hillary Clinton, but the head of Fox News’ parent corporation has done likewise. Also, the News Corp political PAC, News America Holdings, has given more to Democrats than Republicans in each of the last four election cycles. So if producing Clinton documentaries and donating to her campaign warrant prohibition as debate hosts, then Fox clearly qualifies.

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Rush Limbaugh

Finally, there have been recent calls for the RNC to recruit right-wing loyalists as moderators for their debates. The names mentioned most frequently include Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Mark Levin. In response, Levin has said that he is ready and willing, despite the fact that he has previously said that he will do whatever he can to prevent Chris Christie from becoming the GOP nominee. As for Limbaugh, he told his radio dittoheads that he is “too famous” and would “overshadow” the candidates. That’s a telling remark in itself, as it demonstrates just how diminutive is the stature of the GOP field. Perhaps the GOP should nominate Limbaugh.

This tussle could not be better for Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party. If the RNC is successful in limiting the number of their debates it will have effectively cut off millions of Americans from learning about their candidates (although, as noted above, that might a good thing for the GOP). But even worse is the prospect of debates led by staunchly conservative radio talk show hosts. Priebus and company think that friendly moderators will help avoid the antagonistic questioning that he presumes would occur on other networks. But to the extent that that is true, it will also result in the candidates being woefully unprepared for the full-contact combat they will eventually encounter in the general election. What’s more, the rightist Taliban, as represented by Limbaugh et al, will be more likely to force candidates to stake out extreme positions which they will be unable to “Etch-a-Sketch” away after the primaries. The wingnut media are notoriously committed to the sort of ideological purity that voters find repugnant.

So if the RNC wants to proceed with this self-defeating initiative, they will have the full support and cooperation of their pals at the DNC. Nothing would please Democrats more than Republicans digging themselves ever deeper holes of extremism. The outrageous statements and gaffes that occur at the “official” RNC events would still be broadcast on the other networks afterwards. So Priebus’ efforts to limit the damage would be futile, and even counterproductive. As would his admonition that disobedience “may include severe penalties for candidates that participate in unsanctioned debates.” That’s right – Priebus plans on giving the reprobates a good spanking. Wouldn’t that look great on a candidates permanent record?

Media Goes Silent As Texas Defends Constitutionality Of Racial Discrimination

Posted by on August 11, 2013 at 12:34 pm. 16 Comments :

In what may be the most under-reported story of the year so far, the media has virtually ignored the shameful response by the state of Texas to a Department of Justice challenge of voter discrimination in the state.

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One Vote

In June, the right-wing majority in the Supreme Court struck down a key provision in the fifty year old Voting Rights Act of 1964. In doing so they sanctioned efforts by racially biased state governments to discriminate against minority residents and other voters they want to suppress.

Attorney General Eric Holder moved quickly to mitigate the harm caused by the decision. He directed the Justice Department to seek a court ruling to require Texas to get permission from the federal government before making changes to their voting laws under a different section of the VRA.

Last week Texas responded to the DOJ filing with an astonishing admission that the intent of their voting reforms is to discriminate. They masked the ultimate purpose in a political argument, but the result is unarguably racist and unconstitutional. Rick Hasen of the University of California at Irvine caught the offensive passage in the Texas filing:

“DOJ’s accusations of racial discrimination are baseless. In 2011, both houses of the Texas Legislature were controlled by large Republican majorities, and their redistricting decisions were designed to increase the Republican Party’s electoral prospects at the expense of the Democrats. It is perfectly constitutional for a Republican-controlled legislature to make partisan districting decisions, even if there are incidental effects on minority voters who support Democratic candidates.”

The argument by the state of Texas is that they are deliberately discriminating against Democratic voters, not minorities or other protected classes of citizens, and they regard that as permissible. The first problem with their argument is that it is questionable to assert that it is constitutional to “make partisan districting decisions.” Any overt attempt to suppress the voting rights of any citizen is challengeable and potentially in violation of civil liberties.

More to the point, the claim that they are only aiming their discriminatory activities at Democrats is disingenuous and unsupportable. The redistricting maps proposed by the Republican-controlled Texas legislature cut obviously across racial boundaries. The clear intent is to segregate blacks and Latinos into the fewest number of districts possible, denying them equal representation. These maps were struck down by federal courts as blatantly discriminatory, but now the state can re-introduce them with the blessing of an atrociously reasoned Supreme Court decision.

There is simply no way to pretend that the statement made in the filing defending the constitutionality of discrimination against Democrats is anything other than a defense of discrimination against minority communities in Texas. Given the demographic breakdown of the district mapping, it is absurd and grossly dishonest to assert that the “effects on minority voters” are “incidental.” What the state of Texas is doing is racism, pure and simple.

So where is the media coverage of this outrageous admission made in an official court document? None of the television news networks has reported on it. None of the major national newspapers has published a story about it. A few Internet news outlets have done some commendable reporting on it, but their reach is minimal at this point.

Without the establishment media informing the nation that this sort of institutionalized racism is going on, it will continue unabated. And if there is one thing that this proves other than the fact that racism is still deeply ingrained into some of our government systems, it’s that the conservative complaints about media are wholly without merit. Liberal media my ass!

Fox Nation vs. Reality: Clinton Polling Ahead Of Every Republican Is “Underwhelming”

Posted by on August 7, 2013 at 10:50 am. 6 Comments :

While it is still more than three years before the next presidential election, Fox News is desperately spinning polling results in order to diminish the broad popularity of Hillary Clinton.

In an article on Fox Nation (the notoriously dishonest Fox News community site), a poll conducted (pdf) by Monmouth University is given a thorough, four paragraph, analysis by conservative fabulist Michael Barone. The conclusion he draws from his careful examination of the poll data is that Clinton’s showing is “underwhelming.”

Fox Nation

For more made-up Fox-aganda, get the acclaimed ebook:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Community’s Assault on Truth

It takes a seriously determined feat of self-delusion to make that assessment. Clinton is shown to be beating every prominent Republican matched against her in the poll. She is ahead of Chris Christie 43-39; Marco Rubio 47-36; Jeb Bush 47-37; and Ted Cruz 48-32. She has the highest favorable rating (52%) of anyone in the field, including a net positive in the survey’s “red” states. The GOP’s Tea Party all-stars fare considerably worse: Rand Paul, 34%, Rubio, 33%; Cruz, 22%. And, not that this will be any factor in 2016, but Sarah Palin’s unfavorability soars over everyone else at a whopping 61%.

This tendency for Republicans to mis-read polling seems to be a permanent part of their character. During the 2012 campaign they famously embraced what they called “unskewed” polls, but were actually perversions of polling data that proved to be astronomically wrong. Facilitated by Fox News, these defective analyses produced a reality shock when President Obama was handily reelected. There was a near mental collapse on the right who didn’t think that such a thing was possible, despite all the legitimate polling that predicted it. Even Karl Rove persisted in an embarrassing on-air denial as the race was called for Obama.

After the election, the GOP and Fox News resolved to reexamine their perspectives on strategy, analysis, and reporting. However, it now appears that they have sunk back into their old habits of self-deception and disinformation. It’s fair to assume that this psychosis will produce the same results in 2014 and 2016 as they did in 2012. If you can’t face the reality of a situation, you can’t respond to what is actually taking place. And Fox seems determined to maintain their aversion to reality which, as Stephen Colbert has revealed, has “a well known liberal bias.”

RNC Threatens NBC, CNN: Cancel Hillary Projects Or Lose GOP Debates

Posted by on August 5, 2013 at 2:18 pm. 17 Comments :

The Republican National Committee is flexing its acutely atrophied muscles this morning with a nearly impotent threat aimed at their foes in the mainstream media.

RNC Debates
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This is just too funny. RNC chair Reince Priebus has sent letters to the heads of CNN and NBC to protest their plans to produce projects about Hillary Clinton, who is a possible candidate for the Democratic nomination for president in 2016. Priebus is very upset and is issuing an ultimatum to the networks that will surely cause them to lose sleep – due to their uncontrollable fits of laughter.

What isn’t so funny is a political party that thinks it has the right to demand that entertainment producers bend to its will. In fact, it’s an open assault on freedom of expression. It would be one thing for the RNC to decline to work with a network that it believes has a partisan slant against them. But it is something else entirely to threaten a network in order to force them to alter specific programming.

Priebus begins his missive by whining about the perceived bias that has been a part of the GOP gospel for decades:

“It’s appalling to know executives at major networks like NBC and CNN who have donated to Democrats and Hillary Clinton have taken it upon themselves to be Hillary Clinton’s campaign operatives.”

Appalling indeed! I’m sure that Priebus is just as disturbed by the million dollar gift that Fox News (News Corp) gave to the Republican Governor’s Association, and all the other right-wingers at Fox who have donated to Republicans, including News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch. And there is no network that has so brazenly acted as a partisan campaign operative than Fox News, the PR division of the GOP. Priebus’ letter to Fox must still be in the mail. In the meantime, he is making his position to CNN and NBC crystal clear:

“If they have not agreed to pull this programming prior to the start of the RNC’s Summer Meeting on August 14, I will seek a binding vote stating that the RNC will neither partner with these networks in 2016 primary debates nor sanction primary debates they sponsor.”

Oh my. If CNN and NBC were unable to acquire any of the GOP primary debates they might be forced to schedule interesting and entertaining programs instead. That’ll show ’em.

Let’s face it, the RNC has never been thrilled about putting their candidates in situations where they might face fair questions about their records and policy positions. They herd them onto Fox News where they can expect softballs and gushing praise. During the 2012 campaign right-wingers like Hugh Hewitt and Breitbart’s John Nolte were counseling the RNC to ban debates hosted by what they believed to be unfriendly media. Sarah Palin was advising Republicans to “speak through Fox News.”

The best thing that could happen to the Democrats is for Republicans to sequester themselves in the bosom of Fox News. It would limit their exposure to the broader electorate and the independents they need to win. It would also insure that their candidates were unvetted and unprepared for the real-life battles of a campaign. If they spend the primary season being fluffed by Fox, when they eventually face the general election they will be surprised by sharp criticisms from which they were shielded in their chummy primary.

One positive aspect of this strategy is that fewer voters, and a more narrow, conservative subset, would see the primary telecasts. Considering how often the GOP candidates in 2012 embarrassed themselves, that could be a benefit. Of course, those segments would still be looped on every other news broadcast the following day, so the benefit would be short lived.

By giving CNN and NBC the cold shoulder, the RNC increases the likelihood that only voters who have already decided to vote Republican will see the debate in its entirety. And while that limits their exposure to gaffes, it also limits their opportunity to make an appeal to undecided voters. Since Priebus has already promised to hold fewer debates in the future, the GOP’s visibility to anyone outside their circle shrinks considerably. The result is that GOP primary voters will be more partisan, more extreme, and more out of pace with the general population. That’s a recipe for a Republican nominee who will lead the party to a massive defeat.

Ironically, the motivation for the Priebus ultimatum is the prospect of a couple of Hillary Clinton projects being released several months prior to the 2016 election. That was precisely the issue that sparked the Citizen’s United Supreme Court ruling that now permits corporations and individuals to make unlimited, anonymous donations to political campaigns. At the time, Republicans were fiercely supportive of the Citizen’s United production and its release just a few weeks prior to an election. Now they are just as fiercely opposed to it.

What’s more, Priebus accuses the networks of producing a “political ad masquerading as an unbiased production.” How he arrived at that conclusion he doesn’t say. He has not seen either production or spoken with the producers. He has no idea whether they will be complimentary, derogatory, or neutral representations of Clinton. He is making a wholly uninformed assumption and using that as the basis of his attempt to bully the networks.

So let the RNC snub CNN and NBC and any other “lamestream” media that they are afraid of. Let them take their balls and go home to Fox News where their cult-like disciples will embrace them with enthusiasm. It will only result in there being less of their obnoxious blather littering the television landscape and a better chance of them losing in November of 2016. Nice work Reince.

[Update: Priebus took his whining to (where else) Fox News last night and reiterated his silly ultimatum. Meanwhile, both CNN and NBC have refused to cave saying that it is “premature” to judge the projects that are not even in production at this time. Priebus gave an 8/14 deadline for the networks to comply. Here’s hoping he is dumb enough to follow through.

Tea Party Poopers: Old, White, Evangelical, Men Spell Doom For The GOP

Posted by on July 31, 2013 at 7:48 pm. 15 Comments :

Tea PartyThe fortunes of the Tea Party have declined considerably since their founding a couple of years ago. Majorities of Americans view them unfavorably and they have caused some notable electoral losses where otherwise a conservative Republican was expected to win.

A new survey by Pew Research reveals an even more troubling future if you’re an aspiring Republican. The survey indicates that most Republicans want to see their Party change. As a group there is some ambiguity about the direction of the change with some wanting to shift further right, and others wanting to become more moderate. However, when looking at the Tea Party, the favored direction is crystal clear. They want Republicans to be more conservative and less willing to compromise with Democratic colleagues.

In addition to the starkly partisan bent of the Tea Party, the survey also shows that they regard themselves as more likely to vote, particularly in primaries. That’s incredibly good news for Tea Partiers – and Democrats. For example, polls show Sarah Palin as the favorite for the Republican nomination for the senate in Alaska. However, the same poll shows her getting crushed by Democratic incumbent, Mark Begich.

On almost every issue – immigration, abortion, marriage equality, guns – the Tea Party is decidedly more right-wing. They advocate the most conservative policies across the board, and are the least accommodating to negotiations with Democrats. The problem this presents to the GOP is that their current batch of representatives have actual records that contain evidence of legislative bargaining. That is anathema to the Teabaggers. Consequently, they are more likely to back opponents in Republican primaries to oust the offending members.

Stalwart conservatives like Lamar Alexander and Mitch McConnell are already drawing primary challengers. Tea Partiers are blasting them as liberals who are in league with President Obama’s mission to destroy America. It takes a pretty hefty serving of delusion to accuse McConnell, who declared that his highest priority was to make Obama a one-term president, of being a progressive partner to the President.

Should the extremist faction of the party prevail, they will create opportunities for Democrats to swoop in and grab a seat they would not have otherwise had a chance to win. Just ask Senators Claire McCaskill and Joe Donnelly, or even Harry Reid. And the Republicans in congress are already setting the stage for defeat. They have the lowest favorable ratings in history, and they are responding to that by threatening to shut the government down, wasting time with meaningless votes, and performing in ridiculous pseudo-scandal hearings.

The most obvious differentiating characteristics of the Tea Party is that they are older, whiter, more devoutly Christian, and more likely to be men. That puts them at odds with the general population. Therefore, while they may enjoy some primary victories, the general elections will be more problematic. They are out of sync with the electorate both demographically and ideologically.

Last year Democrats defied the odds and toughed out some unexpected wins. In a year that many predicted would be bloody for them, Democrats gained seats in both the House and the Senate, and of course, Obama won reelection. Some of the credit for that goes to Tea Party Republicans who simply had no chance of carrying their races. And now they seem hell-bent on repeating that performance. Democrats should be prepared to send thank you notes to the GOP in November of 2014 if this trend keeps up.

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The GOP Alienates Another Key Constituent Group: Seniors

Posted by on July 1, 2013 at 8:36 pm. 7 Comments :

The Republican Party seems to be on a frantic mission to destroy their reputation with every constituency of voters in America, other than the Taliban wing of the Tea Party Christianists.

The GOP is currently engaged in nationwide battles to give government control over women’s bodies. They are exploiting every opportunity to suppress voting rights for African-Americans and other minorities. They oppose immigration reform that would eventually offer a path to legalized status for Latinos, some of whom have lived their whole lives in the United States. They obstructed the enactment of measures that would have prevented the interest rates for student loans from doubling. And, as always, they work feverishly to protect the wealthy from paying a fair tax rate, while allowing the rates to increase for those less fortunate.

So let’s see…who did they leave out? They got women, African-Americans, Latinos, youth, the poor and middle class. Who is left for Republicans to piss off?

Well, it should come as no surprise that the masterminds running the Republican machine noticed the crack in their strategic foundation and have promptly dedicated themselves to its repair.

That’s why Mitch McConnell, the Republican minority leader in the senate, jumped into action to attack Hillary Clinton, a prospective candidate for president in 2016, as an old hag, thus insulting the final demographic group that may still have had some affection for the GOP. McConnell uproariously joked…

“Don’t tell me Democrats are the party of the future when their presidential ticket for 2016 is shaping up to look like a rerun of the ‘Golden Girls.'”

Let’s just set aside the fact that “The Golden Girls” was a successful and popular sitcom that ran for seven years, with a cast of mature women who had active lives professionally, socially, and romantically. America’s seniors, who already have some cause to reject the Republican agenda that has sought to dismantle Social Security and cut funding for Medicare, can’t be too thrilled with being portrayed as useless fossils who should be consigned to history’s dustbin. Now they have been directly assaulted as has-beens, in the words of Karl Rove, who said of Clinton and her peers that “we’re at the end of her generation and that it’s time for another to step forward.”

For the record, Hillary Clinton is 65, Karl Rove is 62, and Mitch McConnell is 71. In January of 2017, when the next president is inaugurated, Clinton will be a year younger than Ronald Reagan was when his term began.

Mitch McConnell

McConnell had better start paying more attention to what’s in his own Depends. He is approaching his thirtieth year in office and has one of the lowest favorability ratings of any sitting senator. He is up for reelection next year and his first announced opponent is the 34 year old Kentucky Secretary of State, Alison Lundergan Grimes. Not exactly what you would call a “Golden Girl,” unless you what you meant by golden was someone with a rich set of skills, experience and support.

It’s hard to understand what the Republican Party is up to by alienating so many voters. Perhaps their plan to is expand their efforts to define corporations and fetuses as persons and give them the right to vote. But if they have to depend on Teabaggers, End-Timers, and NRA-theists, they are likely to find themselves elected only in districts dug into underground bunkers with ham radio reception that only gets Glenn Beck and Pat Robertson.

Floundering GOP Senate Candidate Turns To Republican PR (aka Fox News) For Help

Posted by on June 22, 2013 at 11:39 am. 4 Comments :

The race to fill John Kerry’s senate seat in Massachusetts has never been much of contest. Democrat Ed Markey has led Republican Gabriel Gomez from the start and in the few days left before next Tuesday’s election, he has expanded to his lead to up to 20 points in some polls. But that hasn’t stopped Fox News from brazenly trying to manipulate the outcome by juicing their coverage of the race in favor of Gomez.

Fox News

Having concluded that their efforts to boost the Gomez candidacy with phony polling analysis and swipes at Markey, Fox News is ramping up their game in a last ditch attempt to put their man in the senate. Tomorrow, on Fox News Sunday, they will feature an interview with Gomez, just two days before the election. That’s a pretty generous donation of valuable air time on a nationally televised program. Any candidate would be thrilled to get that much free publicity.

However, Ed Markey isn’t so fortunate. The “fair and balanced” folks at Fox will only be hosting Gomez at this critical juncture in the campaign. In fact, Markey has not been on Fox at any time during this campaign, while Gomez has been featured multiple times. And Fox always allows Gomez to advertise his web site and plead for donations.

The booking of Gomez on Fox News Sunday is just another example of how Fox has established itself as the PR agency for the Republican Party. There is no more reliable ally for GOP candidates, particularly when they are desperate and appear to be trailing badly. And even when the candidate isn’t available, the Fox anchors and pundits are there to lavish praise on them and to smear their Democratic opponents. It’s a valuable service/scam for which the candidate doesn’t have to shell out a single penny.

Fox News Math-Challenged Poll Analysis Strikes Again In Massachusetts

Posted by on June 15, 2013 at 12:19 pm. 13 Comments :

Last year Fox News suffered some of the most embarrassing episodes of journalistic failure in recent history. They were so determined to orchestrate a Republican victory that they repeatedly shifted their analysis of presidential polling based on whether or not their candidate was ahead. If Romney was leading in any poll, Fox would hype it relentlessly and celebrate the wisdom of the pollsters. But if Obama took the lead, Fox feverishly denounced the polls as biased and unbelievable. They even went so far as to ignore their own polls if the result was favorable to Obama.

Late in the presidential campaign an obscure blogger published what he claimed were “unskewed” polls. He re-weighted the partisan breakdowns on the published polling to presume higher numbers of Republicans in the electorate. After Obama’s decisive victory, Fox News, and the rest of the GOP establishment, were shamed by their diversion from reality. Their audience was furious at having been so flagrantly misled. A humbled Fox then fired and/or benched their most blatant info-manglers like Dick Morris and Karl Rove, and promised to do better in the future.

Fox News

Well, so much for that promise. This morning’s headline on Fox News blared an utterly false rendering of poll results in the Massachusetts special election to fill John Kerry’s senate seat. The article, with no byline or source (but numerous grammatical errors), stated flatly that “Polls Show Gomez, Markey close in special election race for Mass senate seat.” However, that can only be true if you consider a 9.3 average advantage for Markey as being “close.” The lede paragraph declares…

“The Senate race is (sic) Massachusetts is deadlocked heading into the final weeks […] Yet most polls show first-time Republican candidate and former Navy SEAL Gabriel Gomez within just several percentage points of Democratic Rep. Edward Markey”

Actually, most polls show Markey with a sweeping lead. The RealClearPolitics average of polls for the race give Markey a 9.3% lead, and some polls have his lead as high as 12%. How Fox takes that data and describes the race as “deadlocked” is beyond explanation. What’s more, in a story that is ostensibly reporting poll results, the polling data is not even mentioned until the twenty-first paragraph of a twenty-four paragraph article. The whole thing reads like a press release from the Gomez campaign if it were written by a functionally illiterate press agent.

What Fox hopes to achieve with this brazenly dishonest reporting is hard to figure. If they think that by manufacturing a fake competitiveness in the race it will improve Gomez’s prospects for victory, they have learned nothing from their embarrassing behavior last year. More likely, they are merely fulfilling their role as the GOP PR agency whose duty is to hype Republican positions and politicians without regard for the truth. And if this is a prelude to how Fox will conduct itself in next year’s mid-term elections, we can expect another season of sensationally skewed reporting that woefully misinforms their gullible audience. Actually, it should be kinda fun.

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Fox Nation vs. Reality: Fox Gives ‘Illegal Immigrants’ Full Voting Rights

Posted by on April 23, 2013 at 3:46 pm. NO Comments :

Continuing to cling obsessively to their anti-Latino bigotry, Fox News latched unto a story in Politico that speculated about an electoral windfall for Democrats if the immigration bill winding through congress becomes law. The Politico story was not particularly well-reasoned (and an article in The Guardian masterfully rebuts it), but, true to form, the lie-factory at Fox Nation took a weak argument and made it even less palatable with their trademark brand of hyperbole and inbred prejudice.

Fox Nation

The title, “Immigration Bill Gives Illegal Immigrants Full Voting Rights,” is patently false. No one other than an actual citizen is permitted to vote in this country and the pending immigration bill doesn’t change that. In fact, it contains a provision that explicitly punishes anyone who is not a citizen, if they unlawfully cast a ballot, by precluding them from obtaining citizenship.

So Fox’s assertion that “illegal Immigrants” will get full voting rights is dead wrong. And so is their unrelenting use of the derogatory phrase “illegal Immigrants.” Many news outlets have ceased to use the term that is considered offensive by those to whom it refers. Even the Fox News Latino web site has formally abandoned it.

The gist of the Politico article is that Democrats stand to gain electorally if the estimated 11 million undocumented residents were to become citizens. However, the legislation currently being debated contains a pathway to citizenship that would take thirteen years to complete. A lot can happen in politics in thirteen years. What’s more, there is no indication that all of the 11 million would ever become full citizens (either by choice or due to the stringent requirements in the law), or that those who did would ever register and turn out to vote.

So even if the Fox Nationalists had not overplayed their rhetorical bias in the headline, the facts would still not support their panicky fear of a browner, more Democratic electorate. That prospect is already manifest and is due primarily to the fact that Democrats welcome a more diverse society, while Republicans insult and demean minorities and aspiring citizens.

If the folks at Fox, and their allies in the GOP, are worried about losing future elections due to an expanding voter pool (and they should be), they might try not deliberately alienating the fastest growing demographic group in the nation, rather than trying to obstruct legal citizens from voting with measures that disenfranchise minorities, seniors, students, and the poor. But that would put them at odds with their Tea Party contingent and the confederate dead-enders that are the core of their southern strategy. It’s kind of a rock-and-a-hard-place dilemma for the them. Except the rock is equality and the hard place is their compulsive hatred for anyone not like them.