Day: 3/6/2013

Fox Nation vs. Reality: Night Of The Living Tea Party

Posted by on March 6, 2013 at 12:23 pm. NO Comments :

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These right-wing dead-enders will simply never learn. After having deluded themselves into believing that President Obama’s reelection was dead in the water, that Mitt Romney was a shoe-in to take up residency in the White House, and that all the polls were the work of corrupt partisans bent on deceiving the electorate, you would think that they would have joined the rest of America in the real world. You would be wholly and hysterically wrong.

Fox Nation

An article posted on Fox Nation declares wildly, and without rational support, that “The Tea Party Still Lives.” In one respect it is an encouraging development in that they must at least recognize that the far-right fringe of the GOP has been on life support for quite some time. However, this new diagnosis is based on the same sort of pathological denial as the claims that Obama’s presidency was terminal. The poll cited by the Fox Nationalists was commissioned by the Tea Party itself and the depth of the survey’s inquiry was astonishingly shallow.

For instance, the primary claim by the Tea Party pollsters is that “A plurality of Americans support ‘Tea Party principles.'” The principles they are boasting about include “free markets,” and “personal responsibility.” That’s a pretty vague set of principles that are held by most Americans regardless of party. Having established absolutely nothing with that inquiry, they proceed to juxtapose those results with what they consider to be the principles of everyone else: “higher taxes,” and “more spending.” At this point it should be fairly obvious that there is no credibility whatsoever in this poll.

It is interesting to note that, despite the dramatically biased construction of this poll, it could not even deliver a majority in favor of the skewed choices presented to the respondents. Only 48% said they agree with the “Tea Party principles” as described. What’s more, the actual poll results were not published on either Fox Nation or the site of their source, the ultra-conservative Washington Free Beacon. What do you suppose are they afraid of?

When credible pollsters have asked people whether they support the President’s positions on specific issues such as the budget, immigration, climate change, and gun safety, the results invariably favor Obama. And when pollsters inquire as to the level of support for the Tea Party, the results are pitifully low.

Nevertheless, the Tea Party continues to wallow in denial with fabricated polling and delusions of grandeur that defy reason. And even after being made fools of by partisan media that led them into the pits of pipe-dream propaganda, they continue to put their faith in media con artists like Fox News. Which, by the way, is all the better for Democrats and progressives who still live in the real world.

Bill O’Reilly And John Boehner: Brotherhood Of The Traveling Pants On Fire

Posted by on March 6, 2013 at 4:49 am. 2 Comments :

In recent days, the resounding cry from the right-wing pundits and politicians regarding sequestration has been a demonstrably false yammering that President Obama has neglected to put forth a plan to cut spending. And it’s a pretty good talking point except for the fact that there isn’t a bit of truth to it.

Boehner/O'Reilly

This plaintive squeal was heard last Sunday when John Boehner appeared on Meet the Press to peddle his party line fiction. He told host David Gregory that “even today, there’s no plan from Senate Democrats or the White House to replace the sequester.” For that mangling of the truth, Boehner earned a “Pants On Fire” designation from PolitiFact who posted a detailed debunking of Boehner’s…well, bunk. Boehner went on to blame senate Democrats for not passing a bill that only failed due to senate Republicans filibustering it.

The howling further escalated last night when Bill O’Reilly nearly had an aneurism while debating the same subject with Alan Colmes (video below). O’Reilly almost immediately began shouting red-faced at Colmes for his having correctly stated that the President does have a plan. O’Reilly viciously called his fellow Fox News employee a liar seven times in rapid succession as Colmes calmly objected and tried to settle him down. But O’Reilly could not be assuaged. Here is a partial transcript of the exchange:

O’Reilly: The President’s willing to have Americans suffer for the greater good of trying to have Nancy Pelosi be the new Speaker of the House. […] Give me one program he said he would cut.
Colmes: He would cut Medicare and Medicaid.
O’Reilly: That’s not a specific program.
Colmes: You asked me for a program – those are programs.
O’Reilly: You’re not telling me anything. It’s jack____ what you’re saying.
Colmes: There would be less money going to the states. There would be less money being reimbursed to doctors.
O’Reilly: You don’t know where. You don’t know how much. You don’t know to whom. And the reason you don’t know it is because the guy you revere refuses to say anything specific about anything.

O’Reilly’s high-pitched histrionics did nothing to make the substance of his ranting more truthful. Just as Boehner’s demurring failed to refute the factual evidence that the President’s plan does exist. It is available on the White House web site for anyone who is interested and honest – which obviously exempts Boehner and O’Reilly.

Watching trained circus clowns like O’Reilly and Boehner distort reality is bad enough, but what’s really troubling is the tendency of so much of the media to fail to set the record straight when there is no credible case to support the lies of these charlatans. And they will certainly not set the record straight themselves. O’Reilly in particular is notorious for digging in his heels even after he has been proven to be wrong. It’s a character trait common among egomaniacal sociopaths who regard themselves as infallible defenders of humanity’s virtue.