Allen West Joins Hate Group Advisory Board

Posted by on May 8, 2012 at 10:43 am. 6 Comments :

Allen WestAllen West has already distinguished himself as a commie-phobic, Nazi-baiting extremist who engaged in mock executions against innocent Iraqis before leaving the Army and running for congress. He has not even completed his first term yet he has offended millions of Americans as well as his colleagues. He called Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz “the most vile, unprofessional, and despicable member of the US House of Representatives.” And he hired a staffer who excited her Tea Party audience by declaring that “If ballots don’t work, bullets will.”

Now West has added to his resume his participation as a member of the advisory board of the Thomas More Law Center, a notoriously aggressive group of Christian extremists with a record of blatant bigotry. The TMLC supported former judge Ray Moore who was ousted from the bench for violating a federal court order to remove a religious monument from his courthouse. They also brought suits to force schools to teach creationism along side evolution. They challenged the Hate Crimes Prevention Act which was passed after the brutal murders of Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. They tried to force Planned Parenthood to falsely declare a link between abortion and breast cancer. They are virulently homophobic. And they have been amongst the most rabid anti-Muslim organizations in the country with wild assertions that Islam is a hoax disguised as a religion bent on destroying America.

It seems a perfect affiliation for West who shares the same principles. In a press release announcing the appointment, West said…

“What impressed me about the Law Center is that it knows the true threat to our nation posed by radical Islam and it has initiated and funded more cases challenging the Stealth Jihad being waged against our Nation than any other public interest law firm in America.”

That sentiment was captured by West recently when he said that, “When tolerance becomes a one-way street it will lead to cultural suicide.” Let that sink in for minute. What West is saying is that if we encounter intolerance on the part of others and do not thereafter become intolerant ourselves we are committing cultural suicide. So West believes that we should assume the worst characteristics of our enemies. If they are racist, we should be racist. If they torture, we should torture. The problem with that is that when we become as bad as those we are fighting, then what the hell are we fighting for?

Patrick Murphy is West’s opponent for the 18th district congressional seat in Florida. Here is how you can help him defeat West.

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New York Post Columnist Tells Fox News That Obama Might Kill Biden

Posted by on May 7, 2012 at 1:13 pm. 1 Comments :

Michael Goodwin is a notoriously uber-conservative writer for Rupert Murdoch’s wingnut tabloid, the New York Post. This morning he ventured over to Murdoch’s Fox News studios to be interviewed about the presidential election.

Fox News Alert

When the subject turned to vice-presidents, Goodwin couldn’t resist making a Mafia association with President Obama caste as the Godfather. His prediction is that Joe Biden will be disposed of to make room for Hillary Clinton on the Democratic ticket.

“Joe Biden is the Fredo of the Obama family and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him sent out on a little fishing boat one early morning. […] If it comes close in the summer, if the polls show Obama trailing, he will make the switch. Hillary Clinton will be on the ticket and Joe Biden will be sleeping with the fishes.”

Twice in Goodwin’s remarks he refers to Biden being assassinated in order to reassign Clinton. The “little fishing boat” and “sleeping with the fishes” are both Mafia-speak for mob hits from the iconic Godfather movies.

The outlandishness of Goodwin’s assertions are nearly matched by his incoherent analysis. If Obama were going to ditch Biden he would have done so before having produced warehouses full of Obama/Biden campaign paraphernalia. And making such a switch later in the season would only reek of desperation. What’s more, Clinton has absolutely no incentive to leave her post as Secretary of State, where she is a dominant player on the world stage, for a demotion to vice-president, where she’d be relegated to attending funerals and other ceremonial duties. And the cherry on the top of Goodwin’s nuttiness is that he actually aligns himself with the political analysis of the deceased leader of Al Qaeda:

“Even Osama Bin Laden, in those letters, said that Biden is woefully unprepared to be president.”

When right-wingers praise Bin Laden as an ideological ally something has gone terribly wrong. But the right’s obsession with hostile rhetoric is well documented. They frequently engage in assassination fantasies featuring Obama, and they openly yearn for violent ends to their political adversaries. So it is not surprising to see them project their psychotic behavior onto the President and suggest that he would off his own VP. That’s how the right thinks about these matters, and they assume that everyone else is as emotionally perverse as they are themselves.


LOL! Desperate Right-Wing Media Mocks Obama Rally

Posted by on May 6, 2012 at 10:05 am. 4 Comments :

Let’s face it, conservatives are becoming more desperate and delusional every day. They hate their nominee for president and, in order to avoid the unthinkable prospect of President Obama’s reelection, they are literally hallucinating as they report on campaign events.

Obama / Romney Rallies

The Fox Nation posted an article they sourced from Twitter (that’s right, the anonymous news pros at Twitter) that featured a photo taken at Obama’s rally in Ohio yesterday. The headline reads “Not The ‘Overflow’ Crowd Obama Hoped For.” However, the photo contradicts the headline by showing thousands of supporters in the stadium’s stands. While it does not appear to be a full house, it is clearly well-attended. Officials estimated the crowd to be approximately 14,000. It should also be noted that the Twitter photo appears to have been taken prior to the start of the rally as other photos show the area in front of the stage to be packed with supporters.

The severity of delusional dysfunction was even more acute at Breitbart where they posted the same Twitter pic with the headline “Obama Launches Campaign In Empty Arena.” Empty? Really? Their readers must suffer from extreme cognitive impairment if they can read this tripe without falling down laughing. They even have a visual aid to make clear that the arena was far from empty. The arena holds 20,000, so it was more than two thirds full for an event six months prior to election day.

The brazen dishonesty of the the Breitbrats and the Fox Nationalists seems to have no lower boundary. They just keep descending into ever more surreal fantasy. By posting these hilariously mislabeled images they invite real world comparisons – which I have provided above. With rallies on the same weekend, Obama inspired thousands more than Romney’s paltry meetup. Which audience would you rather have if you were running for president?

You really have to wonder what motivates these wingnut propagandists. Surely they could produce better material than this. Maybe I’m giving them too much credit. Maybe this really is the best they can do. Or maybe the GOP has been overrun by a cell of Dadaist comedians and this is their idea of humor. God, I hope it’s the latter. That would explain things, because this is truly hysterical.


News Corpse Endorses Tea Party Candidate For Indiana Senate

Posted by on May 5, 2012 at 2:24 pm. 1 Comments :

State treasurer Richard Mourdock is challenging veteran Dick Lugar for his senate seat in Indiana. Mourdock is a Tea Party favorite and has been endorsed by Sarah Palin. For those reasons, and the explanation below, News Corpse is jumping on the Mourdock bandwagon.

Richard Mourdock

Lugar is a popular figure in Indiana across the political spectrum and would be a shoe-in for reelection in November. He is seeking his seventh term in the U.S. Senate and is the third most senior member of the body. Were he to win, and if the Republicans gained a majority, Lugar would become the President Pro Tempore of the Senate and third in line for succession to the presidency.

However, Indiana’s Republican primary voters are poised to throw all of that away on an ultra-conservative state pol with a narrow range of support from the Tea Party and right-wing SuperPACs from outside the state. He is presently beating Lugar in recent polls and has a significant financial advantage due to the wealthy PACs who are backing him like the Club for Growth and Americans for Prosperity.

The good news is that there are some precedents for his candidacy that point to an outcome that Democratic operatives are excited about. In 2010 there were seven candidates who defeated establishment Republicans in the GOP primaries. All seven were supported by the Tea Party (and most by Sarah Palin). And all seven lost to Democrats in the general election. Some of these seats would have gone easily to the Republican that lost in the primary, and but for that, the GOP might have been in the majority now.

The same scenario is playing out today in Indiana. It would be highly unlikely that Democrat Joe Donnelly would defeat Lugar in the general, but he is running neck and neck with Mourdock in recent polling. So a Mourdock victory on Tuesday represents the Democrats best chance to pick up a senate seat that would otherwise not be in play. And history suggests that Mourdock’s prospects are dim. Just take a look at Christine O’Donnell (DE), Joe Miller (AK), Ken Buck (CO), Linda McMahon (CT), Carl Paladino (NY), Sharron Angle (NV), and Carly Fiorina (CA).

So thanks Mr. Mourdock, and good luck on Tuesday. If you prevail in the primary you will be doing the Democrats a huge favor by opening up an opportunity they hadn’t expected. Even if you win in November, it will be better for Dems because you’ll be a junior member with no seniority and the ill will of your colleagues for having ousted their pal, Lugar.


Fox Nation Panic: Run For The Hills, The World Is Ending

Posted by on May 5, 2012 at 10:39 am. 2 Comments :

Sell! Sell! Sell! It’s all over. The stock market is collapsing. Wall Street is bankrupt. The economy is toast. Head for your bunker with your gold bullion, guns, and bibles. The End Times are here.

Fox Nation is feverishly reporting that “Stocks Tank, Nasdaq’s Worst Week Of 2012.” If this isn’t evidence of Armageddon, I don’t know what is.

Fox Nation - Stocks Tank

After this horrific market crash the NASDAQ will only be up 13.5% year-to-date – a mere nine times more than what the average bank savings account is earning for the whole year. If you listened to Fox you would have missed out on one of the most precipitous stock rallies in decades.

And when was the last time that Fox reported that the market was significantly higher in any week this year? Good luck finding that report. Fox is on a mission to make President Obama and his administration look bad. That requires trumpeting bad news about the economy and ignoring the good news.

The problem is that by doing that, Fox also exacerbates negativity that can have the effect of producing a self-fulfilling prophecy and frighten people out of the market. But Fox doesn’t care about that. Hurting Obama is more important to Fox than accurately reporting on the economy.


Born And Bred In Brooklyn, U.S.A., They Call Me Adam Yauch But I’m M.C.A.

Posted by on May 4, 2012 at 3:57 pm. NO Comments :

The Beastie Boys may be remembered best for fighting for their right to party. But they were a groundbreaking trio of rockin rappers who cared about music and the world they lived in. Even if it was a World Gone Mad.

Adam Yauch passed away today at the age of 47 after a three year battle with cancer.

R.I.P. M.C.A.

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Heartland Institute: Osama Bin Laden Was Pro-Life. Are You?

Posted by on May 4, 2012 at 2:14 pm. 4 Comments :

In the annals of advertising, there are some notorious chapters wherein misguided persons or organizations justified displaying disgusting and hateful images and messages on billboards. However, it will be a long time (I hope) before anyone comes close to sinking as low as the Heartland Institute has done with its new series of advertisements promoting its upcoming anti-environment conference in Chicago.

Heartland Billboard

The Heartland Institute is a far-right think tank that denies the scientific reality of climate change. It is notoriously anti-science and has previously taken positions that rejected claims that tobacco was bad for your health. The reason for their advocacy of the absurd is that they are funded by corporations with vested interests in deceiving the public (i.e. Phillip Morris, ExxonMobil, Pfizer, etc). Additionally, they receive grants from ultra-conservative zealots like the Kochs, Scaifes, Waltons, etc.

This billboard campaign is particularly repulsive in that it associates honest and clear thinking advocates for the environment with some of the most horrific creatures of crimes and atrocities. In addition to the Unabomber, the Heartland’s campaign features Charles Manson and Osama Bin Laden. The argument they are making is that these monsters believed in climate change and therefore you are also a monster if you believe in it. That is not an implied interpretation. It is what they say explicitly in their own justification:

“These rogues and villains were chosen because they made public statements about how man-made global warming is a crisis and how mankind must take immediate and drastic actions to stop it.” […]

“Because what these murderers and madmen have said differs very little from what spokespersons for the United Nations, journalists for the ‘mainstream’ media, and liberal politicians say about global warming. […]

“The point is that believing in global warming is not ‘mainstream,’ smart, or sophisticated. In fact, it is just the opposite of those things. […]

“The people who still believe in man-made global warming are mostly on the radical fringe of society. This is why the most prominent advocates of global warming aren’t scientists. They are murderers, tyrants, and madmen.”

Aside from being grossly insulting, the Heartlanders are 100% wrong. The vast majority of scientists, climatologists, and other experts agree that climate change is occurring and that human activity is at the very least a significant contributor. There is no dispute among reputable scientists. The only dispute comes from conservative politicians, pundits, and researchers working for the corporations profiting from the destruction of the planet’s ecosystem.

The tactic of recruiting murderers and madmen for this campaign disparages all of the sincere people who are fighting for a better, cleaner, healthier world. But it also opens the door to reciprocal attacks on the Heartlanders. For instance:

Heartland Billboard

That’s right. Osama Bin Laden, Timothy McVeigh, Scott Roeder, Eric Rudolph, and others, were all anti-abortion extremists and terrorists. Does that mean that all pro-life activists can be lumped together with these despicable characters just because…

“…what these murderers and madmen have said differs very little from what spokespersons for the [National Right to Life Committee], journalists for the ‘mainstream’ media, and [conservative] politicians say about [abortion]?”

See how easy this is? Hitler was anti-union. Stalin opposed gay marriage. Anders Breivik hated Marxism. I could go on. The obvious conclusion is that conservative principles inspire mass murderers, right?

The propaganda purveyors at the Heartland Institute have demonstrated that they are not a serious organization whose opinion matters to people who truly care about this issue. The media ought not to provide a platform for their views and politicians who associate themselves with this group should be asked whether they endorse the hate mongering that flows from these phony Heartlanders. There is simply no room in the debate for this sort of irresponsible rhetoric. Especially when it comes from an enterprise that has been lying about the substance of the matter for years.


Fox Nation vs. Reality: Quoting Castro Quoting Obama

Posted by on May 3, 2012 at 7:32 pm. 7 Comments :

After a week of Fox News fabulists going bonkers over President Obama’s use of the word “Forward” and declaring that he was a socialist because of it (never mind that Fox also used it their promos), we now have Fox Nation publishing a piece that aligns Obama with Fidel Castro:

Fox Nation - Castro

Not surprisingly, there is very little in that headline that is true. Obama did not “rip” the United States, he did not “compliment” Cuba, and there is no evidence that he ever said anything remotely similar to that “quote” to any visitor. The one thing that the Fox Nationalists got right is that Castro said something.

What happened is that Fox Nation’s editors found an article by Kyle Olson of the Education Action Group. EAG is a far-right, Koch-funded cell of anti-unionists in Michigan. Olson pulled a quote from a column by Castro that was published on Counterpunch.org. In that article Castro bragged about Cuba’s beneficial relationship with allies like Venezuela, and added…

“President Obama knows this only too well and has talked about it with some of his visitors. He candidly told one of them: ‘The problem is that the United States sends soldiers while Cuba, however, sends doctors.’“

Castro doesn’t say when, where, or to whom, Obama allegedly said this. There is no record of any visitor that was ever told any such thing, or how Castro would have heard about it. Did some mysterious visitor rush back to his hotel, get Cuba on the line and beam “Hey Fidel, guess what Barack just told me?” However, it is certainly a useful and self-serving tale for Castro to weave.

But let’s set aside all of those points, that suggest that this whole thing is a hoax, and just examine the substance of the quote. There have been plenty of discussions about foreign policy strategies that weigh the benefits of military aid and humanitarian aid. The question of whether the U.S. should seek to strengthen it’s relations with other countries by sending doctors or soldiers is one that is reasonable and proper. It is neither a rip nor a compliment. It is simply good diplomacy to analyze and arrive at an effective balance.

Clearly the editors at Fox Nation have bought into the story as they posted Castro’s quote as if it were fact. It’s ironic, and more than a little unpatriotic, that they put more faith in what Castro says than their own president. If one didn’t know better it would appear that the Fox Nationalists are cozying up to the communist dictator who they obviously regard as a truthful source. Perhaps Rep. Allen West, who is so anxious about the possibility of communists in congress, should look into whether Fox is secretly harboring traitors in their newsroom.

It is also interesting to note the graphic that the Fox Nationalists chose to accompany their article. I’m sure they innocently selected a photo of Obama applauding in front of a banner that says “CUBA.” Certainly they would have had no intention of conveying any message that the President supported the communist state. And it’s surely not relevant that another angle of the same event reveals that Obama was speaking at a conference of the Cuban American National Foundation, an anti-Castro group based in Miami:

Obama Cuban American


Fox News Hypocritically Attacks Obama’s Fundraisers While Ignoring Romney’s

Posted by on May 2, 2012 at 3:00 pm. 5 Comments :

On Monday fox News published a report that purported to unveil “a veritable army” of fundraisers working on behalf of President Obama’s reelection. The focus of the article was a practice known as bundling where supporters solicit their family, friends, and colleagues, to make a contribution to a candidate’s campaign. Bundlers can accumulate large amounts of total donations but each of the contributors is bound by the standard contribution limit of $2,500.

The article on Fox was headlined “Meet the bundlers: Obama’s fundraising team a who’s who of Hollywood, media,” and began by saying…

“Bundlers are the original movers and shakers in the world of high-dollar campaign fundraising. And President Obama’s reelection machine has enlisted a veritable army of them — a roster that includes some of the biggest names in media and show business.

“Among them are entertainment magnate Tyler Perry, actress Eva Longoria, DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg and Vogue editor Anna Wintour. It’s just not Hollywood backing the president — Comcast executive David Cohen, as well as lawyers and finance titans from Goldman Sachs, Barclays Capital and other firms help complete the list of hundreds.”

It should be noted that every contributor who donates $250 or more is subject to disclosure rules. The bundlers themselves are not. We know who is bundling for Obama because his campaign discloses their names, which Mitt Romney refuses to do. The only Romney bundlers who are known are registered lobbyists whom the law requires be disclosed. That’s why the OpenSecrets listing of Obama Bundlers shows 532 names while the list of Romney’s bundlers shows only 22. And, of course, all of Romney’s bundlers on his list are lobbyists. We have no idea how many other bundlers are working in Romney’s behalf. Obama has no lobbyists bundling for his campaign.

The primary point of the Fox News article is that Obama has a large number of bundlers, many of whom are in the entertainment industry. Had Fox bothered to do just a modicum of research they would have discovered that only 25 (6%) of Obama’s bundlers are from Hollywood. What’s more, the implied criticism of bundling ignores the fact that the donors are actually disclosed, while contributions from corporations and billionaires to SuperPACs are are not. So there is transparency of bundling donations that does not exist with the SuperPACs that are a much bigger part of Romney’s operations.

The problem with Fox’s analysis is that they can’t compare Obama’s fundraising to Romney’s because of Romney’s obsessive secrecy. Romney may have many more bundlers than Obama, we just don’t know. He may also have an army of Hollywood elitists bundling for him, we just don’t know that either. The only thing we know is that Romeny does rely heavily on lobbyists while Obama has none acting as bundlers. So Fox is being overtly hypocritical by criticizing Obama while letting Romney off the hook.

If Fox had conducted the necessary research to be able to make appropriate comparisons, this might have been an interesting article. But since Romney’s campaign keeps everyone in the dark, perhaps that should have been the lede. What this article tells us about Obama is useless without comparative data for Romney, but the fact that Obama is forthcoming about his finances and Romney is not would have been the real story for any legitimate news enterprise. Of course the qualification of “legitimate news enterprise” automatically rules out Fox.

Another aspect of the hypocrisy of Fox is that just a few days ago they were complaining bitterly about an Obama web site that identified a few of Romney’s big money backers. Fox characterized this as akin to the Nixon enemies list or McCarthyism. The comparison was ludicrous and utterly detached from reality. But it’s interesting that now Fox thinks it’s perfectly alright to disclose the names of Obama supporters without raising questions about Nixonian or McCarthyite paranoia. Just another example of the doubly standardized hypocrisy that Fox has developed into an art form.


Mitt Romney’s Campaign Slogan: We’re Not Stupid

Posted by on May 2, 2012 at 1:10 pm. 6 Comments :

This week there has been a swirling mini-controversy surrounding the use of the word “Forward” in a new web video posted on Barack Obama’s campaign site. The Right-Wing Noise Machine sprung into action to assert that there was some sort of connection between that word and its use by socialist groups over a hundred years ago.

Of course the word has been used by innumerable organizations that sought only to convey a sense of progress and a positive vision of the future. It is the official slogan of the state of Wisconsin. It is part of the registered servicemark (Reagan Forward) of the Ronald Reagan Society at his alma mater, Eureka College. It was even used by Fox News in on-air promos that shouted “Move Forward.”

What has been ignored in this discussion is what the campaign of Mitt Romney was using for their slogan. Well, I went to his web site and found this:

Mitt Romney - We're Not Stupid

So there you have it. Romney’s campaign slogan is “We’re Not Stupid.” It’s safe to say that this slogan is not in use by any other organization. How many other organizations actually need to remind their supporters that they aren’t idiots?

Tea PartyThe Romney strategists are wisely tackling head-on a serious concern within their constituency. After all, the Tea Party is a major part of the GOP base. Remember the Tea Party? They were the ones disrupting town halls. They were the ones carrying signs that said “Keep government’s hands off my Medicare.” They were the ones who revered the intellectual prowess of Glenn Beck, Herman Cain, and Sarah Palin.

But this is no time to dwell on your flaws. This is the time to proudly display your declaration of non-stupidity. It’s a call to arms that will reverberate throughout the campaign season. Chant this slogan at your rallies. The more you say it, the more people will be forced to consider the message of your insistent affirmation. And while Obama’s supporters are mumbling their Marxist mantras about moving the nation forward, you can stay focused on the one thing that your candidate thinks should be highlighted in these troubled times.

It’s a bold strategy, to be sure. By so forcefully rejecting the stupid, Romney risks alienating one of the biggest and most reliable segments of his GOP base. But apparently the Romney campaign is convinced that it’s a worthwhile risk.

So march forward, I mean ahead, Romneyites. And be sure to ask everyone you know, for the next six months “Are ya votin for Romney?” But don’t be surprised if all they say in response is “We’re not stupid.”