Occupy Reality: Americans Concern About Income Inequality Surges

Posted by on January 12, 2012 at 11:04 am. 3 Comments :

The Pew Research Center has conducted an inquiry into the degree of divisions within American society and found that conflicts between rich and poor now outpace other sources of group tension.

That result can only be interpreted as a success for the 99% and those who participated in the nationwide Occupy movement. They decisively altered the national dialogue from one that was obsessed with government spending and debt, to one that focused on economic justice and corporate abuse of power.

This is a terrible time for the GOP (Greedy One Percent) to be coalescing around Mitt Romney as their nominee for president. A multimillionaire, corporate raider who specializes in bankrupting companies and outsourcing jobs may not be the ideal candidate in this political environment. But, fortunately for Democrats, they are stuck with him.

The Wealth Gap in American is currently larger than it has ever been. It is larger than it was in the Great Depression. It is even larger than it was during the ancient Roman Empire that collapsed from the weight of its own injustice and oppression.

Click to enlarge
Decadence Index

The Republicans know all too well that their class war on behalf of the rich is toxic to their electoral aspirations. Their top strategist and pollster, Frank Luntz, has been counseling them to steer clear of debates on economic justice and free market capitalism. In a seminar for the Republican Governor’s Association he told them that he is “so scared of this anti-Wall Street effort. I’m frightened to death.” Even fellow Republicans are bashing the corporatist tendencies of Romney and his Bain Capital pedigree.

Not to be left out, Fox News joined the club by posting an article about the Pew survey on their Fox Nation web site. Consistent with their inbred bias, they mocked up a graphic that pastes Obama in front of the “Mission Accomplished” banner that George Bush made to pretend that the Iraq war was over, implying that Obama is responsible for the class tensions.

Fox Nation Rich/Poor Conflict

The problem with Fox’s characterization is that Obama was a late-comer to the issue. The people were way out in front of this and they overwhelming support the goals associated with the Occupy movement. And that includes many of the rich people we are supposed to be in conflict with. Notice how they never called it a class war until we fought back.

But more importantly, in their rush to smear the President, they are implicitly conceding that income inequality is a significant problem in America and that it is reaching an historic level of risk. Thanks Fox.

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James O’Keefe Crew Commits Voter Fraud

Posted by on January 11, 2012 at 3:05 pm. 6 Comments :

James O'KeefeThe man responsible for producing intentionally deceitful videos and engaging in unlawful political stunts has once again crafted a sham that may land him in jail.

James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas posted its latest video that purports to have uncovered a voting scandal that will shock the nation. He sent his pretend reporters to New Hampshire to masquerade as recently deceased voters. They identified themselves as the dead citizens and took ballots from poll workers in an effort to prove that this sort of voter fraud was possible.

The problem with this caper is that it is illegal to procure ballots “that are known by the person to be materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent.” The Project Veritas gang committed this crime numerous times and then posted video evidence of their crime spree on YouTube.

However, the entire escapade was a waste of time that proves nothing. The fact that it is possible for someone to falsely identify themselves at a polling place is not evidence that voter fraud of that sort is occurring. In fact, it appears that the only known perpetrators of this crime are O’Keefe’s associates. So they contrived this whole scheme to prove that they could do something that nobody else is doing, and in the process they violated federal law.

O’Keefe himself did not accompany his accomplices to New Hampshire because he is still on probation for pretending to be a telephone repairman in order to gain access to a U.S. senator’s office. He must now reside with his parents in New Jersey and cannot leave the state without permission from the court.

O’Keefe is an incorrigible criminal who rejects any attempt to rehabilitate himself. In addition to his falsification of ACORN videos, and his misrepresentation at Sen. Landrieu’s office, O’Keefe has lied to Census Bureau personnel, attempted to lure a CNN reporter into a sexual tryst, deceitfully edited covert videos of a meeting with NPR executives, and posed as Russian drug dealers attempting unsuccessfully to get Medicaid benefits. And in none of these affairs did he ever prove anything other than what a scoundrel and liar hie is.

Time will tell if any of the perpetrators of this latest scam will be prosecuted. O’Keefe could be liable as the ring leader. He may also be in violation of his probation which requires that he not be involved in any illegal activities. But one thing is certain: No one seems to care what he does any more. His toxic reputation has exiled him to the farthest reaches of the wing-nut web. This video was picked up by the Daily Caller, the Internet home of Tucker Carlson who has been thrown off of more networks than any other pundit. O’Keefe is a journalistic leper whose presence stirs repulsion. Let’s hope the authorities do their job and put him away for a while.


Fox Nation Paints Michelle Obama As A Very Angry Black Woman

Posted by on January 11, 2012 at 10:16 am. 3 Comments :

Continuing their campaign to disparage the Obama family at every opportunity, Fox Nation posted an article this morning that asserts that Michell Obama is engaging in “damage control” because “people try to paint me as some angry black woman.”

Hmm. I wonder who would try to paint Mrs. Obama as an angry black woman. Could it be Fox Nation, who last October published an article calling her “The Very Angry First Lady?”

Fox Nation Paints Michelle Obama As Angry

In that article Mrs. Obama was described as “ready to spew her bilious disgust with America on the campaign trail.” They provided no evidence whatsoever to support that hateful representation. It was just a dangling invective meant to perpetuate a racist stereotype.

Now the Fox Nationalists seem confused as to why the First Lady would be so sensitive about how the media is portraying her. But it is Fox News who is most guilty of those false, insulting, and racist portrayals in the first place.


US News & World Report Gives A Lesson In Dishonest Polling

Posted by on January 10, 2012 at 1:02 pm. 4 Comments :

If you are looking for a reliable way to conduct a poll that will provide bad news for a designated adversary, US News & World Report has a helpful example of how to accomplish your goal. All that’s necessary is to select a few unrelated questions that leave respondents with little leeway to actually express what they feel. For example, here are the questions that appeared on the poll that US News published yesterday:

As we enter the presidential election year of 2012, what potential news event do you fear the most?

  • President Obama wins reelection: 33%
  • Taxes will increase: 31%
  • Iran will get a nuclear weapon: 16%
  • Obama will lose reelection: 16%
  • North Korea will attack South Korea: 4%

How did the US News pollsters decide which potentially fearful events would appear in the poll? They have little correlation to one another, and even less correlation to the issues that Americans are actually concerned about. The top issues in almost every poll are jobs and the economy, none of which were represented in this poll.

Instead, the pollsters included two mirror images of a question about President Obama, and three responses about things that no one thinks are likely to occur. Consequently, it should not be surprising that the response from those fearing Obama’s reelection would draw the third of the country that are already committed opponents of the President. [Note: 67% of respondents do NOT fear Obama’s reelection most] The other responses are just filler designed to make the responses to the presidential question stand out. Even the response for those who are most afraid of Obama NOT being reelected is deliberately misleading. Most Obama supporters are fairly confidant that he will be reelected and, thus, would not select the option indicating that they fear that he would lose.

On the basis of this intentionally fraudulent survey, US News publishes an article with a headline that falsely declares “Americans, 2-1, Fear Obama’s Reelection,” which, even by the results of this phony survey, is not true. According to their own results only 1 out of 3 said that. But that doesn’t stop Fox News, and other biased entities that have no integrity, from re-posting the article. Fox Nation’s headline is “Obama Re-election Is Americans’ Top Fear.” Sure it is, except for all the other fears that weren’t included in the survey.

That’s how it works folks. Pay attention, because these charlatans are out to swindle you. They simply don’t care about making truthful representations. The only thing they care about is advancing their agenda at all costs. These are not bona fide news enterprises. I”m still trying to figure out if they are secretly published by The Onion.


How Stupid Are The Fox/Tea Party Nuts Who Want To Impeach Obama?

Posted by on January 10, 2012 at 12:59 am. 26 Comments :

In case anyone is still wondering how stupid the Fox News/Tea Party crowd is, they have announced that they are trying to raise money to fly a banner over the Super Bowl that will say “Impeach Obama.”

Fox Nation Impeach Obama

That’s right. The Super Bowl, over which it will be illegal to fly. The Super Bowl, which will be held in a covered stadium. These geniuses are plotting to hire an airplane to fly in restricted air space, pulling a banner that no one in the stadium would be able to see, that advocates a criminal procedure for which there is no legal basis. And presumably there are dimwits willing to donate to this quixotic scam.

The video above was posted with their pitch for contributors. It proudly displays a prior banner overflying of the Rose Parade which, due to weather and a late takeoff, they missed all but the last half hour. That ought to convince their victims, I mean donors, to dig deep.

I’ve gotta come up with a really dumb idea to fleece these morons. I can’t shake the feeling that I’m missing a rare opportunity to bank some coin before the Tea Party is over. Any suggestions?


Carnage Capitalism: When Mitt Romney Came To Town

Posted by on January 9, 2012 at 2:07 pm. 3 Comments :

“You have to ask the question, is capitalism really about the ability of a handful of rich people to manipulate the lives of thousands of people and then walk off with the money?” (h/t TPM)

You might be wondering which ultra-progressive enemy of conservative, free market, American principles uttered that indictment of capitalism and the GOP (Greedy One Percent) model of the economy. It wasn’t Michael Moore or Nancy Pelosi or George Soros. It was former Speaker of the House of Representatives, and current floundering Republican presidential hopeful, Newt Gingrich.

Seriously. Gingrich is so obsessed with cutting off his nemesis, Mitt Romney (or R*Money as his Highlife Homies call him) at the knees that he has adopted the platform of Occupy Wall Street to expose Romney’s Carnage Capitalism that permits him to profit extravagantly from the suffering of others and the destruction of businesses and jobs. There is even a devastating new video produced by a pro-Gingrich Super-Pac, Winning Our Future, that could easily be used by the Obama campaign against Romney this fall:

This is precisely the strategy that should be implemented against Romney and the rest of the congressional GOP establishment in the upcoming elections. Gingrich knows that this line of attack will be effective or he wouldn’t be using it himself. He has surely done focus groups and other polling to affirm that. Even the GOP’s top pollster/strategist, Frank Luntz warned a meeting of the Republican Governor’s Association that…

“I’m so scared of this anti-Wall Street effort. I’m frightened to death. They’re having an impact on what the American people think of capitalism.”

It isn’t really the word capitalism that is the problem, but the corruption of it by people like Romney (and Gingrich, for that matter). But when the far right is embracing our arguments, you know that the tide has turned. And that is not a sign to relax or declare victory. It is a call to redouble our efforts and march on until our goals are achieved. This concession by Gingrich, and the video by his pals, are just the most recent indications that progressive values are on the ascendancy.

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Fox Nation vs. Reality: Beware The Lethal New Ice Age

Posted by on January 9, 2012 at 10:49 am. 10 Comments :

Fox Nation is starting off the new year determined to exceed last year’s Cavalcade of Crackpottery. An article posted this morning sports the headline, “Human Carbon Emissions Could Put OFF a Lethal New Ice Age, Say Scientists.” According to the Fox Nationalists, the perpetrators of Global Warming are actually rescuing the planet from a frigid doom.

Fox Nation Ice Age

“Levels of CO2 in the atmosphere could actually insulate against a catastrophic ice age which would see glaciers advance over Europe and north America.”

The conclusion drawn by Fox Nation is that rising levels of CO2 are actually beneficial and that we should continue to pollute the atmosphere if we are to survive an icy catastrophe in the year 3512. The only problem with that conclusion is that the scientist they reference for the article, Luke Skinner, has a completely different conclusion. He says that he anticipated this response amongst climate crisis deniers and that they are…

“…missing the point, because where we’re going is not maintaining our currently warm climate but heating it much further, and adding CO2 to a warm climate is very different from adding it to a cold climate.

“The rate of change with CO2 is basically unprecedented, and there are huge consequences if we can’t cope with that.”

Skinner told the BBC that the results of the study point to the sensitivity of the climate system to “quite small changes in CO2, let alone the huge changes that we’ve been responsible for over the last 200 years.” Of course, none of that is included in the Fox Nation article. They flagrantly neglect the obvious point that by the time the presumed ice age begins in 1,500 years, global warming, if unchecked, would have already put half the planet’s current land mass under water.

It is also worth noting that the Fox News climate crisis deniers have long argued that temperatures are not rising and that, even if they were, it could not possibly be due to anything that human beings are doing. But in order to adopt the dishonest interpretation that Fox puts forth here, they would have to reverse that argument and agree that the planet is warming and that humans are responsible for it.

It’s nice to see that Fox is now admitting that man-made global warming is real. Now, if they would just take in the entirety of Skinner’s research, rather than their cherry-picked, out-of-context soundbites, we might actually be able to get together and solve the bigger problems that are facing us.


The Price Of Freedom: For Mitt Romney And Family It’s Negotiable

Posted by on January 8, 2012 at 9:55 am. 2 Comments :

The Republicans held their 629th debate last night in New Hampshire and, for the most part, it revealed nothing new about the candidates or their positions. OK, they are against gay marriage and they think Obama is a socialist. We get it. However there was a moment with the inevitable nominee, Mitt Romney, that was disturbing, if not revealing.

Mitt Romney: I find it amazing that we have troops in harm’s way around the world – in Afghanistan right now, in Iraq the first three years of this president’s term. He doesn’t go on TV every month and talk to the American people about the sacrifice being made by these men and women. I find it extraordinary that a very few number of families are paying the price of freedom in America. The hurdle to actually putting our troops in harm’s way is very, very high, and the test is America’s interests. Our security interests. And they have to be involved in a very significant way to deploy our troops.

First of all, what president has ever gone on TV every month to talk about war? Only someone who is not paying attention, or is being deliberately dishonest, could accuse President Obama of not speaking up enough on behalf of the troops.

More importantly, how can Romney, who evaded the draft in his youth by going on a Mormon missionary trip that he spent in a palace in France, and took a couple of educational deferments to attend Brigham Young University and Harvard Business School, now grumble that too few families are “paying the price of freedom.”

And what of Romney’s family? He has five sons who were of age to serve in the military during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, but here is how he described their contribution to freedom’s cost during his 2008 campaign:

Romney: It’s remarkable how we can show our support for our nation, and one of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping to get me elected, because they think I’d be a great president. My son, Josh, bought the family Winnebago and has visited 99 counties, most of them with his three kids and his wife. And I respect that and respect all of those in the way they serve this great country.

So traveling around the United States in a custom painted luxury RV, touting their father for president, is somehow analogous to risking one’s life in the harsh deserts and mountains of the Middle East? This is how the Romney boys sacrificed on behalf their country:

Romney Cheerleaders

Yep. That’s the “Five Brothers Mitt Mobile” and Mitt’s boy Craig cavorting with dangerous cheerleading insurgents.

For Romney to complain that “a very few number of families are paying the price of freedom,” is extraordinarily callous and hypocritical considering that his own family is conspicuously welching on the debt. It exemplifies the aloofness and privilege of a multimillionaire who clearly regards himself as superior to the masses. This soundbite from last night’s debate should get extra attention because it appears to be one of the only positions that Romney has held consistently for several years.


The Top 5 Tax Myths Of The GOP Spin Machine

Posted by on January 7, 2012 at 11:03 am. 10 Comments :

As this election year commences with the media focused on the Republican Clown Car Primary, the American people are are being barraged by ludicrous campaign stunts, dumbfounding debate performances, and the usual mix of dishonesty and hatred that the GOP has fine-tuned for decades.

For the most part, the caterwauling of Republicans has drowned out any rebuttal by Democrats and the press seem content to deliver just one side of the political argument. For instance, the GOP (Greedy One Percent) continue to peddle their Millionaire Relief Act proposals to reform the tax code so that the rich control even more of the nation’s wealth than they do currently.

Fortunately, the folks at the Center for Tax Justice have complied a list of the Top 5 Tax Myths to watch out for this election season. For convenience and shareability I created this handy InfoGraphic to separate fact from affliction:

Tax Fantasyland

For however long the GOP primaries are dragged out, progressives are going to have to try harder to get their voices heard above the clutter. Hopefully communicating in creative ways will help to achieve that goal.


Seriously, Fox News? You’re Criticizing Mistakes On MSNBC?

Posted by on January 6, 2012 at 7:35 pm. 2 Comments :

In a stroke of utter dementia, Fox News has published an editorial taking Rachel Maddow of MSNBC to task for a gaffe during a live broadcast. The author of the column is Dan Gainor of the uber-rightist Media Research Center.

Gainor distinguished himself recently by declaring that Arianna Huffington is “the most powerful propagandist since a guy named Goebbels.” He once condemned an imagined conspiracy by George Soros and, in the process, implicated himself. Gainor may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but he is a tool.

Fox News Faux PasThe problem Gainor has with Maddow concerns a segment on the night of the Iowa caucuses where she read a news item saying that Gov. Gary Johnson, a former GOP candidate for president who has since changed gears to seek the Libertarian Party’s nomination, had abandoned his campaign and decided to throw his support to Ron Paul. As it turns out, that item was a hoax and Maddow quickly corrected the record.

However, this incident has Gainor in such a fever that he composed an editorial castigating Maddow and MSNBC as derelict journalists and he yelps that they “are not newsmen and women. These are Democratic political operatives disguised as TV hosts.” Well, he ought to know. His experience with Fox News is good preparation for recognizing phony journalists. But he never bothers to explain how a botched report about Johnson and Paul is advantageous to Democrats.

Gainor’s umbrage over Maddow’s mistake takes on a surreal hue when compared to the record of incompetence and/or deliberate falsification of the news that is the hallmark of Fox News. Here is just a brief compilation of some their most entertaining blunders:

Inserts picture of Obama instead of Romney.

Poll adds up to 120%.

Posts picture of events in London but says they are in Russia.

Reports that Scooter Libby was NOT guilty.

Reverses the numbers for “favor” and “oppose.”

This is a mere sampling of Fox’s ineptitude. It doesn’t include the many times they have mislabeled Republicans as Democrats, and vice-versa (usually to the detriment of the Democrats). It doesn’t include the affair when Fox was caught reporting a GOP press release as if it were their own news item – complete with the typo that was in the original GOP document. And these examples did not occur in the rush of a live broadcast. They were prepared in advance with plenty of time to review. It got so bad at one point that Fox had to issue a threatening memo to their employees warning them to take greater care or suffer the consequences:

“[E]ffective immediately, Newsroom is going to ‘zero base’ our newscast production. That means we will start by going to air with only the most essential, basic, and manageable elements.”
[…]
“Mistakes by any member of the show team that end up on air may result in immediate disciplinary action against those who played significant roles in the ‘mistake chain,’ and those who supervise them. That may include warning letters to personnel files, suspensions, and other possible actions up to and including termination.”

Needless to say, there haven’t been any consequences. The same bumblers continue to foul up at Fox with impunity. The reason for that it is that it’s difficult to enforce a “zero tolerance” policy if the enforcers can’t count up to zero. Also because many of the alleged mistakes were intentional. Fox deliberately falsifies their broadcasts to advance their political agenda. For more evidence, here’s a collection from Fox Nation that are indisputably lies.

For Gainor to write this article, and for Fox to publish it, just shows how far they will go to deceive their audience. There has never been a “news” enterprise that has so brazenly distorted facts for ideological purposes. And if the best they can do to tarnish the reputation of their competitors is a harmless gaffe that occurred on a live broadcast, it only confirms how pitifully unfit they are to be called a news network.