So F**KING What? Fox News Goes After America’s Disabled

Just in time for Christmas, Fox News has found time to publish distorted information about American beneficiaries of disability insurance. On their community website Fox Nation (a notorious peddler of lies), they posted an item sourced to the uber-conservative CNSNews that expressed concern that there are “More Americans on Disability Than Population of Greece.”

Fox Nation

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SO F**KING WHAT?

The apparent purpose of this ludicrous comparison is to stir up animosity toward people who are already suffering. It’s a recurrent theme for Fox who are also hostile toward the poor, the sick, victims of discrimination, veterans, etc. However, their attempt at fomenting faux outrage fails at the outset.

First of all, the number of disability beneficiaries in the U.S. is about eleven million and, yes, that is slightly more than the population of Greece. What that has to do with anything is a mystery? It is also only about 3% of the U.S. population. What’s more it includes a couple of million children and spouses of disabled persons. But driven by their hunger to disparage these folks, the Fox Nationalists took the number and shopped around for a small nation whose population was lower. And if silly, unrelated comparisons are all they are interested in then they might want to take note that there are more people on disability…

  • …than saw The Hunger Games last Saturday
  • …than are vegan.
  • …than condoms used in 18 days.
  • …than people who like to watch bowling.
  • …than people who watch Fox News (three times more).

Stupid comparisons notwithstanding, it is obvious that Fox is focused solely on making the lives of people who are already struggling, even harder. It’s fair to say that the point they are making is not that the population of Greece is too low. Consequently, it’s clear that they are advocating a reduction in benefits for the disabled, just as they do for recipients of food stamps and the unemployed. And they went out of their way to make this point in the days before the celebration of the birth of their savior who is so well known for refusing to help those poor, sick, hungry, moochers. Merry Christmas.

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War On Christmas: Sean Hannity And Glenn Beck Join The Other Side

With Thanksgiving safely out of the way, it is time for Fox News to buckle down and concentrate on the ongoing (and fake) War on Christmas. Bill O’Reilly is doing his part by declaring his intention to continue his watchful policing of the secular-progressive forces who are bent on the elimination of Santa Claus and Christianity.

However, there is an ominous development in Foxland. Sean Hannity welcomed Glenn Beck to his program on Monday to discuss the rift in the Republican Party between their insane, right-wing establishment faction, and their insane, right-wing Tea Party faction. But prior to the fascinating conversation between these two deep-thinkers. Hannity greeted Beck with a hearty “Happy Holidays.” Which Beck graciously returned.


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If that isn’t a harbinger of Armageddon, what is? While the rest of the wingnut-osphere is railing against efforts to remove Christ from the pagan holiday that was falsely converted into the birthday of Jesus, Hannity and Beck are exchanging salutations that advance Satan’s mission of tolerance. Will O’Reilly condemn this atrocity? Stay tuned.


Fox News Terror Alert: Muslims Girls Are Learning To Swim At YMCA

The hyper-alarmists at Fox News can’t go a single day without manufacturing a new horror over which to panic. If it isn’t Obama’s Peace Corps operatives coming to collect your guns, or immigrant farm workers selling crack to your children, it’s identity thieves laying in wait for people buying health insurance. And now there is a new fear causing the curvy couch potatoes on Fox & Friends to cower in their studio/bunker.

This morning Fox News reporter Heather Nauert reported that a YMCA in St. Paul, Minnesota has succumbed to Sharia Law in an attempt to promote Islamic terrorism. Well, more precisely, they have set aside one hour a week to offer basic swimming lessons to Muslims girls in an environment where they can observe the modesty dictated by their faith. But it’s really the same thing, isn’t it?

Fox News

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Nauert whipped up the standard Fox News fear machine to frighten their dimwitted viewers over something that most people would regard as a practical safety measure and a fun leisure activity. But to Fox it’s a foreboding preamble to catastrophe. Says Nauert…

“Well the minority becoming the majority at one community pool. Sharia law is now changing everything. A YMCA in Minneapolis-St. Paul is starting a swim group for Muslim girls but special considerations have to be made to keep with their religious beliefs. Now this means during the one-hour class, the pool is being shut down, the men’s locker room is being locked, and female lifeguards are being brought in. Similar classes are now starting at towns across the Midwest. We’ll keep watching this story for you.”

Boob BombsAside from the fact that learning to swim in Minnesota, the land of a thousand lakes, is practically a mandatory public safety measure for all residents, especially children, Fox News is escalating the fear factor by injecting the specter of Sharia Law “changing everything.”

However, this swimming class has nothing to do with any law. The program is being offered by a local, non-profit, Christian organization and no one is required to participate. It may, in fact, prove popular with girls from other faiths whose parents would prefer that their daughters be separated from boys while learning to swim.

True to form, Fox News turns anything they can into a reason for outrage and dread. It is their purpose for being. And it is particularly noticeable when they can combine it with overt racism and anxiety over terror. This episode may not rival Fox’s idiotic story about terrorist Boob Bombs, but it comes close, and it strikes a sadder note when it is directed at harming kids.


Season’s Bleatings: Republicans Suck The Spirit Out Of Christmas

For a political party that is so fixated on forcing everyone in America to observe the Christian celebration of Christmas, regardless of their beliefs, Republicans sure have a repulsive way of honoring the day their savior was allegedly born.

A visit to the website of the National Republican Congressional Committee reveals a t-shirt in their online store that expresses what they must regard as the joyful tidings of the season. The shirt (priced to gouge at $39.99) proudly proclaims that “All I want for Christmas is to be rid of ObamaCare.”

Republicans

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What a blessed exhortation of the season’s festive mood. The GOP (Greedy One Percent) is obviously excited to begin the gaiety (perhaps not the best choice of words) by wishing that all the young people who have already benefited by being added to their parents insurance should now be cast off. And of course the same thing should happen to all the seniors who have already saved more than a billion dollars on prescription drugs; all the patients whose lives were saved by early diagnosis from preventative exams; all the folks with preexisting conditions who were unable to get insurance; all the women who received prenatal care, etc.

And Republicans are clearly looking forward to returning to the prohibitively expensive insurance policies that kept health care away from millions of low-income working people. And let’s not forget the rising costs of health care that were rampant prior to the Affordable Care Act. The GOP isn’t interested in the fact that costs have risen at their slowest pace in a decade since ObamaCare went into effect.

But most of all let’s rejoice in politicizing a holiday that Republicans pretend to hold sacred. After all, burdening the poor and enriching corporations is the real spirit of the season. That’s why Republicans revere Black Friday, a day when people literally assault one another in order to acquire new things, the day after they supposedly gave thanks for the things they have. And the days between now and Christmas day will be filled with consumption and anxiety and the creation of needless debt, while the WalMarts and the Macys grow evermore wealthy.

So Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good deal on a PlayStation 4 – but no Insulin or appendectomies, or alcohol rehab.


The Anti-Pope: Rush Limbaugh Pimps For The Money Lenders Lobby

Poor Jesus. After going to all the trouble of throwing the Money Lenders out of the temple, now he has to deal with cretins like Rush Limbaugh who think that the church founded in his name is beholden to secular profiteers and godless corporations.

Rush Limbaugh

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How else could Limbaugh explain his opinion that the Catholic church would be lost “If it weren’t for capitalism?” It is astonishing that the people who most aggressively impose their religious beliefs on others, who demand that the whole of society celebrate their holidays and insist that their values be codified into law and school curriculum, these people seem to have the shallowest grasp of the faith they profess. And Limbaugh is not alone in his Adoration of Greed. A few years ago Bill O’Reilly said on his Fox News program that…

“Every company in America should be on its knees thanking Jesus for being born. Without Christmas, most American businesses would be far less profitable.”

O’Reilly actually believes that this country should be grateful that Jesus came along because the holiday commemorating his birth is such a boon to businesses. Now that’s the Christmas Spirit, isn’t it.

Limbaugh’s tirade was sparked by a recent paper authored by Pope Francis that articulated a version of Christianity wherein a moral society cared for the least of its citizens. He explicitly repudiated Republican values like “trickle-down economics” and preached that economic “inequality is the root of social ills.” That is the sort of talk that unhinges right-wingers whose greatest fear is to be lumped in with the unclean masses who, ironically, are the producers and consumers of the goods their businesses peddle.

All of this comports with the Christian hypocrite dogma spewed by political hacks who are only trying to exploit people who follow Christ’s teachings. These pundi-vangelists couldn’t care less about faith or service. However, the Republican Party shares something in common with the worst aspects of the Christian church. They are both trying to sell stories on faith to ill-informed people who are motivated by fear. But these religious scam artists are only concerned with their own welfare. They have no real compassion or generosity. Their tunnel-blind self-interest is a stark affirmation of the wisdom of the revered Catholic Dom Helder Camara, Archbishop of Recife, who said…

“When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.”


A Very Fox News Thanksgiving: Bash Your Stupid, Obnoxious, Liberal Relatives

On this traditional day of unity, family, and the fellowship of all people, Fox News has embarked on a media blitz more in keeping with the hostility and boorishness that is the hallmark of American conservatism.

On the Fox News community website, Fox Nation, they have taken great umbrage at reports that a Democratic organization is encouraging people to take the opportunity during Thanksgiving to have conversations with their friends and family about the Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare) and rebut the many myths they may have picked up from dishonest sources like Fox News.

The Fox Nationalists featured a headline story criticizing Organizing For America’s lighthearted “Have the Talk” website for “pushing turkey table talking points.” However, they must have forgotten their own efforts to do the very same thing, only more often, more politicized, and more insulting.

Fox Nation

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The OFA campaign is merely a suggestion that people discuss matters of importance in a civilized way. They emphasize that the point is to convey that you care about the health of those you love. Contrast that with the tone of Fox News conservatives who portray liberal relatives as stupid, obnoxious, and something you must “survive.” The language in the articles includes additional vile and childish statements that demean their supposedly loved ones who “won’t stop spouting vapid Democratic talking points,” and who should “keep your stupid mouth shut,” because “they aren’t buying OFA’s ObamaCare baloney.”

Now, isn’t that in keeping with the spirit of the season? And somehow, these hate-filled right-wingers think that they have a monopoly on patriotism, traditional holidays, and family values.

The hypocrisy of the right continues to demonstrate that it has no bounds. They will shamelessly smear their perceived enemies for sins they themselves commit repeatedly. They even show contempt for their own families. And while invoking the name of God on holidays that they regard as sacred, they brazenly lie, disparage their neighbors, and seek to divide the nation on the one day that most epitomizes its mission of unity. Happy Holidays from Fox News.

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Fox Nation vs. Reality: The U.S. Closes Imaginary Vatican City Embassy

In it’s ongoing struggle to find evermore outrageous atrocities to attribute to President Obama, Fox Nation has reported that Catholic groups are appalled that the United States is planning to close its embassy in Vatican City. There is just one little problem.

Fox Nation

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The United States does not have an embassy in Vatican City. Nor does any other country. The Vatican is simply too small to host any of these facilities, so they are actually headquartered in Rome. The truth of the matter is that the U.S. is closing one of its offices in Rome that houses the ambassador to the Vatican, and relocating it to a much larger compound that also houses the U.S. embassy to Italy. It will continue to have its own building and entrance, and its even a little closer to the Vatican itself.

This hasn’t stopped the right-wing media circus from hyperventilating furiously about some sort of imagined insult to Catholics. The Fox Nationalists, quoting from the “Moonie” Washington Times, which was quoting from Breitbart “made up” News, said that “The Obama administration, in what’s been called an egregious slap in the face to the Vatican, has moved to shut down the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See.” That actually goes even further into false territory because it doesn’t simply suggest a relocation, but an elimination, neither of which are true.

It is curious that this particular crockery should erupt in the days following a rather remarkable publication from the Pope that condemns unfettered capitalism as abusive to the poor and other excluded members of society that the church is duty bound to protect. The Pope even went so far as to repudiate the conservative gospel of “trickle-down economics” as a theory that “has never been confirmed by the facts.”

Could it be that the Pope’s unambiguous support for income equality and the moral principle that “all citizens have dignified work, education and healthcare,” has prompted the conservative fib factory to invent a new controversy as a distraction from a papal declaration that eviscerates conservative values?


Pope Francis: Economic Inequality “Is The Root Of Social Ills”

A couple of months ago, Pope Francis stunned many of his right-wing leaning flock when he came out strongly opposed to the economic inequality that has fractured many nations, including the Untied States. His admonition that “The world has become an idolator of this god called money,” could not have been a clearer denunciation of the chasm that separates the wealthy minority from the other 99% of society. Well, he’s done it again.

Pope Francis

In an official Vatican “Evangelii Gaudium” (The Joy of the Gospel), The Pope went into even more detail about the greater harm of the greed and power associated with world markets and unfettered capitalism. I’ll let him tell it:

“Just as the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’ sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say ‘thou shalt not’ to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills.”

“Human beings are themselves considered consumer goods to be used and then discarded.”

“In this context, some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting.”

“While the earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few. This imbalance is the result of ideologies which defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation.”

“In this system, which tends to devour everything which stands in the way of increased profits, whatever is fragile, like the environment, is defenseless before the interests of a deified market.”

“As long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation and by attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution will be found for the world’s problems or, for that matter, to any problems. Inequality is the root of social ills.”

“The economy can no longer turn to remedies that are a new poison, such as attempting to increase profits by reducing the work force and thereby adding to the ranks of the excluded.”

“Politics, though often denigrated, remains a lofty vocation and one of the highest forms of charity, inasmuch as it seeks the common good. […] I beg the Lord to grant us more politicians who are genuinely disturbed by the state of society, the people, the lives of the poor!. It is vital that government leaders and financial leaders take heed and broaden their horizons, working to ensure that all citizens have dignified work, education and healthcare.”

As I have noted in the past, Fox News is the closest thing in U.S. media to a Vatican PR office, with a roster that is heavily weighted with Roman-Catholics. They include: Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Megyn Kelly, Bret Baier, Bill Hemmer, Brian Kilmeade, Andrew Napolitano, Jeanine Pirro, Laura Ingraham, Dennis Kucinich, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, and Father Morris. Rupert Murdoch, the CEO of Fox News parent News Corp was himself inducted into the “Knights of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great” by Pope John Paul II. And if that isn’t enough, the current Senior Communications Adviser in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, Greg Burke, was previously the Fox News correspondent covering the Vatican, a position he held for ten years.

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It is interesting to note how divergent these parishioners are from the philosophy of their spiritual leader, but it isn’t new. In February of 2012, Juan Cole compiled a list of doctrinal variances between the church and the conservative hypocrites. In March of 2010, Glenn Beck outright begged his disciples to “run as fast as you can” from any church that uses the words “social justice” or “economic justice.” In other words, renounce any parish that practices the teachings of Jesus.

A few weeks ago Sarah Palin said the nastiest thing she could think of about Pope Francis. She called him a liberal. A couple of days later she had second thoughts and apologized to the Pontiff, who probably couldn’t have cared less. I wonder if she is rethinking her apology now.


The Stink Of Censorship: Reddit Politics Squelches Free Speech – Again

A couple of weeks ago I reported the sad tale of bitter feud brewing between the moderators of a politics forum on Reddit and the community they supposedly serve (See this article for background). The “mods” unilaterally implemented new rules that amounted to censorship by banning dozens of Internet sites, including some well known and respected sources for political news and analysis like Mother Jones and National Review (and News Corpse).

Reddit

In the intervening weeks they have slowly begun to unwind some of the bans. About 20 sites were freed from purgatory one week. The next week another four were paroled. On that event I posted an opinion piece (re-posted below) that criticized the mods for selecting four sites that were either overtly right-wing or affiliated with conservative media. The response from the Reddit/Politics community was overwhelmingly positive. Within a few hours the piece was one of the top three on the Politics main page.

However the response from the Reddit/Politics mods was decidedly more negative. First they tagged my article with an editorialized prefix. Later they simply removed it entirely from it’s high spot on the main page and made it inaccessible without having the specific URL. Finally, they deleted the entirety of what I had written and replaced it with the word “[removed]” and no further explanation.

Prior to the deletion of my post it had accumulated over a thousand “up-votes” from the community (73% positive), and more than 700 comments. Nevertheless, the mods saw fit to make the whole thing disappear, despite the clear approval and interest from readers. And to compound the problem, the mods have refused to respond to my inquiries. It is as if they regard this forum to be their own private playground where they can rule with a tyrannical authority.

I want to make clear that these acts of censorship are the work of the moderators of the Politics forum or “sub-Reddit.” The rest of the Reddit website is not responsible. However, the Reddit administrators ought to be concerned that a group of volunteers are behaving in a manner that is casting a disreputable pall on the site that is damaging to its credibility, its commitment to free speech, and its future success. Hopefully, someone in an official capacity will intervene to address the situation and impose the necessary changes in policy and personnel.

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Fox News Guest Distorts Martin Luther King Quote To Attack ObamaCare

The naysayers at Fox News have been working overtime to cripple the Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare) by inventing controversies, spinning nightmares, and just outright lying. Then, when it seems that they have traversed a line that extinguishes all manner of decency, they manage to go a step further.

In yesterday’s episode of America’s Newsroom, host Bill Hemmer introduced a debate segment with a putrid old clip of Joe the Plumber (whose name is not Joe and is not a plumber) and the deliberately misrepresented remarks of then-candidate Obama talking about the benefits of growing the middle class. At the time, Fox News twisted his words into a socialist credo of redistribution of wealth when all he was saying was the same thing folks like Ronald Reagan said about a rising tide lifting all boats.

Fox News

The segment (video below) featured right-wing radio talker Mike Slater who took liberties with the words of Martin Luther King from his iconic essay, “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” In an effort to condemn the egalitarian aspirations of making health care accessible to all American citizens, Slater mangled King’s words saying…

“Here’s the bottom line. The ends do not justify the means. Martin Luther King, Jr. said ‘You cannot achieve a moral end — helping people — through an immoral means — taking from people.’ The left’s solution is always to take from people to help another group. That’s lazy.”

What anyone familiar with King’s famous essay will immediately recognize is that Slater’s butchered version of the quote where he references “helping people” and “taking from People” do not exist in the original. What King actually said was…

“I have consistently preached that nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek. I have tried to make clear that it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends.”

King was reiterating his long held belief in nonviolence and the need to maintain that in the face of increasing hostility from bigots and misguided southern law enforcement officials. It certainly had nothing to do with Slater’s skewed characterization that it is somehow wrong for government policies to help people. Taken literally, Slater’s view would eliminate Social Security, public schools, fire departments, child nutrition programs, and more.

Slater’s intentional distortion is even more ironic when you know that King’s next line was “But now I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or perhaps even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends.” King might as well have been speaking directly to Slater who was using the moral ideas expressed by King for the immoral purpose of deception and advocacy of the sort of selfishness that King despised.

Unfortunately, Slater’s debate opponent, Leslie Marshall, was unprepared for Slater’s misquoting of King. She nevertheless responded earnestly saying “I think MLK would be rolling in his grave. If a child has cancer and they couldn’t get insurance, I don’t think that’s immoral, I think it’s quite the opposite to provide that.”

For the record, King was an advocate of health care access for all. In 1966 he told a conference in Chicago that “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.” Had Slater and Fox News made that quote available to their viewers they would have gone farther toward realizing the moral ends of which King spoke. But true to form, Fox was focused solely on advancing their own rightist agenda that only benefits the privileged.