Senate GOP Tweet: Lincoln Was Assassinated. America Is Forever Indebted

Posted by on April 17, 2015 at 11:26 am. 7 Comments :

Anyone who has used social media for twenty minutes has seen unfortunate miscommunications that can result in unintended embarrassment or worse. Sometimes they are caused by typos, sometimes by poorly thought out ideas, and sometimes by unmanaged anger. It remains to be seen what caused this disturbing comment by the official Twitter account of the Senate Republicans:

“150 years ago today the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. America is forever indebted.”

Lincoln Assassinated

Was this simply a cringe-worthy mistake? Did the author of this tweet intend to say that Lincoln’s assassination was something that deserved the gratitude of the American people?

The worst kind of rhetorical mistake someone can make is one that reinforces the most negative impressions that are already present. The Republican Party has long struggled with charges of racism, and for good reason. They have opposed many of the landmark reforms to civil rights laws. They advocate policies on social welfare, taxes, voting, employment, housing, etc., that are invariably detrimental to minorities and other victims of discrimination. They defend outright demonstrations of prejudice by law enforcement and private citizens. They have been caught fraternizing with unsavory characters associated with known hate groups. In many cases they have been discovered to be members of those groups themselves.

Speeches and signs at Tea Party rallies have too often expressed blatantly racist sentiments. Too many Republicans have articulated messages that coincide with segregationists, secessionists, and the neo-confederacy that Lincoln fought to eliminate. It is difficult ignore these instances of GOP support for, or tolerance of, such distasteful opinions. The primary media outlet for the right, Fox News, is rampant with expressions of racism from both on-air personalities and viewers.

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And that is what makes this tweet so troubling. While there is a good chance that it was merely a case of extremely bad grammar, it also represents the true feelings of many people on the far right, many of whom hold positions of influence in politics or the press. It also doesn’t help that the tweet features a statue of Lincoln that has its own controversy. They could have used the famous Lincoln Memorial in the National Mall, but instead chose the Freedman’s Memorial in Lincoln Park that depicts a supplicant black man in a loin cloth and chains kneeling at Lincoln’s feet. That is hardly an image that projects emancipation.

So does this tweet mean that the Senate Republicans are racists? Not by itself. But it does express, whether intended or otherwise, a way of thinking that has dogged the GOP for decades. And even after the posting of this tweet produced hundreds of responses calling attention to the ugly, but obvious, interpretation, it remains online without clarification or apology. That is a message in itself.

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Sarah Palin Accuses Hillary Clinton Of Stealing Her Mystery Bus Tour Idea

Posted by on April 16, 2015 at 6:31 pm. 8 Comments :

In the days that have transpired since Hillary Clinton made her official announcement that she is running for president, the media has fallen all over itself trying to get some sort of scoop. Since Clinton opted not to invite the press along on a road trip, they have resorted to frantically trying to chase her down like a pack of paparazzi. It has been an embarrassing series of not particularly newsworthy events culminating in a wholly unremarkable appearance at an Ohio Chipotle franchise that even the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart saw fit to ridicule.

Many conservative commentators pounced on Clinton’s decision to focus on conversations with small groups of voters rather than making a splashy, staged speech before hundreds of predictably cheering supporters (as did Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Marco Rubio). They derided the strategy of taking a van ride across the country as an attempt to dodge the press. For example, Elisabeth Hasselbeck of Fox News complained that “It’s hard to be transparent in that secret-mobile driving around.” There was a general consensus among the rightist pundit posse that Clinton was either afraid or up to no good.

Funny, that isn’t the way they felt about Sarah Palin’s bus tour in 2011 that deliberately kept a secret itinerary to confound the lamestream media. It isn’t how Palin felt about it either. In fact, she is now bragging that the whole concept was her idea. and that Clinton has ripped it off.

Clinton/Palin Bus Tour

This isn’t the first time that Palin was cited as the creator of the political bus tour. When Obama planned a bus campaign trip in 2011, Fox News published an article on their Fox Nation website claiming that he was copying Palin. However, in a bit of epic absurdity, the photo that Fox included was one that showed Obama on a campaign bus three years before Palin got aboard one. That’s right, their own photo, with a dated poster in the bus window, proved they were lying.

So now Palin has posted on her Facebook page for the first time in two weeks. In that time she has neglected to comment on all of the political activity in her party with three presidential candidates declaring. She hasn’t mentioned the U.S./Iran nuclear agreement. She’s made no comment on the police killings of more unarmed African-Americans. She’s had nothing to say about Indiana’s pro-discrimination law. But now she has come out of seclusion to take credit for Clinton’s road trip. Priorities.

In her Facebook message, Palin included a video (below) that showed how the press was confounded by her little bus-capade. She also made a point of misrepresenting her own travels. She claimed it was a national excursion with “reminders of what makes our nation exceptional and free!”

Palin: From way up North in the natural resource-rich state of Alaska down to the inspirational, loud and patriotic Rolling Thunder Rally in DC to a calm clambake on a cool New Hampshire night.

The truth is that Palin’s trip began in Washington, D.C., not Alaska. It lasted for all of six days and never made off of the East coast. When asked why it ended so prematurely, Palin lied again, saying that she had been called back to Alaska for jury duty. That, of course, was not true. She ended up going to Iowa for the premiere of a documentary film about her, “The Undefeated.” The whole bus trip was a fraud that was designed to make people (especially the press) think that she was a potential candidate for the GOP nomination for president in 2012. The reality is that it was set up to keep her name in the news as she promoted the movie that ultimately bombed at the box office.

To make matters worse, she wasn’t even on the bus. She traveled by jet between stops and met the bus at each destination. And as for the appearance at the Rolling Thunder rally, she was not a welcome guest. See this video for a more accurate representation of her attempt to crash the annual charity event for her own selfish benefit.

This is the life of a grifter. Sarah Palin’s whole career is aimed at splashing herself with glory while filling her bank accounts with the cash of rubes. Lucky for her there is an oversupply of them in the Republican/Tea Party that is anxious to throw their money at dimwitted figureheads.

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Tea Party Yahoo Takes Steps Toward Impeachment Of President Obama

Posted by on April 15, 2015 at 5:26 pm. 4 Comments :

In the months prior to the 2014 mid-term election, numerous Republican politicians and pundits openly lusted for an opportunity to impeach President Obama for imagined offenses that they could never actually make stick. The absence of evidence, however, did not stop the parade of pitchfork wielding wackos demanding that the popularly elected president be ousted.

Mars Impeaches

And it wasn’t just the usual kooks from the fringe contingent who were flinging charges around. The White House gate-crashers included congressional members like representatives Steven Scalise, Jason Chaffetz, Louie Gohmert, Michele Bachmann, Darrell Issa, and senators James Inhofe, Jon Kyl, and Tom Coburn. Of course, the kook brigade would not sit on the sidelines either. Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and a flurry of Fox News figures like Sean Hannity, Andrew Napolitano, Todd Starnes, Allen West, and Dick Morris were all over this.

Despite this surge of aspiring impeachers, some on the right pretended that there was no such movement. GOP House Speaker John Boehenr said that the whole thing was a scam cooked up by Democrats and Obama, who actually wanted to impeach himself. Fox’s Megyn Kelly struggled to advance the notion that the controversy was a fake by citing a poll that showed that 61% of Americans were opposed to impeachment. Of course they were. But what she declined to reveal was that the same poll showed that 56% of Republicans favored it, along with 68% of Tea Partiers.

Today we have learned that the predictions that Republicans would seek impeachment if they were successful in winning control of the Senate last November, were true. Florida representative Ted Yoho (R-Tea Party) has drafted legislation that purports to define the meaning of “high crimes and misdemeanors” as referenced in the constitutional clause granting the power of impeachment to the House of Representatives. His definition just happens to include every political argument against Obama that the right has been making in their impeachment crusade. What a coincidence.

Aside from being an obvious attempt to shape a new law aimed directly at the President, the bill reads like the work of brain-damaged dimwit on acid-laced meth. In his enumeration of “Whereases” he even includes one that obviates the need for the bill at all:

“Whereas impeachable “high crimes and misdemeanors” has an objective meaning based on the intent of the Constitution’s framers and British impeachment precedents”

If the legal standard already has an objective meaning, then what is the purpose of this bill? That question is answered in the next section of the bill that lists the “impeachable offenses.” To be sure, there are some unsavory crimes listed that ought to result in serious consequences for any executive. However, there is also a familiarity about them that seems to apply to just the complaints that wingnuts have about the current president. And then there are also a couple of political items that could never be adjudicated as impeachable.

However, the problem with this list is not whether the items on it are good or bad. It’s that they are there at all. By composing a list that purports to identify all of the actions that can result in impeachment, there is an infinite number of actions that could not be grounds for impeachment because they aren’t on the list. It’s a rookie legislative mistake.

Richard Nixon could not have been impeached if this list were in effect during his presidency. It also doesn’t provide a path to impeaching a president who embezzles a billion dollars and deposits it in a Swiss bank account. It doesn’t cover a president who breaks the legs of a governor who doesn’t support his agenda. A president could sell arms to Iran and use the proceeds to bankroll terrorists in Nicaragua without violating this law (Reagan would have signed it with glee).

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That’s the problem with explicitly enumerating the actions that would trigger the law. And since “high crimes and misdemeanors” already has an objective meaning, there is no reason to make such a list. It is the responsibility of the House of Representatives to file articles of impeachment, make a reasoned argument for them, and pass it on to the senate for trial.

If the House gives this bill serious consideration, they will only be solidifying their reputation as baldly political creatures with contempt for the law. Therefore, don’t be too surprised if they pass it. Their hunger for punishing this President is still palpable. It is a fever that they cannot suppress. And impeachment is clearly still on their diseased minds.


Marco Rubio Craps All Over Ronald Reagan, The Founding Fathers, And America’s Seniors

Posted by on April 14, 2015 at 1:17 am. 16 Comments :

Yesterday marked the entry of the third contender for the Republican nomination for president of the United States. Like the two that preceded him (Ted Cruz and Rand Paul), Marco Rubio hightailed it over to Sean Hannity’s ring-kissing emporium to get the blessing of Fox News. That makes Hannity three for three in getting the first post-announcement interviews from GOP candidates.

Marco Rubio

In his speech, Rubio reiterated his resume as a son of the sort of immigrants that he would now prohibit from achieving the American Dream. Like all Republicans, now that he has moved higher he would pull the ladder up behind him. But the most prominent theme in his testimonial to himself was the profound revelation that America’s future lies in the future and that the past is behind us. Hmm…makes ya think, huh?

To illustrate this message, Rubio took a rhetorical swipe at old fogies like Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush who represent an ancient, bygone era that holds nothing of value for today’s society:

“Yesterday is over, and we are never going back. We Americans are proud of our history, but our country has always been about the future. Before us now is the opportunity to author the greatest chapter yet in the amazing story of America. We can’t do that by going back to the leaders and ideas of the past.”

Some folks may think that Rubio’s admonition that “we are never going back” is the small-minded perspective of someone who cannot imagine technology advancing to the point that time travel becomes possible. Obviously he is not as attuned to the future as he pretends to be.

But what he really fails to comprehend is that, contrary to his assertion that “our country has always been about the future,” it is the opposite that is true. Our country has always been about exalting the past as a romantic adventure filled with glory and heroism. In fact, it is Republicans who have been most adamant about the virtues of the past. They desperately want to return to a time when women and minorities knew their place; when Christianity was the universal faith practiced in every home, school, and government office; when morality was imposed by a vengeful God who hated all the things that patriotic Americans hated.

And Rubio’s futuristic, forward-thinking policies that will thrust America into a new century of world dominance? Small government, lower taxes for the rich, expand military, cut Social Security, ban gay marriage, deny Climate Change, and force prayer into schools and government. All he needs to do is add fight commies and segregate lunch counters and he has a future that looks exactly like 1950.

By condemning “the leaders and ideas of the past” as unable to contribute to America’s next amazing chapter, Rubio is shunting aside the sanctified memory of Ronald Reagan. He is ripping apart the mythology of our Founding Fathers as the creators of everything good about America. He is abandoning the concept of strict constructionism as the defining principle of our laws. Hey, I might vote for this guy.

On the other hand, Rubio’s rejection of the past ought to outrage his fellow Republicans. That is, if they were intellectually capable of grasping the meaning of his repulsive ageism. Not only is he belittling St. Reagan, he is disparaging the most reliable voter constituency in the country – seniors. You have to wonder whether Rubio gave any thought to the notion that, by insulting older Americans as rotting on the vine, no longer having any ideas, leadership skills, or worth, it might cause them to be less than inclined to support his campaign. You see, Rubio’s geezer-bashing not only lands blows on his political foes, but also on everyone of that generation who may take personally his cutting remarks.

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Young Americans (who love being reduced to the demographic stereotype Millenials) are certainly going to be a part of the “new American century,” maybe the biggest part. But so are their parents and grandparents who have most of the experience, wisdom, money, and motivation to vote. It is one thing to run a campaign on fresh ideas and innovation (as if the GOP had any), but it is another thing entirely to malign millions of mature citizens/voters. And Rubio can’t have both his youth-focused theme and his party’s fetish with an idealized past.


Will Glenn Beck Keep His Promise To Resign From The NRA? (Yeah, Right)

Posted by on April 13, 2015 at 3:18 pm. 2 Comments :

Last month Glenn Beck flew into one of his patented frenzies over some imagined conspiratorial threat that only he could see. This one involved his belief that Grover Norquist, the ultra-conservative anti-tax crusader, was secretly a Muslim who was plotting to destroy America through his seat on the board of directors of the National Rifle Association (NRA). Beck’s proof that Norquist was an activist Islamic radical was that he had a Muslim wife and a beard. In Beck’s mind, that clinches it.

Glenn Beck - Grover Norquist

On his radio program last month, Beck interviewed renowned Islamophobe and conspiracy kook, Frank Gaffney, who affirmed Beck’s wildest fears about Norquist. Consequently, Beck expressed his intent to resign his lifetime membership in the NRA if Norquist was reelected to the board at their conference last weekend. Well, guess what? Norquist did win another term on the board, along with hate monger Ted Nugent and other wingnut ammosexuals.

So the question now is, will Glenn Beck keep his word? Not that his word has ever meant anything in the past. After all, he once promised that his “Restoring Honor” event in 2010 would be a “turning point for America.” The next year he promised that his event “Restoring Courage” in Israel would be “a global shockwave. It will ripple across the earth.” The following year President Obama was reelected in a landslide. In 2013 Beck promised to reveal what he said would be “the most important story in history” in a Friday tease. However, on Monday he completely forgot about this historic story. And finally, Beck once promised that he was preparing to release a document in his possession that would “take down pretty much the whole power structure.” And once again, he failed to deliver.

We can pretty much write off the promises of Beck just as we have with those of Rush Limbaugh (who promised to move to Costa Rica if ObamaCare became law); or Ted Nugent (who promised to be dead or in jail in a year if Obama was reelected); or Sean Hannity (who promised to be waterboarded for charity to prove it’s not torture); or Donald Trump (who promised to publish a report by the investigators he allegedly sent to Hawaii to prove Obama wasn’t born there). Another promise we can set aside is the one that the NRA made to Beck to “get to the bottom of this once and for all” by conducting a thorough ethics investigation into Norquist. To date there has been no release of the results of that investigation.

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Former President George H.W. Bush kept his promise to resign his lifetime membership in the NRA after Wayne LaPierre called federal law enforcement agents “jack-booted government thugs.” But don’t hold your breath waiting for Beck to show that sort of commitment to his word. He is an unrepentant liar with no regard for honor or courage or truth. He only cares about how he can manipulate and deceive his glassy-eyed disciples to his advantage financially and as their de facto savior.


Hillary Clinton Launches 2016 Presidential Campaign And The GOP Goes (Even More) Nuts

Posted by on April 12, 2015 at 2:12 pm. 1 Comments :

Here it is. To absolutely no one’s surprise, Hillary Clinton announced that she is running for President of the United States of America with a video (below) that features a cross section of Americans engaged in readying themselves for a variety of life’s challenges.

The launching of the campaign comes after weeks of the sort of teasing that every candidate does prior to making their candidacy official. It also comes after weeks (years) of vitriol from Republican pundits and politicians determined to turn Clinton into a comic book villain who aspires to thrust the world into darkness. That isn’t hyperbole. Just yesterday at the NRA’s annual conference, Wayne LaPierre literally made that charge saying that “Hillary Rodham Clinton will bring a permanent darkness of deceit and despair forced upon the American people to endure.”

Recalling all of the predictions of doom and gloom spewed by Republicans alleging that President Obama was the harbinger of the Apocalypse, it hardly seems newsworthy to note that they are just as adamant, and delusional, about Clinton’s alleged desire for the decline of western civilization. You can almost hear Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell paraphrasing himself with regard to making Obama a one-term president.”

McConnell/Clinton One-Term

That legislative strategy did not work out very well for the Republican Party. Nor did the relentless fear mongering about how Obama’s policies would kill jobs, tank the economy, abolish liberty, increase domestic terrorism, and generally destroy America. Those thunderous accusations landed with a resounding squeak that culminated with former Vice-President Dick Cheney declaring that Obama was “the worst president in my lifetime without question.” He obviously forget his former boss, as well as all of the facts.

Republicans aren’t wasting any time tarring Clinton with the same brush. This is a trend that started long ago. In fact, two years ago News Corpse reported that the GOP had already begun their campaign to “Impeach Hillary” way before the election, or even any campaigning. Republicans are so terrified of Hillary Clinton that they are promoting Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.

As for Clinton, she appears to be taking a more populist tone than last time around. Her focus on middle class citizens working hard to manage the important things in life – family, career, community, security – will put her in good standing with average Americans. She emphasized that her campaign would be about people, not herself. That was the overarching theme of the video in which she doesn’t even appear until two-thirds of the way through. And when she does appear she advances that theme saying that…

“Americans have fought their way back from tough economic times, but the deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top. Everyday Americans need a champion, and I want to be that champion.”

In order for her to follow through on that, she will have put some distance between herself and the big money interests with which she has long been associated. She will have to work for stricter banking regulations that prohibit them from ever again becoming “too big to fail.” She will have to pursue policies that correct the imbalances that have produced the worst economic inequality in history. She will have to support efforts to get money out politics. In short, she will have to appeal to the Elizabeth Warren wing of the Democratic Party. We’ll see how that plays out.

In the meantime Rand Paul, Rick Santorum, Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, and the Republican National Committee, have already released rebuttal videos making predictably venomous criticisms of Clinton. Paul may have won the Dipshit Award for Political Hackery with his laughably lame anti-Hillary store on his website. Don’t miss the limited edition, non-functional, Hillary Clinton hard drive he is selling to his idiot supporters for $100.00. Did I mention that it is non-functional? That’s the Republican Party for you, and it’s emblematic of their economic doctrine: Shell out lots of money for shit that don’t work. This is gonna be a fun campaign.

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The NRA’s Anti-Clinton Conference Opens With Apocalyptic Warnings Of Inevitable Doom

Posted by on April 11, 2015 at 1:30 pm. 1 Comments :

If anyone was mislead by the National Rifle Association’s name to assume that their annual conference would have something to do with firearms and their use for protection or sports, that was cleared up in the first day of the event by the organization’s executive vice president and chief fear monger, Wayne LaPierre. He and pretty much every other speaker spent more time demonizing Hillary Clinton than exercising their gun fetishes. In a foreboding speech crammed with frightful rhetoric about how much danger every American is in on a virtually constant basis, LaPierre built up to a crescendo that climaxed with this harrowing thought:

“Hillary Rodham Clinton will bring a permanent darkness of deceit and despair forced upon the American people to endure.”

NRA Kids

Note that LaPierre is not merely warning of ordinary darkness, deceit, and despair, but a “permanent” state of this nightmarish horror. That’s conceding an enormous amount of power to Clinton, who LaPierre must regard as rivaling the Almighty in terms of her ability to thrust the world into a dystopian gloom. Never mind that he said the same thing about President Obama before each of his election victories, and yet, by most accounts, the sun still shines and experiences of joy have not been ripped from the human race. He went on to swear a sacred oath to his fellow NRA-theists, saying…

“I vow on this day the NRA will stand shoulder to shoulder with you and good, honest decent Americans and we will stand and fight with everything we’ve got and in 2016, by God, we will elect the next great president of the United States of America and it will not be Hillary Rodham Clinton.”

That statement would appear to violate the rules governing the NRA’s tax status as a 501(c)(4) organization that permits some involvement in politics as long as it is not a substantial amount of its activities. His promise to “fight with everything we’ve got” sounds pretty substantial.

LaPierre was followed by other speakers who similarly downplayed any discussion of guns, instead aiming their vitriol at Clinton. They included Republican presidential hopefuls Jeb Bush, Bobby Jindal, Scott Walker, Rick Perry, Marco Rubio, Donald Trump, Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee, and Ted Cruz, who asked the audience if they were “ready for Hillary,” to which they resoundingly answered “No.” I’m inclined to agree with them. They’re not the least bit ready.

But perhaps the most strikingly foolish comment was from brain-dead brain surgeon Ben Carson who said that Americans need more guns so they can personally fight off the terrorists flooding across the Southern border (of his mind). For the record, the number of terrorists apprehended in the U.S. who came into the country illegally from the South, or any other entry point, is zero. And the likelihood of some redneck facing off in a shootout with with an ISIS fighter, and prevailing, is pretty near zero as well. Carson added that guns are also necessary for people to “defend themselves against an overly aggressive government that wanted to exact tyranny in this country.” So he is now advocating shooting federal agents, soldiers, and police officers (aka first responders), in a war where the government has tanks, weaponized drones, and cruise missiles.

These are the priorities and allegiances of America’s ammosexuals. They couldn’t care less about the children murdered at Sandy Hook, or the innocents at a Colorado movie theater, or the students at a Virginia university, or the thousands of other preventable gun deaths that occur annually in this country. They are gripped by irrational fears and manipulated by the NRA which hides its true mission: To promote the sales of firearms and the other commercial interests of weapons manufacturers. Even Kids can understand these simple truths, as beautifully demonstrated in this video:

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Fox News CEO Admits That The Network Is Not In The News Business

Posted by on April 9, 2015 at 8:50 pm. 18 Comments :

Objective viewers have long ago concluded that Fox News is not, and never has been, a legitimate news network. They began as a project by right-wing propagandist Rupert Murdoch and Republican media strategist Roger Ailes to spread disinformation and promote GOP politicians. And for the past 17 years they have carried out that mission with a roster of rabidly partisan hosts broadcasting provable lies.

Now, with the publication of the “Hollywood Reporter’s 35 Most Powerful People in New York Media 2015,” Roger Ailes, the Fox News chairman and CEO, has confessed that his network, despite its name, is not actually in the news business. Belittling his cable news competitors CNN and MSNBC, he gave the Reporter a statement revealing his true professional aspirations:

“In fact, Ailes, 74, no longer views those networks as rivals. ‘We’re competing with TNT and USA and ESPN,’ he says.”

So according to Ailes, he regards channels that are plainly entertainment and sports as his competition, not other news outlets. That is not really all that surprising if you have examined the Fox programming model with any depth. News Corpse has previously analyzed how Fox incorporates methods that are generally reserved for entertainment programs. As recently as last month we published a description of the hyper-dramatization Fox injects into their presentation:

“Fox News has redefined television journalism by fundamentally transforming it from an information medium to an entertainment medium. They dress up their pseudo-news segments in the same melodramatic packaging that entertainment outlets use: conflict, scandal, mystery, and hyper-charged emotions including hero worship and fear. Fox employs flashy graphics and attention-grabbing audio whooshes and gongs to decorate their reports that are presented as ‘ALERTS’ regardless of the news value. And always there is sex. Fox’s roster of hosts has more former beauty pageant contestants that journalists. And they aren’t shy about putting their ‘talent’ in revealing clothes and camera angles. In fact, Fox CEO Roger Ailes demands it. As for news, Fox’s concentration on tabloid thrill-fiction like Benghazi and Obama’s birth certificate is the news equivalent of porn.”

Ironically, Fox News was labeled as an entertainment channel way back in 2007 by TV Guide, a magazine that was owned at the time by Rupert Murdoch. There was a reason that Murdoch might have deliberately categorized his own “news” channel as entertainment. It mainly centers around the fact that entertainment programming always outperforms news programming.

TV Guide Fox News

Note that according to the legend on the top right of the page, the purple highlighting designates a program as “news”. Then, scanning down to the listings, you will see that TV Guide does not consider The O’Reilly Factor to be a news program. However, glancing down a little further reveals that TV Guide does view Keith Olbermann’s Countdown as news. [More on this here]

Also of note in Ailes’ statement to the Hollywood Reporter is his appreciation for a certain program on MSNBC:

“I flip to MSNBC occasionally to make sure their blind pig didn’t find an acorn. But they never have once. I tell you who I do like at MSNBC — I like Joe and Mika.”

Setting aside his childish insults, the fact that Ailes likes Morning Joe is reason enough to cancel the program. After all, Ailes also likes pathological liar Bill O’Reilly, bombastic librul-hater Sean Hannity, rightist tool Neil Cavuto, news floozy Megyn Kelly, clown boy Steve Doocy, and I don’t even have sufficient adjectives for Donald Trump and Sarah Palin. If I were Joe Scarborough I’d be thinking “With friends like Ailes, who needs enemas?”

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Rand Paul Follows Ted Cruz To Sean Hannity’s Fox News/GOP Welcoming Party

Posted by on April 8, 2015 at 12:05 pm. 11 Comments :

Yesterday marked the arrival of the second official candidate for the Republican Party’s nomination for President of the United States. Kentucky senator, and former self-certified ophthalmologist, Rand Paul placed himself in contention for the nomination at the Galt House in Louisville. For those fortunate enough to have never slogged through Ayn Rand’s tedious and preachy novel “Atlas Shrugged,” John Galt is a leading figure who is best known for epitomizing the childish “take my ball and go home” philosophy of social interaction.

Rand Paul 2016

In what may signal a trend in the GOP’s strategy for launching a political campaign, Paul went straight from the Galt House to Sean Hannity’s House at Fox News for his first post-announcement interview. That is exactly what Ted Cruz did after announcing his candidacy at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, where students were threatened with fines if they did not attend. Perhaps Fox News has implemented the same policy wherein Republican candidates will be fined, or otherwise punished, if they do not pay their respects to Hannity before proceeding with their campaign.

While it is no surprise that GOP presidential wannabes would kowtow to Fox News (aka the PR division of the Republican Party), it is a demonstration of their arrogance that they are not at least trying to disguise their biases for the sake of appearing to be credible. Apparently that ship has sailed, been commandeered by Fox pirates, and is now rusting on the ocean floor.

As for Paul, he delivered what he called a “a message that is loud and clear and does not mince words.” Indeed, it was loud. And that message turned out to be decades old sloganeering whose words relay nothing of substance: “We have come to take our country back.” It’s easy to mock this theme by asking simply “back to what?” From all appearances, Paul wants to take us back to the Reagan years, with its soaring deficits, crushing unions and working people, abandonment of the poor and mentally ill to the streets, and illegally bankrolling foreign terrorists with money made from selling arms to terrorist states.

However, the more interesting question is who does Paul mean when says “We?” The “we” that he is leading so that he can snatch the country back from the citizens who twice elected Barack Obama, are the bankers, oil barons, and other privileged elites who he would free from regulations that protect the public from their greed and abuse. Paul is a favorite of the Koch brothers and, of course, Fox News kingpin, Rupert Murdoch.

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It will be interesting to see how the rest of the GOP roster rolls out their campaigns. Marco Rubio is anticipated to be next in line. He would be smart to skip the Hannity ring-kissing ceremony, if just to differentiate himself from the pack. After all, he could go straight to Megyn Kelly and still satisfy his bosses at the network.

And just for fun…

Paul was famously outed as a plagiarist by Rachel Maddow who noticed that his speeches were curiously identical to the Wikipedia page for the movie Gattaca. If that seems like an odd source for staking a false claim of authorship, then what do we make of his having designed a logo for his presidential campaign that appears to be a rip-off of the logo for the hook-up site, Tinder?

World on Fire

I’m just asking. And while we’re at it, why do both Paul and Cruz feature flames in their logos? Is it to convey their belief that “the world is on fire,” as Cruz told a frightened little girl?

UPDATE: Marco Rubio did indeed make Hannity his first media stop. That makes Hannity and the GOP field three for three.


James O’Keefe’s Legal Woes Continue To Mount. And It’s Mostly From Former Friends

Posted by on April 7, 2015 at 4:00 pm. 3 Comments :

Not satisfied with having been convicted for unlawful activity in the office of a United States Senator, or losing $100,000 to a former ACORN employee he defamed, James O’Keefe has racked up a rap sheet that a Mafia boss would envy.

James O'Keefe

O’Keefe’s latest legal misadventure just ended with his meritless libel suit being thrown out of court by a federal judge who dismissed the action with prejudice (meaning that it could not be re-filed). The complaint was against the website Main Justice who published an article about O’Keefe’s prior legal exploits. The court ruled that the article by Main Justice was accurate and truthful and did not libel O’Keefe.

This is just the latest legal setback by a recidivist slandering weasel who pretends to be a journalist, but who actually uses deceitful methods to falsely malign his ideological enemies. His utter lack of principles has been recognized by numerous legitimate journalists and even by prosecutors in Texas (yes, TEXAS) who investigated one of his videos at the request of a local judge and concluded that it “was little more than a canard and political disinformation.”

Looking back on O’Keefe’s sorry resume of dishonest mudslinging, it became apparent that many of his legal adversaries sprung from his own poisoned well of associates. There was Nadia Naffe, who alleged that O’Keefe held her against her will in a barn and may have drugged her. And there was Daniel Franciso, the executive director of his Project Veritas organization, who sued him for wrongful termination. And there was Richard Valdes, another top staffer, who refused to strong-arm a volunteer into acting as an agent provocateur and inciting violence against police officers. He was also fired by O’Keefe and is considering legal action. And finally, there was Izzy Santa, one of his colleagues who blew the whistle on a perverse plot to attempt to seduce CNN reporter Abbie Boudreau on his “Love Boat.”

O’Keefe’s Project Veritas is a small operation, but has already accumulated four ex-associates who have alleged unethical or illegal practices by O’Keefe. That’s a pretty embarrassing record. But it is no more embarrassing than the stacks of videos he has produced that have been repudiated as lies and castigated for their routine use of deceptive editing and manipulation.

When viewed all together, it quickly becomes obvious that O’Keefe is running a hatchet job shop and that he is just as willing to screw over his employees as he is his video victims. For as long as he has been crawling along the floorboards of society, people in his crosshairs have had to be careful not to fall into one of traps. But now it is just as obvious that anyone considering working for him had better think at least twice before trusting this cretin.

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