Fox News Launches The Swift-Boating Of President Obama

Posted by on August 16, 2012 at 3:53 am. 4 Comments :

The 2004 presidential election pitting George W. Bush against Sen. John Kerry was tarnished by one of the most virulently dishonest attacks in modern politics. Sensing a real threat due to Kerry’s patriotic service during the Vietnam War, the Bush campaign, led by Karl Rove, concluded that Kerry’s military resume had to be buried beneath a mountain of mud and lies.

Thus was born the Swift-Boat Veterans for Truth, an organization comprised of partisan liars who had little to no knowledge of Kerry’s service, but who were recruited to slander him in the media. Their allegations were revealed to be unsupported by facts and the term Swift=Boating entered the American lexicon to describe false political attacks, particularly those aimed at the target’s personal strengths.

Now Fox News has proudly announced the commencement of a Swift-Boat campaign against President Obama. The organization set up to carry out the assault is described as “A group of former U.S. intelligence and Special Forces operatives,” but in reality is a partisan assembly of Republicans and professional Obama haters. The Special Operations OPSEC Education Fund (SOOEF) plans to produce and distribute videos and advertisements that will criticize Obama for “taking credit for the killing of Osama bin Laden.” This is an archetypical implementation of Swift-Boating whose purpose is to spread lies about a key achievement of Obama’s leadership as Commander-in-Chief.

The assertions by the SOOEF that Obama has improperly heralded himself for the demise of Bin Laden are demonstrably false. Their video features gross misrepresentations of Obama’s statements on the subject that loop portions of his speech referencing himself, but leaves out his abundant praise for the military and intelligence operatives who carried out the mission. The opening line of the President’s address to the nation announcing that Bin Laden was dead explicitly and unselfishly stated that “the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden.” He went on to thank “the countless intelligence and counterterrorism professionals who’ve worked tirelessly to achieve this outcome,” and he praised “the men who carried out this operation, for they exemplify the professionalism, patriotism, and unparalleled courage of those who serve our country.”

None of that was in the SOOEF video which sought to portray the President as self-obsessed by cutting together snippets of his speech where he used the words “I” and “my.” However, a quick analysis of the speech shows that he only used those words ten times. By comparison he used the words “we,” “our,” and “us” ninety-one times. That shows just how determined the video’s producers were to mischaracterize the actual events.

The SOOEF is a brazenly dishonest election year effort to smear the President and to prevent him from getting the credit he is due for his role in bringing Bin Laden to justice. And it does not diminish the courage and skill of the Special Forces who stormed Bin Laden’s compound to note that the President was a unique participant in the operation. He had to personally take responsibility for approving the the plan, the timing, the coordination with allies, etc. If the operation had failed Republicans would have been merciless in their condemnation of the incompetency of the White House. Just ask Jimmy Carter about that. Consequently, it is hypocritical and ungrateful not to recognize the efficiency, and leadership that contributed to this success.

What’s especially disturbing about this propaganda exercise is that Fox News is openly participating in it. What’s more, they are even calling it by its name: Swift-Boating.

Fox Nation Swift-Boating

Either they have completely given up on trying to pretend that they are a “fair and balanced” news enterprise (which no one believes anyway), or they don’t know what Swift-Boating means. But by stating in their headline that “Navy SEALS Start ‘Swift-Boating’ Obama,” they are admitting that they are committing political character assassination. Granted, Fox News does that every day, but they rarely come out and say that’s what they’re doing. Apparently, they have grown so at ease with their mission of slandering Democrats and disinforming their viewers that they no longer feel any need to disguise their intentions.

Update: As a sign of their desperation, Fox Nation is plastering their page with postings that further demean the President and make wildly false claims. One headline reads “Navy SEALS Respond After Media Matters Calls Them ‘Gutless’.” However, Media matters did not call the Navy SEALs gutless. They said that the former SEALs-turned-politicos didn’t have the guts to admit that they are a partisan organization. That’s simply a fact. What’s more, Navy SEALs did not respond, only the same aforementioned Republican operatives. No actual SEALs have had any comment on this matter, including any comments supporting the SOOEF.

The other headline reads “OBAMA CAMPAIGN ATTACKS NAVY SEALS.” That is absurd on its face. The Obama campaign only reacted to the lies in the propaganda distributed by the Republican group that is attacking the President. Again, no actual SEALs are a part of the SOOEF campaign and none were attacked by the President.

These two examples of dishonest distortions of reality illustrate just how worried the right is about this election. There is nothing they won’t lie about to smear their opponents.

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Sarah Palin Wants One Name Of A Hostile Republican. OK: Sarah Palin

Posted by on August 15, 2012 at 12:39 pm. 5 Comments :

Washed up GOP VP loser, half-term governor, and failed TV reality show star, Sarah Palin, appeared on Fox News last night with her friend Greta Van Susteren. The conversation turned to some of the nastiness on the campaign trail that Palin thinks is exclusively on the side of the Democrats. In a hilarious demonstration of self-delusion, Palin said…

“Name one — name one prominent Republican who even comes close to what like the Alan Graysons, the Harry Reids, the Joe Bidens come up with and spew to the American public. I can’t think of one prominent Republican who talks the way that they talk.”

Sarah Palin

Name one? OK: “Sarah Palin.” The woman who accused Barack Obama of “palling around with terrorists.” And earlier this year she said “Nancy Pelosi is a dingbat,” and that President Obama is “a tool.” And she repeatedly calls anyone with whom she has an ideological disagreement a socialist. Sarah Palin is about the most vituperative, mean-spirited, mud-slinger in America today. And she can’t think of a single name of a prominent Republican who fits that description. Well, in her defense, she did specify a “prominent Republican.” And she’s the same person who couldn’t think a single newspaper or magazine she had read.

In case Palin is interested in any other names, she might want to look into Allen West, who was her top choice for Romney’s running mate. West has called half the Democrats in congress communists and accused them of being aligned with Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels. And I would also refer Palin to Michele Bachmann, Joe Walsh, Virginia Fox, Louis Gohmert, and Herman Cain. Then there are media figures like Rush Limbaugh who called a college student a slut and a prostitute, and Glenn Beck who called the President a racist.

There are way too many instances of Republicans descending into the most vile disparagement and hate-speech to list them all. Yet Palin can’t come up with a single name. And what makes that especially disturbing is that her own name would be at the top of the list. In this same segment with Van Susteren, Palin called Obama a socialist and defended “these powerful and truthful and accurate words to describe what President Obama is running on and what he is doing to America.” And how much more insulting can you get than to call someone a pal of terrorists?

Seriously, why does anyone pay any attention to this idiot?


Fox Nation Scum Call Obama A Nazi

Posted by on August 14, 2012 at 12:15 pm. NO Comments :

Despite its long history of juvenile insults and rabid hyperbole, the level of pitiful ignorance and seething hatred at Fox Nation still never fails to astonish.

This morning the Fox Nationalists featured a story with the fanatical and false headline “MoveOn.org Scum Call Ryan a Nazi.” The accompanying video was an interview of a few Romney/Ryan protesters, none of whom called anyone a Nazi. Perhaps Fox Nation posted the wrong video, but the video they posted did not show anyone calling Paul Ryan a Nazi. Nor was there any evidence that the protest was organized by MoveOn. Although there were MoveOn members present, none of them said anything remotely derogatory or controversial. Nevertheless, the Fox Nationalists attributed a Nazi reference that does not exist to a MoveOn member who never said it.

Fox Nation

The video on Fox Nation was titled “Move.org’s uninformed supporters.” It was a new episode in a continuing series by an ultra-right-wing Florida web site called the Shark Tank. Their M.O. is to ambush citizens engaging in their Constitutionally protected right to free speech and attempting to make them look foolish. Granted, that is something that both sides of the political spectrum can do with selective editing, making sure to leave the better informed protesters on the cutting room floor. But in this case it’s Shark Tank’s “correspondent” that looks foolish as he criticizes the protester’s sign that says that “Bain pays Romney millions while workers make the minimum wage.” He then tells the protester that the sign is wrong and that she must have meant “paid” not “pays” because Romney hasn’t hasn’t worked for Bain for a decade.

First of all, the Shark Tanker doesn’t seem to have any problem with the content of the sign except for its present tense description of Romney’s compensation. So apparently he thinks that it was OK for Romney to exploit low-income workers in order to enrich himself so long as it was done in the past. But more importantly, the sign is actually correct because, even after all these years, Romney is still collecting millions from Bain Capital.

“In the final deal of his private equity career, Romney negotiated an agreement with his former partners that has paid him a share of Bain’s profits ever since, bringing his family millions in income each year…”

So the Shark Tanker is wrong on the facts. And the Fox Nationalists regurgitate his mistakes without bothering to verify any of it – you know, the way an actual journalist would. What’s more, they cap the phony article with a false charge of Nazi-baiting that inevitably results in a flurry of Fox community members calling Obama a Nazi. So while the article’s headline was meant to denigrate liberals for descending into vitriolic name-calling, it was only the Fox audience that actually engaged in that repulsive behavior. I wish I could say I was surprised.


Fox Nation’s Blatantly Racist Coverage Of Child Sexual Assault

Posted by on August 13, 2012 at 2:33 pm. 4 Comments :

Today Fox News published a story on their Fox Nation web site about an alleged sexual assault on a four year old child. That is always a tragic occurrence under any circumstances and perpetrators should be severely punished.

The problem with Fox’s coverage of this crime is that, for some reason, they thought it was necessary to include in their headline a detail of the investigation that has absolutely no bearing on the actual crime.

By highlighting the allegation that the suspect is an “illegal alien” the only purpose that Fox can hope to serve is to exacerbate racial animosity against Latinos and imply that they are inherently perverted and dangerous. There are, sadly, way too many sexual assaults against children, but the race or religion of the perpetrator sheds no light on the crime. Unless there is some pattern of behavior that merits investigation, it would be absurd to slander any particular group for the actions of an individual. The frequency with which such crimes are committed is reason to be concerned, but no racial, religious, or national group has a monopoly on either morality or evil.

Fox News has never published a story about a criminal act that featured a headline declaring, “White Protestant American Charged with Raping 4-Year-Old.” The reason for that is that they have no agenda to denigrate white Protestant Americans, even thought there have probably been more molesters in that group than among undocumented immigrants.

If Fox News were truly “fair and balanced,” they would have featured a story about their own Charles Leaf, a Fox reporter who has been charged with sexually assaulting a four year old girl and for possession of child pornography. Leaf was a frequent presence on Fox News when they were attempting to smear the builders of a mosque in Lower Manhattan. After his arrest he seemed to fall off the face of the earth with no mention by Fox of their feature reporter’s sudden disappearance.

Fox Nation

If it is important for a Fox headline to note the citizenship status of a crime suspect, than it is just as important to note his profession and affiliation with the network. This is particularly true when, as I noted above, a pattern of behavior exists. With respect to Fox it should be noted that other Fox News personalities have exhibited perverse tendencies, including Bill O’Reilly who paid a multimillion dollar settlement to a former producer whom he sexually harassed, and Dick Morris who was caught sucking the toes of a prostitute whom he let listen in on phone calls to President Clinton.

So parents, if you love your children, keep them as far away from Fox News as possible.


Glenn Beck Bumped Off Twelve Radio Stations By Geraldo

Posted by on August 13, 2012 at 10:45 am. 1 Comments :

Glenn Beck

The precipitous decline of Glenn Beck continues with the announcement that Geraldo Rivera’s national rollout will result in Beck losing twelve more radio affiliates. Crain’s New York is reporting the news along with an assessment of Beck’s performance by an executive with one of his syndicators:

Cumulus Senior Vice President Dennis Green: “When you look at the audience for these more aggressive, more vitriolic [hosts], those shows have started to show erosion. We think there’s a changing of the guard.”

This is an opinion that affirms previous statements about the genre of ultra-right-wing talk radio. A few months ago Cumulus Media released a disappointing earnings report and blamed it substantially on the backlash from Rush Limbaugh’s degrading of Sandra Fluke and his acerbic and offensive personality:

Cumulus Media CEO Lew Dickey: “It hit us pretty hard. A couple of million bucks in the first quarter and a couple of million bucks in quarter two.”

One of the stations that has dropped Beck noted his evolution into a pseudo-evangelical broadcaster:

KARN program director Dave Elswick: “Glenn about two years ago began to move away from what he did best, a daily look at the news and politics. After August 28 in D.C., he began mixing in a large measure of religion into his view which started a decline in ratings in our and other markets.”

Beck has indeed assumed the demeanor of an Apocalyptic prophet. He preaches a message of doom and gloom descending on an apostate nation that has the gall to affront God by caring for the less fortunate and treating everyone equally. But. as it turns out, God’s wrath seems to be afflicting Beck more than the targets of his attacks.


If Mitt Romney Thought Paul Ryan Would Change The Subject From Taxes…

Posted by on August 12, 2012 at 10:25 am. 6 Comments :

Much of the media is heralding Mitt Romney’s selection of Wisconsin representative Paul Ryan to be his running mate as a significant “reset” of the Romney campaign. But these people might want to think again before they shake the Etch-a-Sketch.

First of all. the clamor for Romney to release more than a year or two of taxes is not likely to recede in light of the fact that Romney demanded more than that from Ryan in order to be considered for the vice-presidential nomination. It will be difficult to justify why Romney needs more tax information for his VP nominee than the American people need for president.

Secondly, Ryan’s reputation rests largely on his budget proposal that includes huge tax reductions for those who earn more than $200,000, while raising taxes for low and middle income taxpayers. Romney is already attempting to distance himself from Ryan’s plan saying that he has his own plan, but since Romney has previously praised the Ryan scheme on multiple occasions, he can’t credibly disavow it now.

Finally, Ryan’s plan calls for the elimination of capital gains taxes. Since that was almost the entirety of Romney’s income in 2010 (the only year for which he has released tax returns), Romney’s taxes would go down to nearly zero.

Romney's Taxes Under Ryan Plan

These are not the sort of talking points that are likely to divert attention from the tax issue that has been eating away at Romney like rust on ’57 Rambler. To the contrary, Ryan only exacerbates the problem for Romney.

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PASTROMNEY ON RYAN: Mitt Romney Caves In To The Tea-Publican Wing

Posted by on August 11, 2012 at 3:45 pm. 2 Comments :

Capping a month of monumental failure, international gaffes, and plunging polls, Mitt Romney did precisely what the far-right fringe of the Republican Party demanded of him. He chose, Paul Ryan, a VP running mate straight from the bowels of the Tea Party, whose well-documented agenda of gifting financial benefits to the wealthy and sending the bill to the poor and middle class is the perfect complement to Romney Hood. Congratulations Governor.

Pastromney on Ryan

Obama for America Campaign Manager Jim Messina released the following statement in response to Mitt Romney picking Congressman Paul Ryan to be his presumptive nominee for vice president:

“In naming Congressman Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney has chosen a leader of the House Republicans who shares his commitment to the flawed theory that new budget-busting tax cuts for the wealthy, while placing greater burdens on the middle class and seniors, will somehow deliver a stronger economy. The architect of the radical Republican House budget, Ryan, like Romney, proposed an additional $250,000 tax cut for millionaires, and deep cuts in education from Head Start to college aid. His plan also would end Medicare as we know it by turning it into a voucher system, shifting thousands of dollars in health care costs to seniors. As a member of Congress, Ryan rubber-stamped the reckless Bush economic policies that exploded our deficit and crashed our economy. Now the Romney-Ryan ticket would take us back by repeating the same, catastrophic mistakes.”

ThinkProgress compiled 12 Things You Should Know About Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan (click link for details).

  1. Ryan embraces the extreme philosophy of Ayn Rand.
  2. Ryan wants to raises taxes on the middle class, cuts them for millionaires.
  3. Ryan wants to end Medicare, replace it with a voucher system.
  4. Ryan thinks Social Security is a “ponzi scheme.”
  5. Ryan’s budget would result in 4.1 million lost jobs in 2 years.
  6. Ryan wants to eliminate Pell Grants for more more than 1 million students.
  7. Ryan supports $40 billion in subsides for big oil.
  8. Ryan has ownership stakes in companies that benefit from oil subsidies .
  9. Ryan claimed Romneycare has led to “rationing and benefit cuts.”
  10. Ryan believes that Romneycare is “not that dissimilar to Obamacare.”
  11. Ryan accused generals of lying about their support for Obama’s military budget.
  12. Ryan co-sponsored a “personhood” amendment, an extreme anti-abortion measure.

And as a symbolic harbinger of things to come, in the big stage-managed photo-op of Romney announcing his bachlorette, Romney introduced Ryan as “the next president of the United States.”

Let the games begin…..


Mitt Romney Proposes Campaign Truce Where Obama Must Agree Not To Campaign

Posted by on August 10, 2012 at 3:59 pm. 4 Comments :

Barack Obama - No Apology

Mitt Romney clearly believes that he is above the rules to which the rest of us peasants are subject. He thinks that he can be as nasty as he wants, but if his opponent should respond in kind, then Romney pitifully demands apologies. Yesterday, in a monumental display of arrogance, Romney spoke of his dismay over negative, personal advertising directed at him with out so much as a nod to his own harsh personal attacks. An interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd was presented thusly…

“This is business not personal: Romney also said in the interview he would like a pledge (of sorts) with Obama that there be no ‘personal’ attack ads. ‘[O]ur campaign would be – helped immensely if we had an agreement between both campaigns that we were only going to talk about issues and that attacks based upon — business or family or taxes or things of that nature.”

So all Obama has to do is promise not to campaign. After all, Romney has made his business career the core of his justification for running for president. But now he doesn’t want Obama to mention it. And since Romney isn’t discussing the Olympics or his term as governor of Massachusetts either, that doesn’t leave much for Obama talk about.

And what has Romney promised to do in return? Nothing. He offered no concession whatsoever to entice Obama into accepting this proposal. He certainly didn’t offer to stop taking mangled, out-of-context quotes and reshaping them into lies about Obama’s agenda. However, he did make a veiled threat about “dredg[ing] up the old stuff that people talked about last time around.” Presumably he means birtherism, Rev. Wright, and palling around with terrorists. But he would never get personal, would he?

This is just another example of Romney demanding a separate set of rules for himself as well as a having an acute lack of honesty with regard to his own misdeeds – as this video makes plain:


Fox Nation Ignores Polls By CNN, Reuters, And — Fox News

Posted by on August 9, 2012 at 7:02 pm. 2 Comments :

It must be hard being the PR agency for the Romney campaign (aka Fox News) when the real world is constantly interfering with your efforts to distort reality. Nevertheless, Fox News soldiers on to try to spin the gloomy prospects of Mitt Romney’s Circus of Desperation into something passably positive.

Today Fox Nation featured a story on the campaign horse race that blasted the headline: RASSMUSSEN: Romney Opens Up Lead Over Obama. Rasmussen, a notoriously partisan right-wing pollster, showed Romney ahead 47% to 43%. It’s no surprise that Rasmussen gave the edge to Romney because that’s what they’re paid to do. What you did not see if you were reading Fox Nation is that three other polls were also released, and all three of them put Obama significantly ahead of Romney.

Fox Nation Polls

CNN’s poll had the race at 52% for Obama (notably above the 50% mark) and 45% for Romney. The poll also has Obama ahead 53% to 42% with Independents. And significant majorities believe that Romney favors the rich (64%) and that he should release more tax returns (63%).

The Reuters poll placed Obama up 49% to 42%. In addition, Reuters reports that 46% of registered voters say Obama is stronger on jobs and the economy, compared with 44% for Romney. And on tax matters, 49% saw Obama as stronger, compared with 38% for Romney.

Most striking, however, is the poll from Fox News itself. Fox is giving Obama a 49% to 40% lead. That’s a nine point advantage that is larger than any of the other polls just published. The lead is even greater among Independents who favor Obama by 11%.

The surprising part of this is that Fox Nation reported only on the Rasmussen poll that showed Romney ahead. They couldn’t even bring themselves to report on their own poll conducted by their own pollsters. That’s the sort of biased cherry-picking that is the hallmark of Fox’s “news” charade. And even with their pet pollster Rasmussen, last week, when they had Romney down a couple of points, Fox Nation left it out of their coverage. That’s a crystal clear message to pollsters from Fox: If you want to be covered, you better say what we like. And that goes for Fox’s pollsters as well.


The Sad State Of Politics: Hall Of Fame Hypocrisy From Allen West

Posted by on August 9, 2012 at 2:56 pm. NO Comments :

A new ad was released today by a Super PAC supporting Patrick Murphy of Florida. Murphy is running to challenge Wackadoodle Allen West for Florida’s 16th congressional seat. The ad features West in boxing gloves figuratively bashing the people his policies bash literally every day.

After being contacted by Breitbart News, West made a comment condemning the ad as “reprehensible” and complained that “It plays on stereotypes and fear to divide Americans.” Amongst his objections was that the ad portrayed him punching a senior citizen. West went out of his way to note that the women was white. Funny how these conservatives reject any allegations of racism as unwarranted displays of victimization, unless they are the ones making the allegations. West on to say…

This ad reflects the sad state of politics in our Republic with those who seek to destroy a person’s character to cover for their lack of intellectual ability and integrity.

Allen WestWow. That’s coming from the guy who accused half the Democrats in Washington of being communists; the guy who said that Goebbels would be proud of the Democratic Party; the guy who has repeatedly referenced Nazis to describe his opponents; the guy who was reprimanded, fined, and nearly discharged dishonorably for engaging in torture.

The Breitbrats also made a point of criticizing the Super PAC that released the anti-West ad. they noted with disdain the possibility of collusion with the Murphy campaign. That’s something the Romney campaign has also taken up with regard to an ad released by a pro-Obama Super PAC. It would be nice if these disingenuous blowhards would actually step up and oppose these Super PACs rather than just whine when one aims at their pet politicians. But since the right has consistently defended these PACs, they have no moral grounds for complaining about them when they are the target.