Bill O’Reilly Doesn’t Care About The Constitution

Posted by on November 18, 2009 at 11:40 am. 3 Comments :

The Big “O” of Fox News let it slip on his program yesterday. While it has been apparent for years, Bill O’Reilly finally admitted on air his utter disdain for America and its values. We have always known that he has little knowledge of the Constitution, and now we know why – he just doesn’t care.

This accident of candor is revealing on a number of levels. Obviously, the literal meaning of his remarks are repugnant. But his justification transcends common idiocy. O’Reilly tells Judge Andrew Napolitano that he doesn’t care about the Constitution because the Constitution isn’t there and the Judge is. So as far as O’Reilly is concerned, if the Constitution isn’t physically present, it is irrelevant. Don’t bother to cite the Constitution or advocate its provisions around O’Reilly unless the two of you are standing in the National Archives Building in Washington, DC. O’Reilly went on to call the Judge a pinhead for having the audacity to bring Constitutional law into a discussion about Constitutional law.

O’Reilly has demonstrated his aversion to Constitutional principles on many occasions. He opposes dissent unless it’s by Tea Baggers. He imposes religion via his defense of marriage and his annual War on Christmas nonsense. He disposes of fourth and fifth amendment rights for those he preemptively declares are guilty until proven innocent.

At least now it’s out in the open. From her on out, anytime he makes one of his tortured arguments about his twisted perspective on freedom or liberty, we can remind him and his flock what he confessed here. He really doesn’t care.

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The Newsmax Dream Ticket: Palin/Beck

Posted by on November 17, 2009 at 7:00 pm. 4 Comments :

This is just too delicious not to pass on. The uber-rightist magazine/web site, Newsmax, has been flapping hard for Sarah Palin since she fell from her nest in Alaska and took wing. They are presently hawking her new book as a free premium with a one year year subscription to their magazine. And if you don’t want a subscription, you can still buy the book for $4.95, a $25.00 discount from the retail price. Shipping and handling is $5.95, a dollar more than the book itself.

But here’s the fun part, Newsmax asked Palin about her future plans and specifically inquired as to whether she would entertain the idea of running on a ticket with Glenn Beck. They described it as their “dream ticket.” Palin’s response:

“I can envision a couple of different combinations, if ever I were to be in a position to really even seriously consider running for anything in the future, and I’m not there yet,” Palin tells Newsmax. “But Glenn Beck I have great respect for. He’s a hoot. He gets his message across in such a clever way. And he’s so bold – I have to respect that. He calls it like he sees it, and he’s very, very, very effective.”

That’s the dream ticket for NewsMax: Hockey Mom/Hoot 2012. I think it may be my dream ticket too.


Comparing Sarah Palin To Howard Dean

Posted by on November 17, 2009 at 11:43 am. 1 Comments :

Yesterday on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Time Magazine editor-at-large and senior political analyst, Mark Halperin sought to make a comparison between Sarah Palin and Howard Dean. Commendably, the show’s co-hosts would have none of it. Mika Brzezinski said flatly that it was “not the same.” Joe Scarborough went even further:

Joe Scarborough: “It is such a disservice to compare Sarah Palin, in any aspect to Howard Dean. Yes, because that is an insult to Howard Dean’s intelligence.”

Fox Nation and other rightist webizens are aghast at Scarborough’s slap at Palin. But do you think they ever bothered to actually compare the two?

Sarah Palin: Howard Dean
Attended four universities before attaining a degree in journalism. Earned a BA in political science at Yale and medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Miss Wassila and third runner up in the Miss Alaska pageant. Stock broker on Wall Street.
Brief stint as a sportscaster for local Anchorage TV. Practiced family medicine in Vermont.
Served two-terms as Mayor of Wassila, AK. Elected to the Vermont House of Representatives and later, lieutenant governor.
Quit half way through her first term as Governor of Alaska. Served six terms as Governor of Vermont.
Selected by John McCain as VP candidate. Ran for the nomination of the Democratic Party for President.
Went Rogue. Was elected to chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee.

The similarities are mind-boggling. Scarborough was quite right to admonish Halperin for his simplistic and incorrect analysis. But the bigger issue here is how someone like Halperin can be accorded the respect and authority of an editor’s role at Time Magazine. Exactly how low are their standards?


The Communists In Glenn Beck’s Pointy Little Head

Posted by on November 16, 2009 at 10:58 pm. 2 Comments :

This is going to be brief because Glenn Beck really speaks for himself.

GLENN BECK, 11/12/09: I’ve been very consistent on all of this stuff. But they don’t even look at any of that. In fact, the claims that I make about socialist Marxism, et cetera, et cetera, communist, I’ve only charged that there was one communist in the White House, in the administration, one. I have not made a claim that there’s more. Only one.

GLENN BECK, 8/31/09: Why does the president have so many Marxists, socialists, radicals and self-proclaimed communists advising him?

GLENN BECK, 10/17/09: It is not a crime to admire communist murderers, but to me – pardon the pun – it is kind of a red flag. But even more chilling than all the admiration is the fact that so many in and around our nation’s capital and the White House, in the halls of power, adhere to the tenets of socialism, Marxism, and communism.

GLENN BECK, 10/26/09: I have made an unchallenged case that there were and are communist revolutionaries, socialists, Marxists, people that follow Chairman Mao, people that do not believe in the free market system, people that are radicals that have been appointed by Obama to the executive branch positions in government.

Beck frequently claims that he would immediately correct any mistake, but we really can’t hold him to that. If he actually had to correct his lies and misstatements, how would he have time to do his show?


Glenn Beck’s Cast Of Racists and White Supremacists

Posted by on November 16, 2009 at 4:57 pm. 9 Comments :

The case was made long ago that Fox News is a haven for racism and hate. So many of the network’s presenters have been caught expressing repulsive views that they should just stop pretending and pull their sheets out of the closet.

Let’s give Glenn Beck a taste of his own medicine. He revels in phony guilt by association scams, but he is also vulnerable to them. Sam Stein at the Huffington Post has done some investigative work that documents what rational observers already know. His column itemizes a parade of purported hate mongers that Beck has featured on his radio and TV programs. People like…

  • Michael Hill, the founder and president of the League of the South.
  • Thomas Naylor, the secessionist head of the Second Vermont Republic.
  • Tom Woods, radical, pro-Confederate author.
  • Larry Pratt, the president of Gun Owners of America.
  • Roy Beck, the founder and president of NumbersUSA.
  • Charles Goyette, Phoenix-based radio host and 9/11 skeptic.

The research done by HuffPo’s Stein is a useful addition to accumulated evidence against Beck. Stein notes that Beck is well known for casting aspersions on his enemies based on associations he can make between them and other dubious figures. By that standard, Beck is the leading candidate for Grand Wizard in America today. And remember, Beck is the guy who called President Obama a racist. Beck is also the guy who has been on an obsessive campaign against African Americans in public service. Along with organizations that represent the interests of the poor, minorities, and workers, like ACORN and SEIU, Beck has attacked mostly black staffers in the Obama administration:

Anyone who thinks that the election of a black president put an end to the problem of racial prejudice in this country is terminally naive.


US President Shames Nation By Bowing To Foreigners

Posted by on November 16, 2009 at 11:26 am. 6 Comments :

It is about time that somebody takes on the embarrassing behavior of an American president supplicating himself to foreign leaders. The United States is a nation of superior values and goals. We must never show subservience to others, even as a measure of humility or respect. Leave it to the conservative media to put this critical issue front and center. We have already wasted too much time on trivialities like health care and war. It’s time to refocus on the issues that matter to America.

Thank you Fox Nation.

However, the Fox Nationalists seem to be having trouble keeping their War on Christmas alerts straight. Today they are featuring a story on this year’s War on Christmas: “Santa = Swastika? War On Christmas Begins In Massachusetts.” But on October 29, they posted this declaration: “War on Christmas Starts in KY.” I guess everyone wants credit for firing the first shot.

Update: The Fox Nationalists must not have thought their first slap at Obama for bowing (Again?) was hard enough. So the next day they took another swing (Our Most Embarrassing President?).

I assume they’ll just keep changing the headline until they find one that is sufficiently insulting. It would probably be a lot easier if they just went with “Obama Hates America” and used that for the headline of all of their biased, dishonest stories.

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The Relative Importance Of Health Care And War

Posted by on November 15, 2009 at 6:59 pm. 2 Comments :

This will be a quick examination of the appropriate response time for critical public decision making. It is an area of cognitive analysis that the media, and most of the political order, have neglected to explore. For instance…..

When addressing the current debate on health care, Republicans have concluded that the issue is too important to rush:

Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority Leader (R-KY): Americans are telling us that health care is too important to rush.
John Boehner, House Majority Leader (R-OH): Health care reform is too important to rush through a flawed proposal that will raise costs
John Kline (R-MN): Health care reform is far too important to rush through Congress in a few days or a few weeks.
Rick Boucher (R-VA): It’s important that we take the time to consider all of these measures thoroughly.
Mike Johanns (R-NE): Health Care Too Important To Rush
Mike Crapo (R-ID): Health care is too big, too personal, too important to rush or get it wrong.
Paul Broun (R-GA): Whoa, this is an issue that is too important to rush through.

Setting aside for the moment that health care has been debated for several months already in this administration, and for decades if you include prior administrations going back to FDR, the Republican’s judgment to give due consideration to matters of importance is generally commendable. It seems obvious that weighty issues that have the potential for great impact should be more thoroughly considered than trivial issues. Good call, Republicans.

However, the same GOP have similarly concluded that a decision on the conduct of the war in Afghanistan is too important to delay:

Mitch McConnell (R-KY): Any failure to act decisively in response to General McChrystal’s request could serve to undermine the other good decisions the president has made on national security
John Boehner (R-OH): I do believe that the quicker he makes this decision, the quicker General McChrystal can get on with the task at hand.
Dick Cheney (R-VP): The White House must stop dithering while America’s armed forces are in danger.
Jon Kyl (R-AZ): Clearly time is of the essence here.
John McCain (R-AZ): Every day we delay will be a delay in this strategy succeeding.
Steve Scalise (R-LA): Our commander in chief continues to delay action on Gen. McChrystal’s assessment that calls for more troops in Afghanistan
David Vitter (R-LA): We simply cannot afford to let the insurgents gain ground.

So the Republican approach to policy is that health care is so important that we must slow down the process to give it more thought, but war is an insignificant little affair that we can just dash off cavalierly. Either that or that war is so important that we need to hasten an abrupt decision, but health care we can afford to dally with and resolve when we get around to it.

This reminds a bit of Aesop’s fable of the man who blew on his hands to warm them, and blew on his soup to cool it. The satyr who had taken him in then threw him out saying…

I will have nought to do with a man who can blow hot and cold with the same breath.

Sounds like good advice when dealing with Republicans.


Bold/Fresh? The Bill O’Reilly/Glenn Beck Idiots Tour

Posted by on November 14, 2009 at 4:46 pm. 62 Comments :

On the O’Reilly Factor yesterday, the big news was released that Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck will be taking to the road for a major entertainment event: The Bold & Fresh Tour.

It sounds like the launch of a new laundry detergent to me. But no – this is the Tea Bagger equivalent of the Grateful Dead. This national extravaganza will march across this great nation from Westbury, NY, to Tampa, FL, to North Charleston, SC, to Norfolk, VA to … well actually, that’s the whole thing. Four cities in seven days. It’s gonna be WILD! As it says on BoldFreshTour.com…

“It’s an event that makes professional wrestling seem like a night at the opera.”

Now that’s exciting! This will not be just another evening of inspiring music, compelling drama, extraordinary talent, and cultural enrichment. Hell no! It will be a sweaty brawl with two of America’s premiere purveyors of slack-jawed invective, spitting furiously at each other in their phony, choreographed dance of dimwitted arrogance. Either that or a Marx Brothers movie.

The announcement last night revealed the name of the tour as the Bold & Fresh Tour. Then the fireworks started as Beck pretended to be bothered by the fact that the tour was named for O’Reilly’s book instead of his own. I’m inclined to agree with Beck. They definitely should have used Beck’s book for the name of this tour. It is so much more accurate to promote this as the “Arguing With Idiots” tour. But that would have been a bit more honesty than this clod couple could muster.


Fox News Commits Censorship Against Itself

Posted by on November 13, 2009 at 12:48 pm. 6 Comments :

For much of the past year, Fox News squawking heads have bitterly complained that President Obama and his secret Muslim socialists have been plotting to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine. Never mind that no one in the administration has advocated this, no one in the Congress has drafted legislation or even held hearings on the subject, and the President himself is on record opposing it. Nevertheless, the panic on the part of the right-wing mouth brigades is threatening to cause a Prozac shortage.

The fear expressed by these mongers is that free speech would be obliterated and the Constitution rendered moot. And we all know that the right has been a stalwart proponent of free expression, just ask the Dixie Chicks and Bill Maher – and Jon, the YouTube news junkie who has posted hundreds of Fox News clips under the name of News1news.

While Jon’s clips contained no added commentary, they were often segments in which Fox News personnel looked foolish. This was not Jon’s doing. He just posted the unadulterated video and the FoxPods acted naturally. Fox News has filed numerous complaints against Jon for copyright infringement, and now, YouTube has suspended Jon’s account and removed his videos.

Why would Fox do this? It certainly wasn’t because they were upset that their content was being recorded and distributed without their permission. They have not bothered to remove other Fox-owned content posted by sycophantic fans like TheRightScoop, BuckFarack, GlennBeckDailyClips and ConservativeNewMedia. But the liberally-inclined News1news has been shut down.

Granted, News Corp has been making noises lately about securing their content by charging Internet users and barring Google indexing (although to date it has been all talk and no action). But clearly this is not a case of protecting intellectual property. The selective nature of Fox’s legal actions prove that they are only interested in squelching liberals. Well, that and erasing the record of their dubious broadcasts, replete with lies and embarrassing behavior that reeks of anger, racism and ignorance.

Recently, Glenn Beck lost his bid to shut down a satirical web site with the name: glennbeckrapedandmurderedayounggirlin1990.com. The argument was that the public might confuse it with an official Beck site because the URL had the name Glenn Beck in it, along with 32 other characters. I wonder why they haven’t come after me. My URL has the name News Corp in it with only two additional letters. If they think the public is so stupid they would mistake the Beck parody site as official, what’s to stop those morons from thinking that I represent Rupert Murdoch?

What Fox is doing here is an unabashed curtailing of speech – THEIR OWN! They are prohibiting the dissemination of information and ideas based solely on political criteria. I wonder if the First Amendment advocates at Fox will now mount a campaign exposing Fox as anti-speech. What is it about their own broadcasts that they are seeking to hide from the public? Will Rush Limbaugh take to the air and lambaste Fox for destroying the American values of open dialogue and expression? If these hyper-alarmists are afraid of a Fairness Doctrine that exists only in their delusional imaginations, then shouldn’t they be doubly ascared of a cable news network that strongarms harmless citizens who are merely passing on the broadcasts of the very same cable news network?

Jon has created a new YouTube account under the name NewsPoliticsAmerica. Let’s see how long this one lasts.


The Gospel According To Beck: Destruction

Posted by on November 13, 2009 at 11:09 am. NO Comments :

Heed ye the call and come unto the word of FOX. Herewith are more revelations as revealed by Glenn Beck in the divine Gospel According to Beck*:

2:1) You’re gonna see a black and white world, man, that is nothing but destruction and ugly.
2:2) I don’t know why no one else will tell you the truth about these things. I don’t know and I don’t care. All I I know is they are all there. Embedded in each one of these bills, in plain sight.
2:3) Barack Obama and Congress are selling you a bill of goods. It is only when you take down the mask of sunshine and lollipops that you will see the real thing – the real image.
2:4) Destruction. These bills are creating the path to America’s destruction. How many months ago did I say “Please, please America, don’t debate, don’t compromise on these things.”.
2:5) There are things in these bills that you don’t even know. They’re building a machine and they’re about to turn the darn thing on. You don’t compromise on your destruction.

Once again, Beck is the only one who can see the danger that lies ahead. He is the only one with the courage to warn us that we are on a path to destruction. And you do not compromise on destruction. You do not even debate. It doesn’t matter if you know what you’re talking about. You do not need to know – or care. Just listen to Beck. He sees the things that are hidden in plain sight. He is your light and your guide.

* These are the actual words of Glenn Beck.