Limbaugh And Hannity Getting Heaved From 40+ Radio Stations: Glenn Beck Nervous

Posted by on July 29, 2013 at 8:30 am. 15 Comments :

Limbaugh Hannity
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Earlier this year a fierce feud broke out between Rush Limbaugh and one of his radio distributors, Cumulus Media. The Cumulus CEO, Lew Dickey, went public with his observation that Limbaugh’s vulgar misogyny and hate speech was sending advertisers fleeing. Dickey told the company’s shareholders that they were losing millions of dollars as a result of an audience and advertiser boycott that began after Limbaugh had called student activist Sandra Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute”

Limbaugh took umbrage at the suggestion that his boorishness was responsible for the lost ads and threatened to take his program elsewhere. However, it seems that Cumulus has beaten him to the punch according to sources who spoke to Politico, who say that Cumulus will drop both Limbaugh and Sean Hannity by year’s end:

“Cumulus has decided that it will not renew its contracts with either host, the source said, a move that would remove the two most highly rated conservative talk personalities from more than 40 Cumulus channels in major markets.”

There is the possibility that the parties are still posturing in an attempt to secure better deals, but Politco’s sources say that Limbaugh’s syndicator is unlikely to come down to a figure that Cumulus would accept. Cumulus, in the meantime, has been scouting new talent for replacement hosts. And when 48 of your 50 biggest advertisers have directed that their ads not be placed on Limbaugh and Hannity, Cumulus has little incentive to negotiate.

If Limbaugh and Hannity are evicted from their radio perches at the Cumulus stations they currently occupy, their distributor, Clear Channel, will likely find them new digs on their own Premier network. This move will not be without a fair amount of turbulence. The shows could go dark for some weeks or months while new stations are found and the contracts of the hosts residing there are unwound. Which raises another problem that is probably keeping Glenn Beck up tonight. That’s because Premiere already distributes Beck who broadcasts at the same time as Limbaugh. So if Limbaugh is moved to the Premiere stations it may be Beck who is shoved aside.

While there is a certain amount of schadenfreude derived from watching these rightist dinosaurs flailing in the tar pits of their own making, the end result is not much prettier a picture. Limbaugh and Hannity are likely to land somewhere eventually. And Cumulus could replace them with Mike Huckabee, Mark Levin, and/or Michael Savage. So the airwaves will end up with just as much repugnant blather. But the show will have an entertaining, if too brief, intermission.

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Fox News Presents: Islamophobia On Parade

Posted by on July 28, 2013 at 3:57 pm. 9 Comments :

For years Fox News has been the central clearinghouse for bigoted attacks on the Islamic faith. They have featured anchors and guests who assert that all Muslims are terrorists. They openly oppose freedom of religion when it is Muslims who are seeking it (remember the Ground Zero Mosque?). They virulently assault any person or group who advocates tolerance and cooperation with peaceful Islamic representatives, including American citizens. And this week they demonstrated their repugnant hatred once again.

On Friday, Sean Hannity converted his Fox News program into a liberal bashing festival of hate and deceit. He assembled a studio panel heavily weighted to conservative extremists to take on the subject of “Saving America.”

For some reason, the task of saving America had much to do with Anthony Weiner’s troubled campaign for mayor of New York City. There was little controversy on this matter since every participant agreed that Weiner’s behavior was unconscionable. However, one participant was critical of the debate because she felt it distracted from a much bigger problem:

Brooke Goldstein: “What’s amazing to me is that we’re spending time debating ‘Shmecklegate’ when Huma Abedin, who has connections to the Muslim Brotherhood, who is connected to the chief financier of Al Qaeda, is his wife and has top security clearance.”

To which Hannity replied: “This is a great point.”

Goldstein is regurgitating, and Hannity is concurring with, a long ago debunked lunacy that was invented by noted Islamophobe, Pamela Geller. The falsehood that Abedin is a Muslim Brotherhood double agent in the Obama administration has been spread by the likes of David Horowitz, Glenn Beck, Michele Bachmann, Steve King, and more. These cretins stuck to their slander even after GOP House Speaker John Boehner called their remarks “dangerous,” and Sen. John McCain slammed them as “an unwarranted and unfounded attack on an honorable citizen, a dedicated American, and a loyal public servant.”

Later on Fox News, anchor Lauren Green conducted an interview with author Reza Aslan whose new book, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, explores the historical life of Jesus. Aslan is professor of religion with four degrees (including one in the New Testament) and twenty years experience studying, teaching, and writing about world religions. Nevertheless, the only thing that Green thought was relevant to the discussion was that Aslan is also a Muslim.

Green berated Aslan repeatedly about why he would write a book about Jesus. She seemed to be unable to comprehend that a scholar with impressive credentials in the subject would concern himself with a major historical religious figure who was not of his faith. Aslan politely pointed out that it is his job as an academic to write about these things. But after numerous efforts, Green continued to question his motives.

After enduring this barrage of nonsense, Aslan addressed it specifically wondering aloud why, instead of discussing the content of his book, they were arguing about whether he had a right to write it. He also pointed out that Green’s insinuations that he would have a negative bias toward Christianity were absurd considering that his mother and his wife are both Christians. But none of this seemed to have an effect on Green’s determination to find something sinister in Aslan’s intentions.

At one point, Aslan touched on an obvious hypocrisy in Green’s questioning. He wondered whether she would have any problem with a Christian author writing a book about Mohammed. As it turns out, a colleague of Pamela Geller, and the director of the anti-Islam Jihad Watch, Robert Spencer, wrote a book titled “The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World’s Most Intolerant Religion.” The title pretty much gives away the perspective of the author. However, that didn’t stop Fox News from interviewing him on numerous occasions. He has appeared on Hannity, Glenn Beck, Happening Now, and Fox & Friends, among others. They even identified this obviously biased Christian on the air as an “expert in Islamic law and history.”

Fox News

So, for some reason Fox considers it OK for a Christian extremist to write a viciously derogatory book about Muslims, but they find it totally inappropriate for a respected academic, who happens to be Muslim, to write fair and balanced historical look at Christianity. If there was ever any ambiguity as to whether Fox News harbored overt religious prejudice, these incidents should put the question to rest.

[Update] Media Matters has dug into the background of Fox anchor Lauren Green and found that she has reported on Muslims on several occasions despite being a devout Christian. She even wrote that only Christians can be truthful journalists:

“Journalists’ first obligation is to seek truth, and the only way absolute truth can be found is by measuring humanity’s idea of truth against God’s standards, she said. Therefore, the only way for a journalist to achieve ultimate success is to hold to the Christian faith.”

This really helps to explain the astonishingly twisted behavior of Green during her segment with Aslan. She doesn’t believe that Aslan, or any non-Christian, is capable of telling the truth. And this is the sort of openly bigoted reporter that Fox employs.


Phony Scandals? Sarah Palin Brings Her “Redneck Whiteboard” To Fox News

Posted by on July 27, 2013 at 1:49 pm. 39 Comments :

As they are wont to do, Fox News is again ginning up outrage over a sentence fragment uttered by President Obama. And as usual, Fox not only misrepresents what the President said, they completely fail to grasp the meaning of his larger point. The fragment in question was…

“With this endless parade of distractions and political posturing and phony scandals, Washington has taken its eye off the ball.”

The President was referring to the failure of Washington to address the issues that Americans are concerned about most: the economy and jobs. He has tried numerous times to guide the attention of legislators to these matters, but has been met with obstructionism and distractions. Then when he makes high profile speeches to get citizens involved, he accused of “pivoting” to the economy despite his frequent efforts to address it. And it goes without saying that if he were not to talk about the economy, the same people would accuse him of ignoring it.

However, the really big deal, according to the media and Obama’s political foes, is his use of the phrase “phony scandals.” The right-wing media calliope has gone into convulsive fits over what is a demonstrably accurate description of current events. Whether it’s Benghazi, the IRS, ObamaCars (yes, cars), or frantic allegations that the Department of Homeland Security is trying to buy up all the bullets in America, Fox News has been feverishly promoting trumped-up Republican schemes to throw the President off his game.

Fox News has featured several guests who they contend were victims of one scandal or another. They predictably tell their stories with great passion and umbrage. The complaint Fox has is that by using the word “phony” Obama is saying that the tragedy in Benghazi, for instance, didn’t happen. But that’s simply untrue. He is saying that the allegation of a scandal is phony. And that is true. Despite their caterwauling, there has never been any connection to the White House for any of these so-called scandals. They are transparent attempts to sabotage the administration of government by a president they never considered legitimate.

Enter Sarah Palin. The recently re-employed pundit appeared with her pal, Greta Van Susteren, and introduced her latest wingnut innovation, the “Redneck Whiteboard.” The segment was preceded by a two minute long anti-Obama campaign commercial produced by Fox News. If you have the stomach for it, the video is below.

Fox News Sarah Palin

Palin rattled on furiously about how Obama has been given a free ride. She reached back to her 2008 campaign when she contends that she was muzzled by her handlers and “was banned from talking about Jeremiah Wright and Obama’s friend, Bill Ayres.”

“This is important for Americans to understand. I was not allowed to talk about things like that because those elitists, those who are the brainiacs in the GOP machine running John McCain’s campaign at the time, said that the media would eat us alive if we brought up these things. So what did that get us, though? What that got us this kind of complacency and self-censoring of a campaign where we weren’t allowed to tell the truth about who this candidate was, Barack Obama.”

[Update: PolitiFact rated Palin’s claim of being muzzled a Pants-On-Fire Lie]

Of course. It was Sarah Palin being prevented from talking about Rev. Wright that caused Benghazi. It was the suppression of Palin’s “palling around with terrorists” theme that led to Fast and Furious (a Bush administration policy) and Tea Party targeting by the IRS. It’s all about Sarah, after all. Had she been able to hammer Obama freely on his Kenyan birth, America would be enjoying the most prosperous renaissance in history. She went on to hold up an envelope on which she had scrawled a list of the aforementioned phony scandals and said…

“What it got us was a list of these scandals. This is kind of the redneck version of one of those elitist tactics of Karl Rove, how he uses his white board. This is the redneck version of a white board. And on this list the scandals that are destroying America.”

It’s just fascinating to watch conservatives dumbing down their messages to their mentally challenged constituents. It started with Fox News deploying bright colors, hypnotic motion graphics, and game show sound effects. Then Glenn Beck devolved by eschewing modern electronics in favor of an old school blackboard. Then Karl Rove dug deeper by making use of a hand-held whiteboard. Now Palin sucker punches Rove with her redneck version, something even the most remedial Teabagger can understand. Obviously these people know their audience and, therefore, continually craft their communications to match their intellectual level (which is at about the 4th grade, according to the super-secret, exalted, conservative message masters).

I just wonder what’s next. Hand signals and a series of grunts? Given the importance of conveying that Obama is destroying America, the right needs to make sure that their message is received and understood. And that’s why they have adopted intellectual giants like Plain, Beck, Hannity, Limbaugh, Bachmann, Trump, etc., as their thought leaders. It’s a strategy aimed at taking America back – to the Dark Ages, when science was considered blasphemy, and education was reserved for the aristocrats.


Conservative Propaganda 101: Write Articles On 4th Grade Level

Posted by on July 26, 2013 at 4:50 pm. 2 Comments :

Fox Nation vs. Reality
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David Corn of Mother Jones Magazine has published another epic investigative report uncovering a super-secret right-wing cabal formed to shape public opinion via coordinated messaging and organized smear campaigns.

Groundswell is an amalgamation of conservative activists and politicos including Ginni (Mrs. Clarence) Thomas, John Bolton, Frank Gaffney, Allen West, and many more. They also count as members folks from the media including Fox News, Breitbart News and the Daily Caller. They use Google Group correspondence and regular meetups to brainstorm their schemes. Corn obtained some of the emails distributed through their network and what they reveal is at turns frightening and funny. His article is a must read, but here are a few excerpts:

A certain amount of secrecy cloaks Groundswell’s efforts. Though members have been encouraged to zap out tweets with a #GSW hashtag, a message circulated to members of its Google group noted that the role of certain advocates should be kept “off of the Google group for OPSEC [operational security] reasons.” This “will avoid any potential for bad press for someone if a communication item is leaked,” the message explained.

Apparently they were engaging in activities that they themselves considered to be potentially embarrassing if discovered. And apparently they were right on that score.

The participation of journalists in coordinating messaging with ideological advocates and political partisans raises another set of issues. Conservatives expressed outrage when news broke in 2009 about Journolist, a private email list where several hundred progressive-minded reporters, commentators, and academics exchanged ideas and sometimes bickered.

Interestingly, the allegations that JournoListers engaged in message coordination were never substantiated, but the Groundswellers emails prove they were doing exactly that. Also interesting is the fact that Fox News went ballistic when the JournoList was revealed, however, they have not had a single report about Groundswell.

From a secret Groundswell email: “Our country is in peril. This is a critical moment needing critical leadership. We want to protect the strategic collaboration occurring at Groundswell and build on it. Please be careful about bringing guests and clear them ahead of time. […] What Groundswell is not is a room of note takers. The goal of Groundswell is to sync messages and develop action from reports and information exchanged.”

There’s your smoking gun with regard to their coordinated propaganda goals.

The Groundswellers feel that they too often lose the political narrative to their progressive rivals. One memo that circulated among members declared, “We must reclaim the language and put ‘a face’ on our messages; tell stories. Write articles on 4th grade level!”

Yeah, that’s their problem. They have been reaching over the heads of their constituents by communicating at 5th grade levels and above. What were they thinking? Or perhaps it’s the other way around. Maybe they were communicating at a 3rd grade level all along and this is a directive to bump it up a notch. Considering the rampant idiocy of some of what we hear from the right, that seems like the more likely scenario.

Groundswell has forged a particularly close relationship with Breitbart. Matthew Boyle, one of Breitbart’s more prominent reporters, has attended Groundswell meetings, used the group as a source for tips and a mechanism to promote his stories, and joined in its efforts to whip up coordinated bullet points to be deployed by conservative advocacy shops.

“…conservative advocacy shops…” like Breitbart, Fox News, Daily Caller, etc. Corn’s piece contains many more bits of prime right-wing posturing and paranoia. The discovery of Groundswell is not particularly earth-shattering in and of itself. It has been clear for years that the right was clandestinely harmonizing their attacks. But by putting out this formerly classified data, it affirms what we’ve known and adds some juicy details to the mix.


Fox News Lies: Obama Did Not Praise Ho Chi Minh

Posted by on July 26, 2013 at 2:04 pm. 15 Comments :

One of the propaganda tactics most favored by Fox News is the snipping of a comment by President Obama and regurgitating it in a negative, and wholly dishonest, light. They did it last year on behalf of the Romney campaign numerous times with silliness like “You didn’t build that,” and other blatant misrepresentations.

Fox News

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Today Fox News is premiering their latest rhetorical deception by fixating on remarks the President made in a press availability with Vietnam President Truong Tan Sang. While describing the discussion Obama had with Sang, he noted that…

“At the conclusion of the meeting, President Sang shared with me a copy of a letter sent by Ho Chi Minh to Harry Truman. And we discussed the fact that Ho Chi Minh was actually inspired by the U.S. Declaration of Independence and Constitution, and the words of Thomas Jefferson.”

That’s it. Nothing praising Ho Chi Minh at all. Just a simple recitation of unarguable facts. No one on Fox or the right-wing fruitcake brigade disputes that Ho Chi Minh revered the people and ideas that inspired the birth of the United States. He used the Declaration of Independence as the model for Vietnam’s quest for its own independence from France.

Nevertheless, Fox News is now attempting to twist Obama’s words into something that he never said or even implied. And the “fair and balanced” network brought on two revolting characters with sordid pasts to advance the distortions. Oliver North is the convicted Reaganite who illegally sold arms to Iran in order to secure funding to support fascist rebels in Nicaragua, which was prohibited by congress. Ralph Peters is the Fox strategic analyst who called on the Taliban to “save us a lot of legal hassles” by executing an American soldier. He also advocated military attacks on the media. These two traitorous miscreants spent several unopposed minutes on Fox lambasting Obama as “stupid” and “evil” as they lied about what he said.

Anyone who seriously regards Fox as a credible news source should seek professional help. The unadulterated lie that Obama praised Ho Chi Minh can also be juxtaposed with the documented fact that Fox did indeed praise the Unabomber. This is the level of cognitive disconnect that exists at Fox, and it is the reason that their audience is so pathetically ignorant. It’s a good thing that their viewers are so small in number (less than 1% of the population) and so close to their judgment day (the oldest skewing audience in television).


Fox News Black Out: No Reporting On Juror Who Said Zimmerman “Got Away With Murder”

Posted by on July 26, 2013 at 10:42 am. 1 Comments :

Fox News George ZimmermanIt’s not bad enough that Fox News openly rooted for George Zimmerman before, during and after his trial. Nor that they denied that race could have played any part in the crime or the subsequent proceedings and coverage. Nor that they shamelessly, and without foundation, demonized Trayvon Martin as a violent thug. Nor that they insulted all African-Americans by insisting they would resort to massive rioting after the acquittal (which did not occur). Nope. Now Fox is brazenly perverting the news landscape by what they choose not to report.

Yesterday, ABC News aired an interview with “Maddy,” a woman who sat on the Zimmerman jury and made significant news with her remarks. She told Robin Roberts that she believed that Zimmerman “got away with murder.” She went on to express sympathy for Trayvon’s parents and said that “in our hearts we felt he was guilty.” In the end, however, she felt that the state had not proved its case and she voted to acquit along with the other jurors.

Maddy’s statements were obviously newsworthy and were covered by most legitimate news outlets. Her observations were in sharp contrast to the previous juror who came forward, identified only as B37, shortly after the trial concluded. B37’s interview was covered broadly by the media including Fox News. Additionally, Fox’s Sean Hannity interviewed an alternate juror, E54, who said that he agreed with the verdict and believed that Zimmerman was justified in shooting the unarmed teenager.

Somehow Fox has decided that the only juror to go public with comments sympathizing with the Martin family was not suitable for coverage. In my research I have not found a single report broadcast on the network since Maddy’s interview with ABC News. This cannot be regarded as an accident. Given the broad-based coverage elsewhere, it is clear that Fox made an editorial judgment to black out Maddy’s story and deprive their audience of critical information.

This is blatant evidence of how Fox manipulates the news and their gullible audience. It is further confirmation for why Fox News viewers are repeatedly shown to be the most ill-informed audience when compared to other news sources, or even to those who don’t watch news at all.

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[Addendum] No sooner did I post this example of Fox editorializing by omission than Media Matters posts three more examples: Fox fails to report the racist comments by GOP Rep. Steve King and Fox fails to report on voter fraud when committed by Republicans and Fox fails to report on the conservative cabal Groundswell after obsessing over the liberal JournoList.

[Update] Fox News finally addressed Maddy’s interview on The O’Reilly Factor with guest host Laura Ingraham, whose contribution to the discussion was to say she doesn’t like post-trial interviews and that juror opinions don’t matter.

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Rush Limbaugh’s War On The War On Women: Attacking Huma Abedin

Posted by on July 24, 2013 at 8:48 pm. 6 Comments :

I suppose it had to come to this. With most of the conventional media piling on Anthony Weiner – who had no extramarital affairs, and was not unfaithful to his wife – it has been left to Rush Limbaugh to sink to the most disgusting depths of personal vilification with his attack on Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin.

Rush Limbaugh
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Limbaugh’s daily sermonette was dripping with contempt as he lashed out at Abedin for what he claimed was her effort to “normalize their depravity.” He said that Abedin was making it common and noble to stand by a misbehaving spouse, thereby enabling his misbehavior. And make no mistake, this is not Limbaugh complaining about Weiner. He is aiming his animus directly at Abedin:

Limbaugh: “Huma Abedin is doing everything she can to make sure that women are seen as steppingstones and doormats.”

It takes a truckload of gall for Limbaugh, a drug-abuser who is presently on his fourth wife, to pretend that he has any grounds for lecturing others on morality. Yet that is precisely what he did for much of his radio broadcast today. It is a typical Republican approach to ethics wherein they readily condemn their political foes for behavior they engage in at least as often.

What’s more, conservative hypocrites are all too ready to forgive those on their side of the aisle who stray. That’s why GOP scoundrels like Sen. David Vitter, Rep. Mark Sanford, and even former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, generally remain in their official posts while Democrats have the decency to resign and withdraw from public life for a while. And for some reason, the allegedly “family values” posers on the right frequently abandon their marriage vows, but still have the temerity to complain when Democratic couples succeed in keeping their families in tact. Limbaugh criticized that very aspect of the Weiners’ relationship, suggesting that by preserving their marriage Abedin was demonstrating poor character and weakness. These right-wing freaks actually root for divorce and broken families, but will surely condemn that as well should it occur down the road. Nothing irks them more than the fact that Bill and Hillary Clinton stayed together, raised their daughter, and continue to support one another.

Not surprisingly, Limbaugh couched his obnoxious assault in starkly political terms. In doing so he managed to prove that he has absolutely no idea what he is talking about. He sneered that his interest in these matters was because “feminism is a political arm of the Democrat Party” (which is a plus for Democrats), and that Democrats condone the sort of activity that Weiner has engaged in. Of course, the truth is that no one is more critical of Weiner than his fellow Democrats and certainly not one has come close to condoning anything he did. But Limbaugh’s demented political perspective goes even further to entirely slip the bounds of reason:

Limbaugh: “I don’t want to ever hear another word about a Republican War on Women, because Democrat women are doing more to set women and whatever causes they might have back to the Dark Ages.”

Apparently, Limbaugh thinks that the “War on Women” has something to do with marital infidelity. Obviously it does not. When Democrats accuse Republicans of conducting a War on Women, they are referring to the GOP’s overt opposition to issues that women support and that directly impact their freedom and well being. Republicans, as a group, oppose equal pay for equal work; they voted against the Violence Against Women Act; they fought allowing women soldiers into combat roles; they resist laws mandating gender equality in the workplace; and they don’t trust women to make reproductive decisions about their own bodies. That’s what the War on Women is, not some personal melodrama. But Limbaugh can’t understand this. He complains that Democrats are “making a mockery of women” by staying in nurturing relationships with them instead of casting them aside. And then he let’s loose this tirade boasting that Republicans are somehow superior in their treatment of the women they regard as inferior:

“It’s not us using them. It’s not us chewing ’em up and spitting ’em out. It’s not us making fools of them. It’s not us disrespecting them. It’s not us doing any of this stuff. Not as a political party.”

Actually, Rush, it is you. It is you and your party that belittles and suppresses women. It is you who disrespect them. Ask the former Mrs. Giuliani, or the former Mrs. Sanford, or the several former Mrs. Gingrichs, or any of your own cast-offs, if they feel as if they were chewed up and spit out. Then ask Huma Abedin how she feels about you disparaging her character and passing judgment on her decision to work on and repair her marriage for the sake of herself, her husband, and her infant son.

Limbaugh began this broadcast saying that he “didn’t ever want to hear another word about a Republican War on Women.” Well, I don’t ever want to hear another word about Republican family values. At least not from neanderthals like Limbaugh who clearly do not value families.

[Update] Not to be outdone, Fox News hosted right-wing radio talker Michael Graham to bash Abedin. He rabidly pronounced that she is “even worse” than Weiner.


Fox Nation Hypes Ted Nugent’s Unhinged Promotion Of A Chicago Boycott

Posted by on July 24, 2013 at 10:56 am. 4 Comments :

The cognitive dysfunction at Fox News sometimes gets so severe that it’s hard to believe they aren’t satirizing themselves. The latest example is an article on their community web site, the lie-riddled Fox Nation, that features Ted Nugent retching up another of his repugnant rants.

Fox Nation Ted Nugent

In order to advance the argument that it is somehow improper for celebrities to take a principled stance against the “kill at will” law (aka stand your ground), the Fox Nationalists recruited their version of a celebrity, the washed-up schlock-rocker, Ted Nugent. True to form, Nugent, who is also a board member of the National Rifle Association, let loose a tirade that was filled with his signature bombast and ignorance. His tantrum was centered on his apparent disgust for free speech and civil activism.

“[Y]ou can pretend by boycotting a single city with a stand your ground law that somehow you don’t have to boycott Chicago, where 700 people are slaughtered every year because they’re not standing their ground.”

It’s surprising how much idiocy can be drawn from that brief statement. Let’s start with the observation that Nugent doesn’t know what a boycott is. Those who are not intellectually impaired know that a boycott is an organized effort to influence policy or behavior that is objectionable. Therefore, a boycott of Florida aimed at persuading the state’s legislators to amend a law that is racist and exacerbates violence, could be an appropriate course of action that might achieve the desired result. But who is it that Nugent is proposing to boycott in Chicago? The behavior that he objects to is that of criminals who are not very likely to be swayed by tourists refusing to visit the city.

Then Nugent takes note of the high murder rate in Chicago and seems to be utterly unaware of situation on the ground. He thinks that the victims generally were harmed as result of their not being well enough armed to defend themselves. However, a majority of the shooting deaths in Chicago are gang-related. That means that in most circumstances both the shooter and the victim had access to lethal weaponry. Any sane observer knows that the problem in Chicago is not an absence of firepower, it’s an obvious over-abundance.

In many ways Chicago is a model of the NRA-theist utopia where everyone has a gun and the streets are rife with old west style shootouts. In effect, everybody is standing their ground and the result is a landscape of corpses. That’s what Nugent and his NRA cronies lust for, and Florida is seeking to become. Trayvon Martin, whom the nauseating Nugent called a “dope-peddling, gangsta wannabe,” is the tragic progenitor of this dystopian worldview. Nugent would do us all a favor if he would keep the promise he made over a year ago when he said that he would be either “dead or in jail” by now.


Media Warning Signs For The Grand Old White Republican Tea Party

Posted by on July 23, 2013 at 12:55 pm. 8 Comments :

The Nielsen ratings for July are coming out soon and there are developing trends in television viewing that portend problems for Republicans. Variety is reporting that…

“Univision is on pace to end the July sweeps in the numero uno spot, a milestone for the U.S. Hispanic network. Market leader expects to dominate July sweeps primetime among both Adults 18-49 and Adults 18-34 demos, in broadcast or cable.”

To be clear, this is not a ratings win among Hispanic networks or a particular genre of programming. It is the top spot for all television programming in the most important audience demographics. They beat ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX.

GOP Rebranding
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The political significance of this victory is that it affirms the growth of the Latino market, which has already been recognized as the fastest growing segment of the electorate. After the GOP’s dismal showing among Latinos in last November’s election (Romney drew only 27%), the party made a very public case for examining what went wrong, producing a thick document they called an “autopsy.” They concluded that the party “must embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform. If we do not, our Party’s appeal will continue to shrink to its core constituencies only.”

Fast forward to July 2013. The Senate passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill with the votes of every Democrat, but only 14 Republicans. And now the bill sits dormant in the House where the Republican leadership refuses to bring it up for a vote. Many Republicans are openly hostile to immigration reform and have vowed to obstruct any attempt to advance it. Additionally, Republicans back voter suppression schemes that negatively impact Hispanic citizens. They also oppose the Dream Act that allows certain undocumented residents to remain in the country if they were brought here as children, have no criminal record, and are enrolled in either school or the military.

So despite recognition that the Republican Party’s viability in the future depends on broadening their base and appealing to Hispanics, they are doing virtually everything they can think of to alienate and insult the Latino community.

Another segment of the electorate that the GOP has had problems with are young voters. President Obama got a whopping 67% of the youth vote last November. Some of the issues that are important to this demographic include marriage equality, gun safety, tax fairness, health care, student loan interest rates, ballot access, and reproductive rights. These are all issues that the GOP polls poorly on among young constituents. Their autopsy noted that many respondents viewed the GOP as the party of “stuffy old men,” and acknowledged that “If our Party is not welcoming and inclusive, young people and increasingly other voters will continue to tune us out.”

Back to the present, we see that Republicans have done virtually nothing to avert the catastrophes they themselves predicted. And another signal in the media illustrates just how far afield they are in addressing the concerns of young citizens. The New York Times reports that Fox News, the PR arm of the GOP, is increasingly an island of far-right, senior citizens:

“[F]or six of the last eight years, Fox News has had a median age of 65-plus and the number of viewers in the 25-54 year old group has been falling consistently, down five years in a row in prime time.”

This represents the highest median age of any television network. Hence all the ads for Cialis, reverse mortgages, and the Scooter Store. Fox also has the widest disparity between viewers 18-34 and those 25-54. MSNBC, which has been slumping lately, still manages to grab the top spot for for viewers 18-34 in primetime.

Republicans, and their preferred media, are bleeding supporters in key groups that they have already conceded are essential for future victories. Hispanics, youth, African-Americans, and women, are all growing constituencies. But they are being left behind by an increasingly extremist and narrow Republican Party that is only responsive to older, white, Tea Partiers.

While this trend surely portends trouble for the GOP, it is an opportunity for Democrats to show some real leadership and embrace the diversity for which the party is known. Democrats have an uphill battle in 2014 due to gerrymandered redistricting by the GOP. They have to outperform Republicans by 7% just to stay competitive. Consequently, now would be the time to start shoring up support for the faster growing and more populous voter groups that show the most promise for electoral gains. Let the GOP have have the white, senior wingnuts. After all, it’s all they have left.


BREAKING: Screwing Royals Surprise The World With Mystery Baby

Posted by on July 22, 2013 at 2:55 pm. 5 Comments :

Reports from our London bureau are confirming that a couple of members of the British royal family have in their custody a male infant who they are claiming to be an heir to the throne of England. The child arrived this morning, although there is no evidence of an entourage or a means of transportation. Witnesses report that it was not there one moment, and then it was there the next.

Royal Fuckers

Scientific experts have developed a consensus theory that is being met with some skepticism by Republicans in the U.S. who reject any explanation that doesn’t involve divine intervention or result in lower corporate taxes. The scientists’ description of the phenomenon was summarized in a paper submitted to a British medical journal:

“Our research indicates a probable relationship with an interaction between the parties in the royal family,” wrote Dr. Ezekial Bogsworth-Kent of the University of London. “Empirical testing suggests that Prince William inserted his penis into the vagina of Lady Kate and maneuvered it inwardly and outwardly in successive motions until there was an eruption of spermatozoa. A chemical reaction subsequently occurred that resembles fertilization. It is difficult to conclude with certainty the sequence of events because they appear to have taken place some eight or nine months prior to the appearance of the mystery infant.”

The media has dispatched considerable resources to London in an effort to uncover the details of this affair, and its political and social ramifications. There are many unanswered questions, but diligent journalists are hard at work pressing their sources to acquire the information that is critical to a curious world. The news networks have ceased coverage of all the other trivial matters that generally consume their airtime. In the several hours since the announcement of the infant there has been no mention of George Zimmerman, Benghazi, immigration, Edward Snowden, or the economy and jobs.

The priority afforded to this breaking news is understandable when viewed in light of the international significance of this event. After all, this infant, in a couple of decades, may or may not be elevated to an entirely ceremonial role as the king of an empire over which he would have no power whatsoever, other than to spend millions of the tax dollars collected from struggling British citizens on his lavish lifestyle. So it is obvious why the media would focus so intently on this singular spectacle that is repeated tens of thousands of times every day by less consequential peasant folk.

The American press corps is no less obsessed with this distinctly British story because, despite the fact that the United States engaged in a bloody war of independence in order to cast off the shackles of monarchy, they are still entranced by royal melodrama that has no impact on them at all. So for the next few hours (days?) don’t expect to hear anything on the news that addresses the myriad problems America faces with its economic and social tribulations. There is a funny looking baby in a palace thousands of miles away that is far more important.

Royal Baby