Fox Nation’s Lopsided Reporting On Florida Voter Purge

Posted by on June 11, 2012 at 9:44 pm. 3 Comments :

Threats of litigation were flying today between federal agencies and the state of Florida over Florida’s efforts to disenfranchise voters who disagree with the state’s Republican leadership. Governor Rick Scott’s plans to throw people off the voter rolls has been revealed to be a blatant attempt to illegally prevent minorities, senior citizens, and the poor from voting, constituencies that just happen to vote Democratic.

The Justice Department advised the Governor and the Secretary of State (in a detailed letter) that the methods they proposed to use to remove allegedly ineligible names from the voter registration records were both flawed and unlawful. The response from Scott was to announce that he would be suing the feds and that he intended to continue his voter purge.

Fox Nation, however, did not carry a report of this announcement for many hours after it had been made. It was not until a subsequent announcement from the Justice Department that they were planning legal action against the state that the Fox Nationalists finally posted an article on the matter. And, of course, the lede was that the federal government was suing Florida.

Fox Nation on Florida Lawsuit

The intention by Fox was to portray the government as the aggressors in this litigation. That fits in nicely with their narrative of the Obama government being a dictatorial regime that is abusing its power over the sovereign states. And that’s why they didn’t bother to report that it was the state that initiated the legal action.

That’s not all that Fox failed to report. The substance of the dispute between Florida and the DOJ concerns the state’s unlawful purging of legitimate voters. The Tampa Bay Times conducted a review of the state’s proposed list of ineligible voters and found a total of forty non-citizens. Out of those, they identified at most six who “might” have voted. Conversely, they found more than 500 people who were determined to be actual citizens entitled to register and vote. Yet Scott continues to assert a justification for stripping the right to vote from 500 (mostly Democratic) citizens in order to block a half dozen ineligible voters.

The Justice Department is not the only party suing Florida. The ACLU has also filed a suit over the same issues. If you want to help you can sign this petition from MoveOn.org calling on AG Eric Holder to “to block Gov. Scott from illegitimately kicking Floridians off the voter roll.”

On a side note, I wasted a little time perusing the comments attached to the Fox Nation article. In the process I observed some pretty revolting language and overt racism. Here is a representative example of the sort of people who populate the Fox community:

Fox Nation Racism

Judging from the context of the reply, my guess is that the first comment was just a well-reasoned defense of Holder and Obama. The FoxPods, not capable of tolerating that, pounced on it by clicking the “Flag” button to get the comment removed, but not before one disgusting reply was posted. Later, the entire comments section was closed and removed. There were about 300 comments when I was there, but now they are all gone. That tells you something about both the Fox community and the managers of the site.

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Mitt Romney Wants To Eliminate Government Bloat – Like Teachers

Posted by on June 11, 2012 at 6:32 pm. 2 Comments :

A couple of days ago I posted an article detailing how Mitt Romney is Protecting America From The Scourge Of Firefighters, Police, And Teachers. I wrote in part that…

“Mitt Romney has boldly come out against big government and its coddling of superfluous bureaucrats that drain our nation of scarce resources. And Romney courageously puts names to these bloodsucking parasites who provide no discernible benefit to society.”

Today, rather than sensibly walking back the absurd position that America needs fewer teachers, firefighters, and police, Romney’s campaign doubled down. One of his top surrogates, John Sununu, even refused to characterize Romney’s remarks as a mistake:

“People ought to stop jumping on it as a gaffe and understand that there is real wisdom in the comment.”

Since the Romney camp is so proud of their latest pronouncement, I thought I’d pitch in by creating a campaign poster to help them promote their new initiative.

Mitt Romney on Government Bloat

I presume we’ll soon be seeing this everywhere as the Romney campaign seeks to spread the word about his commitment to reducing the deficit while increasing crime, illiteracy, and the death toll from fires and medical emergencies.


The Real Post-Wisconsin Right-Wing Agenda: Kill The Unions

Posted by on June 10, 2012 at 11:06 am. 6 Comments :

During the long and bitter recall campaign against Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, the Republicans insisted that their sole purpose was to cut wasteful spending and bring down government deficits. Most of the working families of Wisconsin knew that wasn’t true. Walker’s agenda was aimed squarely at collective bargaining rights that had been won over decades of hard fought negotiations. The result was a better quality of life for workers in the state, both in and out of unions.

In the past week, however, the veil has been lifted, and the anti-worker conservative’s motives are now being expressed openly and without the deceptive pretenses that characterized the pro-Walker campaign.

Kill The Unions

Immediately following the election results, the National Review’s Rich Lowry published an article with the provocative title, “All That’s ‘Left’ Is to Sound the Death Knell for Unions.” Lowry gleefully wrote of the defeat of the recall, disparagingly portraying the 1.16 million pro-recall voters as “hippie leftovers and lefty college students.” But the unadulterated focus of the article was on his notion that public sector unions were on the decline and should be abolished.

Today on Fox News Sunday, that sentiment was affirmed by Indiana mayor (and prospective Romney running mate) Mitch Daniels, who said that “I think, really, government works better without them.” That’s a little like having the CEO of General Motors express his preference for not having to deal with auto worker’s unions. Of course not. They would both prefer to be able to exploit workers and deny them reasonable benefits and working conditions without the interference of worker’s advocates.

The fact that the right is now openly declaring their intention to abolish unions indicates the confidence with which they believe they can pursue that goal. They have always wanted to go back to the days when corporations could set the rules and employees had to take it or leave it. But after the success of the movement for worker’s rights and union representation they pretended to moderate their stance and accommodate the unions. Now that facade has apparently been demolished and management factions of business and government are re-mobilizing to roll back the gains won through prior negotiations.

Lowry and Daniels, and the right-wing media that support them, had better be careful. The results of the recall in Wisconsin were not an affirmation of some general opposition to unions. And with 1.16 million voters supporting the recall (vs. 1.33 million for Walker), there is still abundant support for the rights of workers. And there is no evidence that anti-recall voters were anti-union.

Not discussed much since the election is the fact that the recall of another Republican state senator was successful, which flips the majority control of the senate to the Democrats. So clearly the hooting on behalf of giddy Republicans is premature. They are not as popular as they think they are. And now, Walker’s regressive policies will not be rubber-stamped by a GOP legislature.

But Democrats must not be complacent. The right has overtly declared war on unions. It is no longer a secret agenda hidden behind a disingenuously expressed sympathy for workers. It is out in the open and it must be countered effectively and vigorously. They have thrown down the gauntlet and it is up to the left to step up and challenge them. This is a battle we can win because, while they may have millions of dollars from vested special interests, we have the people on our side.


Mitt Romney: Protecting America From The Scourge Of Firefighters, Police, And Teachers

Posted by on June 9, 2012 at 12:31 pm. 2 Comments :

Now here’s a campaign platform that takes real guts. Mitt Romney has boldly come out against big government and its coddling of superfluous bureaucrats that drain our nation of scarce resources. And Romney courageously puts names to these bloodsucking parasites who provide no discernible benefit to society. Here is what he had to say about them:

“[Obama] wants to hire more government workers. He says we need more fireman, more policeman, more teachers. Did he not get the message of Wisconsin? The American people did. It’s time for us to cut back on government and help the American people.”

That’s right. The American people need help, and not the kind that President Obama is proposing. They don’t need fires extinguished by lazy civil servants. Real Americans will pick up their garden hoses and attack the blaze from their rooftops. Forest and prairie fires are actually a cheap method of clearing unsightly trees and brush. And paramedics only serve to exacerbate the socialist notion that victims of heart attacks and car accidents are “entitled” to life-saving emergency care.

The American people don’t need more police either. Protection from robberies and assaults is only sought by pussies and the French. And besides, if you really want police protection you can just start earning more money and move to a wealthy community where more officers are deployed and private security can be acquired for hefty fee. This is America, dammit. If you can’t get rich and pay for your own security, that’s your fault. And if you don’t stockpile weapons in your home, then you don’t really love your family. Just ask Mitt Romney (shooter of varmints) if he relies on the government for protection (well, except for all those secret service agents that cost taxpayers millions of dollars).

And don’t even get me started on teachers. What a waste of money that could have been spent on invading Iran. It’s not like America is the stupidest country in the world. At 37th worldwide there’s like 100 other countries that are stupider (and 36 that are smarterer).
Mitt Romney - We're Not StupidAgain the solution is simple. Send your children to expensive private schools like Romney’s Cranbrook, where they can get a superior education while traumatizing other students because they look different than you. The kids that are stuck in overcrowded public schools should stop whining and be grateful for community colleges and the jobs awaiting them at McDonalds. Romney has finally shown the courage to put an end to the fallacy that our children are the future when, in reality, they are just a bunch of germ-ridden fiscal burdens. Although the end result of this might make it harder for Romney to live up to his campaign slogan: We’re Not Stupid!

Mitt Romney, and most of the press, are preoccupied with an out-of-context soundbite where Obama said that “the private sector is doing fine.” When the whole of Obama’s remarks are considered it is clear that he was making a relative reference that the private sector (that has gained 4.2 million jobs in the last couple of years) is doing better than the public sector (which is still down 700,000 jobs). And if the jobs of firefighters, police and teachers were restored it would not only help those Americans, but it would produce more economic activity as a result of their employment (reducing the unemployment rate a full point) and improve the quality of life for all the Americans who benefit from the work they do.

In his remarks, Romney said that Obama was “out-of-touch.” It really takes cajones for a multimillionaire son of governor to call somebody else out-of-touch. But leave it to Romney and the Republican Party to twist reality out of all proportion and to take a position advocating fewer first-responders and educators. And these are the same people hyping so-called American exceptionalism.


Greetings From Mitt Romney’s Massachusetts Misery

Posted by on June 8, 2012 at 1:51 pm. 3 Comments :

Mitt Romney has been running a campaign focused almost entirely on negative attacks against President Obama. He relentlessly misrepresents Obama’s record and public statements in a frantic effort to diminish the President, while avoiding any discussion of his own questionable qualifications for office. And there is good reason for Romney to want to run from his record. His resume contains only two items to persuade the American people to vote for him:

The first item is his tenure as the CEO of Bain Capital, an investment firm that specialized in leveraging struggling companies by downsizing their workforce (he likes firing people), drowning them in debt, and then draining those assets to enrich Bain shareholders prior to shutting the companies down. Not exactly the skill set for a nation that hopes to stick around for a while.

The second item is his reign as governor of Massachusetts. Remember that? He almost never speaks of it. And the reason why is conveniently illustrated in this handy, shareable infographic:

Massachusetts Misery

So a governor who presided over nearly the worst job creation in the nation (here’s an InfoGraphic of The Real Job Creators), raised taxes on the middle class, and left a billion dollar deficit for his successor, now tells the country that his business experience is the backbone of his candidacy. But that experience didn’t do much good for the people of Massachusetts.

The truth is, based on Romney’s experience, the failure of his administration in Massachusetts was entirely predictable. He has pretty good credentials as a corporate raider and an investment manager if you are looking to hire someone who is skilled at extracting profits from companies headed toward bankruptcy. But if you are looking for a leader with expertise in growing the economy with a long-term perspective on creating wealth for a broad range of citizens (not just the 1%), then Romney’s background is not only irrelevant, it is a contra-indicator for success.

Voting for Mitt Romney for president would be like hiring an arsonist to put out a fire.


Fox Nation Revives ACORN Phobia While Mitt Romney Hires Corrupt Consultant

Posted by on June 8, 2012 at 10:33 am. 4 Comments :

It’s been two years since ACORN closed up shop after being falsely accused of voter fraud. But right-wing obsessives refuse to abandon their neuroses once they latch onto them. Never mind the fact that ACORN was exonerated by numerous independent investigations and that the only criminal conviction to result from the harassment was that of James O’Keefe, who produced the dishonestly edited videos that slandered ACORN’s reputation.

Fox Nation, nevertheless, persists in fear mongering about the defunct organization as if it had zombie-like powers of reanimation. Yesterday they featured an article that sought to renew the dread that conservatives still harbor in their hearts for an enterprise that mainly helped people to participate in their democracy and guided them through complex federal mortgage assistance programs.

Fox Nation - ACORN

The article relied on a report from the conservative Judicial Watch, who alleged that a former ACORN director was the recipient of federal funds for an Illinois program that helps struggling homeowners make their mortgage payments. It refers to ACORN as “scandal-plagued” and a “corrupt leftist community group.” Of course, neither of those assertions are true and both Fox Nation and Judicial Watch know it.

The problem, as explained by Judicial Watch, is that a “sub-component” of the Illinois Housing Development Authority received a federal grant, and that a director of the program, Joe McGavin, had performed the same role at ACORN. Which simply means that he has experience with helping people with federal assistance and is, therefore, well qualified for his job. But to the Fox Nationalists it means that he is a “suspect candidate,” despite never having been associated with any impropriety.

Meahwhile, at Mitt Romney’s campaign, someone with an actual record of dirty dealings has been added to the team. According to Lee Fang at the Republic Report, Nathan Sproul is “a political consultant with a long history of destroying Democratic voter registration forms and manipulating ballot initiatives.” With a new company name, Lincoln Strategies, Sproul is on the Romney payroll presumably to engage in activities similar to these:

  • In Oregon and Nevada, Sproul and Associates was investigated for destroying Democratic voter registration forms. The Bush-Cheney 2004 presidential campaign paid Sproul $7.4 million for campaign work. [CNN, 10/14/04; KGW News, 10/13/04; East Valley Tribune, 09/07/06]
  • In Nevada, people who registered as Democrats with Sproul and Associates found their names absent from the voter registration rolls. [Reno Gazette-Journal, 10/29/04]
  • During the 2006 midterm elections, Wal-Mart banned Lincoln Strategies for partisan voter registration efforts in Tennessee. The Republican National Committee had hired the firm. [Associated Press, 08/24/06]
  • In Arizona, Lincoln Strategies employed a variety of deceptive tactics — including systematically lying about the bill — to push a ballot initiative to eviscerate the state’s clean elections law. [Salon, 10/21/04]
  • Lincoln Strategies, then employed by the Republican Party, was behind efforts to place Ralph Nader on the ballot in states such as Arizona. [American Prospect, 06/25/04]

Fox News and their conservative comrades have been hyperventilating about voter fraud for months, although they have never been able to cite actual examples of it. But they continue to raise it as an issue in order to push legislation that has the purpose of disenfranchising legitimate voters who just happen to lean Democratic.

The controversy surrounding ACORN involved allegations of phony names on voter registration applications. However, it was ACORN who alerted officials to the presence of those improper forms and, in any event, they could not, and did not, result in any fraudulent voting. In fact, ACORN itself was the victim of that activity because they were paying registration gatherers per form and the gatherers were falsifying them in order to earn more money. It did not serve any purpose of ACORN to submit forms that did represent actual voters.

On the other hand, Sproul’s corruption had the effect of preventing Democrats from being able to exercise their right to vote by deceiving them into believing that they were registered. But when they got to the polls they discovered that their registrations were never submitted.

And the man responsible for that is now a consultant to Mitt Romney’s campaign. Where is the story on that by Fox News?

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Breitbart Bites: A Tea Party At Disneyland With Junkfood And Chili Peppers

Posted by on June 7, 2012 at 4:46 am. 1 Comments :

Breitbart News has an arduous task as it seeks to produce a daily menu of moronic musings to satisfy their dimwitted readers. It seems a near impossible mission to continually churn out the quantity and quality of idiocy that they somehow manage to maintain. Here are a few recent examples of the prime cuts of cretinism that have graced their puerile pages.

Breitbart Bites

Ray Bradbury: Science Fiction Legend; Tea Party Patriot
The news that Ray Bradbury, author of classic books such as Fahrenheit 451 and The Illustrated Man, passed away Wednesday surely stirred pangs of grief and memories of inspiration for millions. But for the Breitbrats it was a morbid opportunity to polish their egos by sponging off of the reputation of a beloved storyteller. These parasites can’t even set aside a time to mourn without attempting to turn the occasion into a partisan political affair. At 91, Bradbury had a long life and expressed a wide variety of views. In his later years he did tend to lean to the right, but he never associated himself with the Tea Party. For the Breitbrats to assert that after his death is not unlike the disturbing Mormon practice of Baptizing Jews posthumously.

Disney Kneels Before The State: Bans ‘Junkfood’ Ads
To today’s conservatives, the worst thing that any business can do in the age of Obama is to align itself with any initiative whose purpose is the well-being of society and it’s inhabitants. That’s the cliff Disney stepped off of when, in partnership with First Lady Michelle Obama’s campaign for children’s health, they unveiled plans to keep junk food ads off of their child-focused TV networks, radio stations and Web sites. To the Breitbrats, when a business chooses to refrain from indoctrinating kids with unhealthy messages, it is not the free market at work, but a capitulation to a tyrannical government. Breitbrat John Nolte begins his advocacy of Big Mac brainwashing by denying the existence of the very real problem of child obesity. But then he launches into a surprising justification:

“The left’s rebuttal is always the same: Well, we have to pay the health care costs for the obese.

Yes, we do, but the cost of liberty is not always fair — but it’s worth every damn penny.”

Get it? Nolte favors passing on the costs of treating illnesses resulting from obesity and malnutrition to society-at-large. Sounds like universal healthcare (aka socialism) to me. He thinks it’s perfectly OK for all of us to pay for the consequences of behavior that will drain the nation’s treasury if that behavior was freely chosen by the patient. And he shudders at the thought of people being informed about their health choices, even if the person is only ten years old. At the same time, he opposes paying for medical care for those unfortunates who might randomly develop kidney disease or multiple sclerosis or any number of other illnesses that are not behavior driven. That’s because he values liberty so highly that even socialism is justified to preserve our right to totally screw ourselves up.

Chili Peppers Rally For President Kardashian
The Breitbrats like to see themselves as trendy fashionistas who are hip to the scene, man. That’s likely an emotional reaction to their having been such pathetic outcasts in their youth. So now, in adulthood, they strive pitifully to fit in with what they think is cool. The result is an attempt to ridicule President Obama by arbitrarily associating him with a Kardashian. And as if that weren’t lame enough, they go on to insult the Red Hot Chili Peppers who provided free entertainment to thank Obama campaign volunteers for their service.

Breitbrat Christian Toto derides the Red Hot Chili Peppers as “aging punksters.” OK, the Red Hots aren’t 20-somethings, but my guess is that Flea would kick Toto’s tail in a contest to see who rocks harder. What’s more, when the most prominent rocker in the Romney is camp is Ted Nugent, a senior citizen has-been with a gun fetish, you might want to lay off the age jokes. Nugent spends his weekends at state fairs on nostalgic reunion tours, while the Red Hots fill stadiums and still chart hits. This one is currently at #17:

In these few items the Breitbrats have thoroughly demonstrated that they are shameless partisan hacks, incoherent hypocrites, and wretchedly feeble culture critics. No wonder their model of obsession-fueled, juvenile journalism (i.e. “vetting” the President) is such a sorry failure. Somehow they have managed to make Andrew Breitbart’s laughably weak and transparently biased blog conglomerate even dumber and less consequential.


THE VETTING: Mitt Romney’s Shameful Record Of Military Cowardice And Hypocrisy

Posted by on June 6, 2012 at 4:57 pm. 4 Comments :

Today is the 68th anniversary of D-Day, the day that commemorates the Allied forces’ invasion of Normandy in 1944. Mitt Romney has no scheduled appearances on his calendar to mark the occasion. Instead, he solicited donations from wealthy Republicans at private fundraisers in San Antonio and Houston.

Perhaps Romney’s reticence to bring attention to this anniversary has something to do with the fact that his personal history with regard to military service is an embarrassing jumble of hypocrisy, dishonesty, and irresponsibility.

Mitt RomneyIn 1966, Romney was a vocal proponent of the Vietnam war. At Stanford University he attended rallies in support of the conflict and engaged in counter-protests against peace activists. Nevertheless, Romney was content to let other young men risk their lives for their country while he attended school and went to France on behalf of his Mormon church. In 2007, Romney had the gall to tell the Boston Globe that…

“I was supportive of my country. I longed in many respects to actually be in Vietnam and be representing our country there, and in some ways it was frustrating not to feel like I was there as part of the troops that were fighting in Vietnam.”

However, Romney’s alleged frustration was contradicted by his remarks to the Boston Herald in 1994 when he admitted that…

“I was not planning on signing up for the military. […] It was not my desire to go off and serve in Vietnam, but nor did I take any actions to remove myself from the pool of young men who were eligible for the draft.”

So the Romney of 2007 was revealed to be a liar by the Romney of 1994. But that’s not all. The Romney of 1994 was also a liar because he did, in fact, remove himself from the draft for many years with deferments for both college and Mormon missionary work. And Romney’s lack of the character and courage to live by the principles he professed has rubbed off on his five sons, who were all old enough to serve in Afghanistan and/or Iraq, but who declined to enlist. In a display of utterly revolting elitism and ego, Romney defended them saying that “one of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping to get me elected.”

So on this anniversary of D-Day, draft dodger Romney chooses to forgo a formal remembrance in favor of attending a flurry of fundraisers. And how does Fox News report this state of affairs?

Fox Nation

That’s right. It’s all about Obama. And even though Romney skipped D-Day and went fundraising instead, there is no mention of that by Fox. They do however, say that “Obama’s failure to mark D-Day in any significant way is both a shame and a political mistake.” Therefore, it ought to be equally shameful for Romney. At least Obama never evaded military service at a time of war, as did Romney and his sons. It is also notable, in a disturbing way, that the Fox Nationalists took the extra step to complain about the political fallout from not commemorating this anniversary. That is really all they think about. Politics is far more important to them than principle. Had Obama held a D-Day event, the response from Fox would undoubtedly have been that he was exploiting it for political gain and using the troops for a photo-op.

Fox News can be relied upon for only one thing: Strictly one-side, partisan propaganda for the benefit of Republicans and the detriment of Democrats. Roger Ailes works for the RNC, or perhaps vice versa. It’s hard to tell.

For the record, both Obama and Romney tweeted memorials to D-Day participants and survivors.


A Pictorial History Of Gas Prices As Presented By Fox News

Posted by on June 6, 2012 at 2:49 pm. 2 Comments :

For most of the first half of this year Fox News has relentlessly lambasted President Obama for rising gas prices. The narrative from Fox was that the increase was entirely the fault of the President, despite the fact that experts attributed the rise to lower international demand, political volatility in the Middle East, and other strictly market-based events.

Now that gas prices have fallen significantly, failing to reach the outrageous predictions of Fox News analysts, Fox has largely ignored the issue. So it seems like a good time to offer a quick pictorial reminder of how Fox frames their brazenly biased reporting.

Fox News Gas Prices

Dishonest as always, Fox News is feverishly striving to demonize Obama and canonize Romney. If Fox continues to act as a surrogate for the GOP they should lose their broadcast license. They are not a news enterprise, they are the the PR arm of the Republican Party.


IDIOT ALERT: Fox Nation Reports Eyewitness To Voter Fraud In Wisconsin

Posted by on June 5, 2012 at 3:28 pm. 3 Comments :

There are times when you hear some Tea Party birther spew nonsense that is just plain delusional and you think, “How can anyone believe that?” Then there are times when what you hear is so astonishingly stupid that you’re afraid that your jaw will never reset and remain permanently disjointed from having dropped so hard.

On today’s radio broadcast of conservative Chris Plante, a caller named “Mike” spun a tale that would have made for a great parody, except that he is being taken seriously by wingnuts and conservative media. He told Plante that he was on a bus, one of four buses, that were on their way from Michigan to Wisconsin. He said that the purpose of the convoy was to transport out-of-state Michiganders to Wisconsin so that they could illegally cast votes for Democrat Tom Barrett for governor. Mike said, however that he was planning to voter for Scott Walker.

There was absolutely no proof that any of what was said by this anonymous caller to a talk radio show was true. However, there are some pretty good reasons to dismiss his allegations as cheap theatrics and lies. Not the least of which is the fact that these alleged phony voters would not be able to cast ballots in Wisconsin without having previously registered and provided ID with proof of residency. They could register at the polling place and cast provisional ballots, but they would not be counted until after the voter returned with the required residency ID. So Mike’s account of this road trip, if it were true, could not be anything more than an expensive boondoggle to blow a pile of cash on four chartered buses and, according to Mike, food and other “freebies,” so that a bunch of dopes from Michigan can waste a few hours on the highway.

Additionally, Mike’s assertion that he was calling from one the phantom buses was debunked briefly by Plante himself. Plante wondered how Mike, who could not be listening to the radio show while on the bus, knew that Plante was talking about the Wisconsin election when he called in. Mike’s stumbling attempt at an answer was that Plante always talks about that. It would also be pretty difficult for Mike to have this conversation with a right-wing radio host while sitting on a bus full of Democrats who were on their way to break federal laws. And, by the way, that is what Mike confessed was his intent as well. So he was admitting on the air that he was a co-conspirator in a plot to commit felony voter fraud.

It would have been bad enough if this foolishness ended right there on Plante’s radio program, but no such luck. Fox News picked up the story and posted it at the top of their Fox Nation web site with a headline that doesn’t question the veracity of the “eyewitness:” EYEWITNESS ALLEGES DEMOCRAT UNION VOTE FRAUD IN WISCONSIN.

Fox Nation

The Fox Nationalists don’t bother to put a qualifying adjective in front of the word “eyewitness,” but they have no problem accusing Democrats and unions of voter fraud, even though the only evidence of any fraud was via the confession by a Republican named Mike.

In all likelihood this call originated from the flea-infested sofa on the back porch of Mike’s mother’s trailer somewhere in rural Mississippi. Mike probably spun this story while chugging a Bud and waiting for his cousin/wife to let him know the next batch of meth was ready. And Chris Plante bought it. And Fox News bought it. And who knows how many dimwits who pay attention to those pathetically dishonest sources went right along with whatever they were told.

This is one of those moments of idiocy that will stand out when the Idiocy Hall of Fame makes their next round of nominations. For Fox News to treat this a credible content, and to report it as if it were news, really says all that is needed to be said about Fox. They are not merely a collective of partisan liars, they are blithering ignoramuses who probably should not be allowed to use kitchen utensils unsupervised. And their audience…..oh forget it. It hurts to think about it.