Glenn Beck Issues Another End-Of-World Proclamation With Secret Proof Coming Soon

Posted by on October 9, 2013 at 12:15 pm. 5 Comments :

If I had a dime for every time that Glenn Beck has frantically declared that the world is coming to end, I’d be able to buy a first-class ticket to Valhalla.

Glenn Beck

And once again, on his program yesterday (video below), Beck revealed that he has confirmed evidence that it is all over for America:

“It is shocking, what they’re doing. SHOCKING! It is the end of the total transformation. I’m telling you, it’s like the end The Eye of Moloch. It is total transformation. […] The information I got – it is already done. It’s not like they’re putting it together. It’s already done, and it is horrifying. […] You won’t believe it when I tell you. You won’t believe it. Because it is exactly that. It is ‘yep, your country is done. Meet the new one.’ It’s amazing.”

There you have it. Make your amends with God and kiss your family goodbye. This isn’t a warning of some prospective horror, it is already a done deal. It is so terrifying that it reminds Beck of the end of his own apocalyptic book “The Eye Of Moloch.” (Isn’t that convenient?) And whatever it is, Beck has proof that he will deliver when the time is right.

The only part of Beck’s alarm that makes sense is when he says that “You won’t believe it when I tell you.” Indeed. At least if you are not certifiably psychotic. Because this isn’t the first time Beck has warned of imminent doom with a promise of evidence to follow. There was the time that he promised info that would “Bring Down The Whole Power Structure.” He ranted that…

“This country is, I believe, going to be rocked in the next 24 hours with some things that are going on in Washington and beyond that we found out about yesterday. And we will be telling you in great detail in the next 24 hours.”

Twenty four hours later it was like Beck never said a word about it. He produced no details and didn’t even bring up the subject again. The same thing happened when he said that would he break the “Most Important Story In History.” This travesty prompted Beck to predict dire consequences:

“Our president, this administration, the Department of Homeland Security, and everything else – how they have covered this up, how they have aided and abetted this guy – is obscene, it’s criminal, it is out of control. And when America knows the full story on this, if she doesn’t stand up and, quite honestly, demand impeachment and the mass firing – if not shutting down – of agencies, we don’t stand a chance.”

Once again, Beck failed to follow up this disturbing revelation with proof as he promised. And this is the guy who inexplicably whines when people call him a conspiracy theorist. That is, when he isn’t falsely asserting that “I’ve Never Been Called A Conspiracy Theorist In My Life.” I previously cataloged a collection of Beck’s end times predictions that he referred to as “The Perfect Storm,” something he claimed had arrived to cause devastating destruction numerous times. Somehow, we’re still here.

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If I were you I wouldn’t wait around for Beck to confirm his latest prophecy. But if you you’re looking some first-class absurdist comedy, you can’t beat Beck for laying on the crackpottery extra thick.

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Rachel Maddow Whomps Megyn Kelly’s Premiere On Fox News

Posted by on October 8, 2013 at 8:31 pm. 37 Comments :

Last night Fox News debuted a new primetime lineup. It was the first time they had altered their schedule in more than a decade. They heavily promoted the changes and the new hosts for weeks. And on the the big night, when most new programs enjoy a ratings bump due to viewers sampling the new fare, Fox News did not get what they must have been expecting.

The top billing for the night went to Megyn Kelly, whose “Kelly File” has been eagerly anticipated by Foxophiles and received massive PR in advance of the debut. Unfortunately for her, she came in second to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow in the key 25-54 year old demographic.

Rachel Maddow
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It would be bad enough for a Fox host to lose to an MSNBC show under ordinary circumstances, but to trail on the one night that ought to have been a runaway victory is a major embarrassment for Kelly and Fox. There were no extenuating circumstances that might have contributed to an unexpected win for Maddow. For instance, she did not have an exclusive interview with President Obama wherein he announced that he really was born in Kenya after all. And Kelly’s show had booked the GOP flavor of the week, Sen. Ted Cruz (TX-Tea Party), as her first guest, so she ought to have been well positioned to draw in the Fox fanatics in bulk. But it was not to be.

What’s more, Greta Van Susteren, who had moved from 10:00pm to 7:00pm, lost to MSNBC’s Chris Matthews. And Sean Hannity, who lost his 9:00pm slot to Kelly and took over the 10:00pm time that Van Susteren vacated, could only manage a tie with MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell. The only win for Fox the whole night was by their perennial top dog, Bill O’Reilly, who bested Chris Hayes, the newest MSNBC host who has yet to find an audience.

These dismal performances by Fox programs are all the worse because the network had poured so much money and promotional muscle into the evening. It was their intent to inject new blood into the schedule in order to attract the younger, advertiser-favored demos that have avoided Fox like the plague. That goal was clearly not met – at least on the debut. And just to rub it in, MSNBC achieved their ratings victories with the same old shows they’ve had on for years and no extra promotion.

Rest assured that Fox programming executives are already huddling to figure out what went wrong and how to correct it. Kelly and the others may yet return to their perches atop the ratings tree. But they will still have little influence over the broader television audience who recognize Fox for what it is: the PR division of the Republican Party and the Tea Party cheerleading squad. Remember, Fox’s top rated programs only reach 1% of the American people, and the garbage that they ingest (see Fox Nation vs. Reality) just makes them ignorant, ineffectual, and filled with ghastly surprise when they lose elections.

[Follow Up: 10/27/2013] It is now three weeks since this article was published and I still get commenters giddily noting that Kelly’s ratings improved on subsequent nights. SO F**KING WHAT? This article is about the premiere episode and it even notes that her ratings may improve later. These FoxPods just can’t seem to focus on single topic.


Bill O’Reilly’s Know-Nothing Talking Points On ObamaCare (And Jon Stewart Too)

Posted by on October 8, 2013 at 12:37 pm. 9 Comments :

For the past week, the Fox News spokesman for the Divine Spirit, Bill O’Reilly, has been proselytizing his own prescription for resolving the government shutdown crisis. The centerpiece of his solution is his call to delay the Affordable Care Act’s “individual mandate” for one year. He says that big business is getting to waive their mandate for a year, so why not all of the American people.

Bill O'Reilly

The only thing wrong O’Reilly’s position is everything. First of all, Americans already have a de facto one year exemption from ObamaCare. The open enrollment period for ObamaCare extends for six months, until the end of March 2014. Anyone who does not get the required insurance by then will have to pay penalty, but it will not be due until 2015. So everyone has plenty of time between now and then to evaluate their options and make a decision that is in their best interest. Therefore, O’Reilly’s suggestion for a one year delay is moot. His notion that everybody must have insurance by January first or they will be billed immediately is simply untrue.

Secondly, O’Reilly uses as a justification for his superfluous delay proposal the previous granting of a one year waiver for the employer mandate. He reasons that if big business is granted this alleged reprieve, why not give the same break to individuals? But what O’Reilly either doesn’t know, or doesn’t say, is that the waiver to which he is referring is only going to a tiny minority of specific businesses that are not providing health insurance to their employees. Since about 96% of the impacted companies already provide such insurance, that leaves only the portion of the remaining 4% who are not prepared to comply that will be subject to the waiver. And that represents about 0.4% of the American people. Citing that miniscule piece of the program as justification for exempting everyone subject to the individual mandate is ludicrous.

When Bill O’Reilly mouths off ignorantly about subjects like these, it really isn’t particularly surprising. He does that pretty much every day. Unfortunately, his pal from the Daily Show, Jon Stewart, also got swept up in the false argument about business waivers during an interview last night with the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius. And as if it weren’t bad enough that he misread the facts, he berated Sebelius in a prolonged rant over that misunderstanding. Hopefully someone on his staff will provide him with more accurate data on this for future reference.

It is plainly absurd to delay a program that is already saving millions of dollars for millions of people on the basis of such flawed reasoning. And it certainly makes no sense to push everything back because a few companies got a waiver. The Tea Party Republicans advocating this course are engaging in deliberate obstruction and obfuscation, and they must not be allowed to get away with it. Their irresponsible behavior is already having an adverse effect on them with some polls showing they are at risk of losing their majority in the House of Representatives. So I guess the old saying about silver linings is true.


Does Fox News Think That Ronald Reagan Tried To Panic The Markets?

Posted by on October 7, 2013 at 10:12 am. 6 Comments :

This weekend’s edition of Fox News Sunday had a segment wherein the host, Chris Wallace, interviewed Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. In the course of the interview Wallace addressed the government shutdown and the approaching debt ceiling crisis with this phony premise:

“This week both you and the president seemed to be trying to panic the markets about both raising the debt ceiling and the government shutdown, saying that they should be more concerned.”

Fox News

In fact, President Obama merely observed what every credible economist has said about the prospect of the United States defaulting on its financial obligations. It would throw the world economy into turmoil and inflate the U.S. debt by billions due to higher interest rates. Just the threat of taking such an irresponsible step would panic the market without Obama having to say a word. And Obama is not the only one who thinks so. Here is what the GOP’s sainted Ronald Reagan had to say about it back on September 26, 1987:

Reagan: Congress consistently brings the Government to the edge of default before facing its responsibility. This brinkmanship threatens the holders of government bonds and those who rely on Social Security and veterans benefits. Interest rates would skyrocket, instability would occur in financial markets, and the Federal deficit would soar. The United States has a special responsibility to itself and the world to meet its obligations. It means we have a well-earned reputation for reliability and credibility – two things that set us apart from much of the world.

The hypocrisy of the Tea Party Republicans pretending to care about impacting the financial markets is monumental. Their own words (not to mention their actions) have been far more threatening than anything Obama has said. They have been saying for five years that Obama and his Marxist policies would bring the nation to ruin. They said he would destroy the economy and the country; that ObamaCare would bankrupt the nation and lead to civil war; that asking the rich to pay a little more in taxes, rather than putting the burden on the poor and middle class, would crush the recovery; that anything the President ever proposed would be a job killer and a disincentive to investment.

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Those predictions were about as accurate as last year’s Mayan end-of-the-world prophecy. The stock market is higher now than it was before the recession. The unemployment rate has dropped from 10.1 to 7.3 percent. And ObamaCare has proved to so popular that the demand crashed the government servers. Given the right’s record on forecasting the future, how can anyone take them seriously? Even the words of their idol, Reagan, don’t seem to diffuse their rabid Obama Derangement Syndrome.


Um, Nope: Fox News Reports That Obama Paid To Keep Muslim Museum Open During Shutdown

Posted by on October 6, 2013 at 9:51 am. 3 Comments :

The brain trust at Fox News has done it again. Their crack team of intrepid reporters (or is that insipid team of reporters on crack?), have uncovered another brewing scandal erupting from the Obama White House. The latest atrocity attributed to President Obama concerns an appalling decision on his part that unmasks the anti-American streak of hubris that Michele Bachmann has been warning us about for years.

During the current shutdown of the United States government (or “slimdown” as Fox News has deemed it), a wide variety of government services have been curtailed. This Tea Party driven abandonment of federal responsibilities has resulted in serious repercussions for many Americans including 800,000 workers who have been thrown off the job. Recipients of benefits for child nutrition, victims of natural disasters, and people seeking home loans, have also been adversely impacted by the GOP intransigence and obsession with crippling ObamaCare, no matter the cost to innocent citizens.

Amidst these hardships, Fox News is now reporting (video below) that the President has come to the aid of one particular national entity in order to keep it open to the public. It is the Museum of Muslim Culture that will be the beneficiary of Obama’s generosity as, according to Anna Kooiman of Fox & Friends, he will pay out of his own pocket to keep it operating. This revelation is just the sort of thing that will agitate the Tea Party crowd into fits of fury. And it affirms their long held beliefs that Obama is a secret Muslim who is bent on oppressing America with Sharia law.

There’s just on little problem: it isn’t true. The apparent source for Kooiman’s ludicrous story is a well known and highly entertaining satirical web site, The National Report. Their “news” item included obviously fabricated quotes from the President like…

“The Muslim community deserves our full acceptance and respect,” Obama said. “We have killed millions of Muslims overseas since the September 11th attacks. They are not all bad. In fact most of them are good. So during this shutdown, now is a great time to learn about the faith of Islam. I encourage all of you to celebrate the Muslim community, the ‘Sunnah’ and the magic of the ‘Quran’. All of this can be found at the newly re-opened International Museum of Muslim Cultures.”

Fox News
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There is indeed an International Museum of Muslim Cultures located in Mississippi. However, it is not a federal property and, therefore, not subject to closure. Furthermore, the picture posted by the National Report was of the Milwaukee Art Museum in Wisconsin. Apparently the folks at Fox & Friends are not art aficionados.

Equally inane reports have been circulating that President Obama is deliberately seeking to create unnecessary harm by terminating services that will negatively impact the most people. Of course there is no evidence supporting that allegation, but that hasn’t stopped Fox News from reporting it or Rep. Darrel Issa (R-Tea Party) from announcing that his scandal-fixated, congressional witch hunt committee will investigate it.

Amongst the purposeful annoyances Obama has been accused of is the closing of the World War II memorial in Washington, D.C. Like the other accusations, there is no proof that the White House had anything to do with that decision, nor would it make any sense from a political standpoint. But the same GOP representatives who voted to shut down the government, and the memorial, are now hypocritically pretending to defend the rights of the people who want to visit it. This perfectly illustrates the priorities of the right-wingnuts whose sympathies lean more toward old soldiers who want to look at statues than to hungry children or suffering tornado victims.

The National Report has fooled ignorant Tea Party types before. Their story alleging that “Obama Says Tea Party Members Fit Profile of Domestic Terrorists” was widely disseminated through the right-wing funhouse media despite the obvious satirical fakery. When you are unable to discern the validity of a news source whose other articles include “New CDC Study Indicates Pets Of Gay Couples Worse At Sports, Better At Fashion Than Pets Of Straight Couples,” there is something seriously wrong with your cognitive functioning. But I guess that goes without saying when referring to Fox News and, especially, the kiddies at Fox & Friends.

[Update] Anna Kooiman tweeted an apology saying “Just met w producers- I made a mistake yday after receiving flawed research abt a museum possibly closing. My apologies. Won’t happen again.” But that’s not nearly sufficient. She needs to apologize on-air, where she made the “mistake.” Fox media analyst Howard Kurtz ignored it entirely on his Sunday Media Buzz program.

And just as a reminder, Fox News isn’t particularly concerned with mistakes. Kooiman’s Fox & Friends colleague, Gretchen Carlson (who just got a new daytime show on Fox) once remarked that one of the things she likes best about working for Fox is that “When we make a mistake reading the news headlines, whereas at a [broadcast] network you’d probably get fired, instead, we’re like, ‘Eh, we screwed up.’”


Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Case Of The Half-Naked ObamaCare Promotion

Posted by on October 3, 2013 at 3:06 pm. 3 Comments :

Now that the Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare) health insurance exchanges are open, Fox News has been shifting into overdrive to sabotage it and frighten away Americans for whom it will be valuable service. And not to be left out, Fox Nation is joining the assault with its customary disrespect for truth and ethics.

Toward that end, the Fox Nationalists posted an item criticizing what they regarded as a weak first day showing by ObamaCare because “Less Than 1% of Visitors Are Signing Up For ObamaCare on State Health Exchange Websites.” Who knows what Fox would consider a strong showing, but a 1% conversion rate is considered pretty good in the direct marketing business. It also rep[resents 65,000 sign-ups on day one. Is that supposed to be bad? At that rate, by the end of the year, that would add up to nearly seven million.

Factor into this the fact that, due to enormous interest, the heavy volume produced some technical glitches that prevented many people from completing their applications. Also factor in the fact that buying insurance online is not like buying socks or light bulbs. Consumers are going to want to compile information, compare options, and consult doctors and family members. Consequently, they may not make a purchasing decision as a result of the first visit. Finally, it’s likely the sign up rate will increase over time as people learn more about the benefits and get positive word-of-mouth feedback from satisfied customers.

Nevertheless, Fox is ramping up their typical disinformation campaign in order to cast a negative light on the new law’s implementation. But it doesn’t even come close to the ludicrous dishonesty displayed in another story posted this morning with the provocative headline “Obama Hires Half-Naked People To Promote ObamaCare.”

Fox Nation
Click here for more documented examples of Fox Nation’s battle against reality.

Oh lawdy, pass the smellin’ salts. Young folks wearing beach attire are on the mall distributing literature. What has become of this country? Thank goodness that Fox is around to expose our President for engaging in these sinful acts. It would be even more of a blessing if any of it were actually true.

Reading down the page a bit reveals that these morally loose boys and girls were not hired by Obama at all. Right there, just below the sensationalist headline, it says that “Colorado HealthOP, a consumer-run cooperative selling insurance plans on the exchange, sent models in skimpy clothing — and sporting signs with information — to greet Denver’s 16th Street Mall lunch crowds.” So contrary to Fox’s sweaty panicking, it was a privately run insurance coop that hired the semi-nudists to advertise their insurance products available on Colorado’s state exchange. It had nothing whatsoever to do with Obama or the federal administration of the Affordable Care Act.

The headline on this Fox Nation article is 100% false. And Fox’s attempt at deceit was so inept that it was contradicted a few lines down on its own propaganda tract. Clearly, they aren’t even trying anymore to disguise their lies.

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Journalistic Malpractice: A Forensic Analysis Of A Fox News Lie About ObamaCare

Posted by on October 3, 2013 at 11:03 am. 4 Comments :

As the country is mired in an unnecessary financial crisis courtesy of the Republican Tea Party establishment, Fox News is continuing to do its part in disseminating false information and right-wing propaganda.

Fox News Jim Angle

Yesterday’s Special Report with Bret Baier featured reporting by Fox News Chief National Correspondent, Jim Angle, on the harried first day of access to the health insurance exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare). Angle presented an error-ridden account of the new law’s benefits and grossly misrepresented the facts. The core conclusion that he built up to was embarrassingly inept, untrue, and biased.

Angle: Without subsidies, many will be paying more than they would now. Not only that, we’re now learning what the wide range of deductibles will be, in addition to widespread reports of large increases in premiums, especially for the young. Those buying even the least expensive plan under ObamaCare will have a large deductible to pay before getting any insurance coverage.

Let’s dissect Angle’s remarks in detail to see the depth of his dishonesty:

“Without subsidies, many will be paying more than they would now.” Of course they will. That’s why ObamaCare included the subsidies in the first place. It is absurd to report the cost of the unsubsidized premiums that few if any Americans will pay. It’s sort of like advertising the sticker price of a new $30,000 car when every dealer in the country is selling it for $23,000 due to manufacturer incentives.

“…in addition to widespread reports of large increases in premiums…” Angle never documents the alleged reports of premium increases, nor what he regards as “widespread.” In all likelihood, he is referring to his own false reporting that omits the subsidies.

“Those buying even the least expensive plan under ObamaCare will have a large deductible to pay before getting any insurance coverage.” No kidding! This is the most ignorant part of Angle’s report. The least expensive plans are always the ones with the highest deductibles. Angle is spinning this as a flaw in the system when, in fact, it’s precisely how the insurance actuaries devised it from the earliest days of insurance. It’s a trade off between cost and risk. The more risk you’re willing to assume, the less you have to pay. The more you pay, the less your exposure to risk. Do you think Angle doesn’t know this?

The blatantly biased misrepresentations in Angle’s report are certainly nothing new for Fox News. At the same time that they are broadcasting Angle’s mutilation of the truth, they are spinning the government shutdown as a “slimdown,” as if it were diet program that will make us all deliciously svelte. And this isn’t the first time that Angle has lied openly in his reporting either.

Angle did a story last month about a man and his family in Kentucky that he said would suffer a tripling of their insurance premium. But Angle left out a couple of pertinent facts: 1) That subsidies available under ObamaCare could reduce the premium to an amount lower than the family currently pays. And 2) That the man in the report is the vice-president of the Association of Mature American Citizens, a conservative alternative to the AARP and an adamant opponent of ObamaCare.

That second fact is a wholly unethical failure of journalistic standards of disclosure. Surely an executive working for an anti-ObamaCare organization is going to have a built-in prejudice and an incentive to negatively portray the law. His occupation is a salient fact that any reputable reporter would mention. Angle certainly knew the man’s identity and his professional affiliation, but he deceitfully withheld that information from the audience.

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All of this adds up to journalistic malpractice on an Olympian scale. No news enterprise with an ounce of credibility would permit this sort of obfuscation and deception. Which is, of course, why Fox News not only permits it, they encourage it. And it is why Fox News viewers are so often proven to be more ill-informed than even people who watch no news at all. This is not an accident. It is the mission of Fox News to create as many idiots as possible, who will vote against their own interests and enhance the power and wealth of the upper-crusty corporatists who exploit them.


Fox News Renames Government Shutdown A “Slimdown” – And Hurricane Katrina Was A Gentle Breeze

Posted by on October 2, 2013 at 11:05 am. 28 Comments :

Yesterday Republicans forced the nation into shutting down hundreds of government services and putting nearly 800,000 Americans out of work. The impetus for this tantrum was the GOP’s tiny Tea Party faction’s obsession with crippling ObamaCare, a goal they cannot conceivably accomplish.

The effect of this shutdown will be devastating to many citizens, particularly those who are seeking home loans, attempting to pay taxes, traveling abroad, operating businesses in or around national parks, relying on food safety inspections, and victims of natural disasters and workplace discrimination. The shutdown is estimated to cost taxpayers $300 million per day.

Nevertheless, Fox News is editorializing their reporting with a distinctly unfair and unbalanced misrepresentation of the crisis. They have taken to calling the shutdown a “slimdown,” as if it were part of a beneficial dietary program, rather than an expensive, destructive, and painful disruption of the people’s government.

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Fox News Government Slimdown

This is like calling a hurricane a gentle breeze. And this is not merely the product of an off-hand op-ed, it is a policy that has spread across multiple stories. For instance:

  • Why the Government ‘Shutdown’ Is More Like a ‘Slimdown’
  • The government slimdown’s effect on Hollywood
  • Obama shortens Asia trip due to government slimdown
  • Government slimdown leaves travelers in a state of flux
  • D-Day cemetery among the victims of government slimdown
  • Government slimdown blocks some seeking NIH research treatment
  • What are next steps in resolving government slimdown?
  • Americans turn to social media to air feelings on slimdown
  • Obama just as responsible for government ‘slimdown’ as Republicans
  • House to try again to pass 3 emergency funding bills amid government slimdown
  • Lawmakers, World War II vets rise up against government slimdown at war memorial
  • ObamaCare takes center stage in gov’t slimdown
  • Heated rhetoric in blame game over government slimdown
  • Hume: WH eager to see people ‘feel’ the gov’t slimdown
  • Welcome to ObamaCare activation and government slimdown week
  • Rep. Rigell calls for clean bill to end gov’t slimdown
  • Congressional stalemate rings in government slimdown
  • Government slimdown will weaken ability to track disease, flu outbreaks
  • Slimdown Showdown: Are Dems, Obama seeking political coverage by making it hurt?

That’s twenty instances of this erroneous affectation in just one day that cut across the Fox empire including the news network, the business network, the web site, and the lie-riddled Fox Nation. This is a blatant attempt to deceitfully manipulate public opinion by inserting prejudicial language into what should be straight-forward reporting. Fox News is deploying the term they coined in stories where the actual content uses the correct term, shutdown. They even plaster their invented term, via headlines, over stories from other news sources (e.g. Associated Press) who never use the term themselves.

This is not really anything new for Fox News who have engaged in this propaganda tactic before. They call undocumented residents “illegals” even if they never broke any laws, including immigration laws for those who were brought into the country as children. Fox invented the term “homicide bomber” to use in place of the more accurate phrase “suicide bomber.” All terrorist bombings with fatalities involve homicide, but they were not all conducted by perpetrators who killed themselves. Fox adopted the phrase “government-run health care” to replace the “public option” after focus groups expressed a more positive response to the latter. In keeping with their opposition to reform, Fox chose to use the phrase that would generate the most unfavorable reaction. And Fox repeatedly made references to “job creators,” which they used to avoid talking about the ultra-rich, corporate exploiters of America’s workforce.

Clearly Fox has abandoned any pretense of objectivity with regard to the budget debate. They have ceased to apply ethical journalistic standards to their reporting, instead assuming an activist role on behalf of the Tea-publican extremists in congress. And their insensitive adoption of the artificially weakened “slimdown” rhetoric to describe something that is having such a harsh impact on the lives of citizens who are not responsible for this crisis, illustrates the depth of the callousness to which Fox will sink in order to advance an agenda that benefits the wealthy and corporations at the expense of ordinary Americans.


Sorry Tea-Publicans: America Made Its Choice And ObamaCare Won In A Landslide

Posted by on October 1, 2013 at 9:06 pm. 7 Comments :

House Republicans have succeeded in shutting down the government, a goal they have had for decades stretching back to Grover Norquist’s famous and heartless yearning to shrink it until it’s small enough to drown in a bathtub.

In the course of the debate there has been some dispute about whether the last election was a sufficient referendum on the Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare). Republicans persistently assert that the American people oppose the law and that it should be repealed to conform with their wishes. Conveniently left out of this argument is the fact that the law was passed with a super-majority in both houses of congress and signed by a popularly elected president. It later passed constitutional muster according to a conservative leaning Supreme Court. Finally, President Obama was reelected by a significant margin. And while polls about ObamaCare seem mixed, they rarely take into account that a fair percentage of unfavorable sentiment is actually people who think the law did not go far enough and would prefer a single-payer plan.

Nevertheless, that hasn’t stopped the GOP from pretending that the election had nothing to do with ObamaCare and was not an affirmation of the people’s support. These Tea Party history revisionists might want to sign up for ObamaCare so they can get medical attention for their severely short-term memories.

Mitt Romney
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Mitt Romney had made repealing ObamaCare a key factor in his vain pursuit of the White House. He spoke about it on almost every campaign stop. And he did not mince words. Here are just a few examples of his pointed rhetoric:

  • If elected, I will repeal Obamacare on day one.
  • What the court did not do on its last day in session, I will do on my first day if elected president of the United States. And that is, I will act to repeal Obamacare.
  • I’ve said that on the campaign trail, I think, every single day. Obamacare must be repealed –- in its entirety.
  • Our mission is clear: if we want to get rid of Obamacare, we are going to have to replace President Obama. That is my mission. That is our work. And I’m asking the American people to join me.

Apparently the American people declined to join Romney on his mission to repeal ObamaCare. Obama won by more than five million votes. And what is abundantly clear is that Romney had thrust the health care law into the forefront of the campaign. Anyone who attempts to dismiss the prominence of it as an issue is deliberately lying (I’m looking at you, Fox Nation). And if these comments by Romney are not convincing enough, he also produced an ad in the thick of the campaign blasting ObamaCare and making this promise: “Day One. Job One. Repeal ObamaCare.”

Just to reiterate – “Day One. Job One. Repeal ObamaCare.” That hardly seems like an issue that was an afterthought in the Romney Campaign. So America was presented with a choice that was focused on this very subject. They made their choice and now they are just beginning to discover the rewards of having made the right one.

That is what is so terrifying to the Republican Party. If they really believed that ObamaCare would be a disaster, they would allow it to proceed and fail, and then they would ride a wave of support into a senate majority next year and the White House in 2016. Instead they are putting up roadblocks, disseminating disinformation, and trying to persuade people not to enroll. Because they know that once people see what the program actually provides, they will not only be excited and grateful, they will lobby their representatives to expand it.

So remember that the more you hear Republicans slamming ObamaCare and trying to prevent its implementation, the more you know they are running in fear of a law that they themselves believe will be popular and will help millions of people. And if there is one thing Republicans hate, it’s helping people, because – you know – socialism.


Faux Miracle From Fox News: Christian Brain Defect Saves Muslim Man?

Posted by on October 1, 2013 at 9:16 am. 2 Comments :

Over the years Fox News has been properly criticized for its brazen political partisanship, rabid anti-Obama crusading, and support for a far-right, corporate-friendly, Tea Party agenda, but less has been mentioned about their religious bias for Christianity and open proselytizing.

Fox NewsSure, we all remember the annual “War on Christmas” campaigns and the efforts to discriminate against Muslims who have the effrontery to want to build mosques so that they can practice their religion as the Constitution guarantees. But little notice has been paid to the increasingly televangelical tone of Fox’s programming. More and more, Fox broadcasts stories whose only purpose is to shore up faith in Christianity.

While Fox rarely reports on religious discrimination against other faiths, they have a hyper sensitivity to what they regard as slights to Christians. Host Todd Starnes seems to produce daily pieces about some imaginary suppression of the rights of Christian soldiers, which is usually just an example of them being required to be tolerant of non-Christians and gay Americans. Gretchen Carlson launched her new program by noting that she will feature stories that favor her faith. And Christian leaders like the Pope are a staple of Fox’s schedule, except when he advocates for the poor.

But an article on the Fox News web site takes real leaps of faith in promoting what they characterize as a miraculous conversion from a pagan Islamic belief to glorious Christianity. The headline preaches “Muslim man becomes Christian after recovering from brain aneurysm.” The story is one of hope for the salvation of infidels who suffer from not knowing Jesus. Of course, Fox never considers the possibility that having a serious brain defect might lead to delusional thoughts and behavior.

However, a more egregious deceit in the story is revealed as it unfolds. Rather than being a tale of a man who is transformed instantly into a beacon of faith due to a life-threatening illness, the conversion actually took more than twenty years to take effect. It began with questions about why he survived after waking from a month-long coma induced by the aneurysm.

“That question started Shamsi-Basha on a 20-year journey that he says led him to Jesus Christ. He began reading the Bible and was baptized in 1996, but he says it took another 10 years of challenges — including a divorce, his father’s death and becoming homeless — before he fully accepted becoming a Christian.”

So contrary to Fox’s portrayal of this incident as a miracle enacted by the waving of a magic wand over some poor soul, it is actually a story that has almost nothing to do with the illness from two decades prior, and more the result of relentless and prolonged hardship that is often the inspiration for people to grasp onto the notion of a higher power in their desperation for relief and peace of mind.

Regardless of what one chooses to believe about this man’s experience and spiritual conversion, it is pathetic (though typical) that Fox decided to exploit the story and present it in such a deliberately misleading fashion. It is further evidence that Fox is more interested in acting as missionaries than as journalists. And since the subject of this article has also written a book about his journey, Fox also gets an opportunity to practice its other religion: the holy sacrament of commerce.