Fox News Latino: Voter ID Laws Could Block Thousands in November

Posted by on July 8, 2012 at 8:38 pm. NO Comments :

In another example of Fox News pandering to Latino audiences, the Fox News Latino web site featured an article today that contradicted everything that Fox News reports to their non-Latino audiences.

Fox News Latino

This article is a reprint from the Associated Press and it covers the issue of voter suppression in a manner that respects the truth. The author correctly notes that instances of in-person voter fraud are nearly non-existent, but that the photo-ID laws advanced by Republicans will disenfranchise thousands of eligible voters:

“The numbers suggest legitimate votes rejected by the laws are far more numerous than are the cases of fraud that advocates of the rules say they are trying to prevent. […]

“Supporters of the laws cite anecdotal cases of fraud as a reason that states need to do more to secure elections, but fraud appears to be rare. As part of its effort to build support for voter ID laws, the Republican National Lawyers Association last year published a report that identified some 400 election fraud prosecutions over a decade across the entire country. That’s not even one per state per year.

“ID laws would not have prevented many of those cases because they involved vote-buying schemes in local elections or people who falsified voter registrations.”

On Fox News the typical approach to this story is the ludicrous accusation that opponents of ID laws are proponents of fraud. Even though they can never cite actual incidents of fraud, people like Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Neil Cavuto, Megyn Kelly, and the juvenile miscreants on Fox & Friends, persist in spreading falsehoods about imaginary illegal voters. Then they use their fairy tales to justify legislation that will result in valid voters being turned away at the polls. And just coincidentally, the vast majority of those turned away are seniors, students, and minorities, who are likely Democratic voters.

Republican governors and legislators are the ones pushing these discriminatory policies, with the help of Fox News. However, on Fox’s Latino-focused web site the story is completely different. It is treated with the proper attention to the harm that would befall Latino voters. This is a perspective that never appears on the Fox News mothership.

The purpose is obvious. Fox News is working in concert with the GOP to purge Democrats from the voter rolls. However, they don’t want to completely alienate the fast growing Latino population. So they segregate their news coverage in order to mollify Latino audiences who are rightfully concerned about this issue, but Fox hides this honest reporting from the dimwits who watch Fox News. It’s a cynical ploy that could only be hatched by people who think that Latinos are stupid enough to fall for it. Fortunately, that’s where Fox went wrong.

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Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Happy DNC Chair

Posted by on July 8, 2012 at 4:29 pm. 2 Comments :

On today’s Fox News Sunday, fill-in host John Roberts appeared to be filling in for Mitt Romney’s press secretary. Roberts conducted an interview with Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman-Shultz that was more debate than journalism. He countered her remarks as if he were making the case for Romney rather than merely asking challenging questions. Some of his reactions to her comments were not even questions at all, but rebuttals.

But that doesn’t even compare to how Fox Nation mangled their presentation of the interview. The Fox Nationalists posted a 32 second clip of the segment with the headline: “DNC Chair “Happy” With 8.2% Unemployment.”

Fox Nation

There was only one small problem with that characterization. It is contrary to the truth in every aspect. Even worse, the video that Fox Nation posted to support their headline proves that the headline is a lie. Here is the transcript of the segment:

Wasserman-Schultz: I’m pretty happy about 28 straight months of job growth in the private sector.
Roberts: But are you happy about 80,000 jobs last month, 69 the month before that? Are you happy with those numbers?
Wasserman-Schultz: Like I’ve said, and President Obama has said, we need to continue to improve, and we need to do more, and we need to work together.

Wasserman-Shultz never said that she was happy with the unemployment rate. In fact, she wasn’t even asked about it. She did say that she was happy with job growth, which has produced over 4 million jobs in the past two years, but reiterated her position that it wasn’t enough and that more needs to done. At no time in the entire segment did she say that she was happy with the 8.2% unemployment rate.

Fox Nation is so wedded to their mission of dishonesty that they will even post videos that disprove their own lies. Now that’s commitment.

Bonus Item: Also appearing on Fox News Sunday was RNC Chair Reince Priebus (whose name spells “RNC PR BS” if you remove the vowels). In a discussion about Romney’s record of eliminating American jobs and replacing them with labor in foreign countries, Priebus dropped what he must have thought was a clever soundbite: “The only job we’re going to outsource is Obama’s.”

So Priebus is suggesting that the Republican Party is planning to nominate a president based in India or China or some other off-shore location. That would fit perfectly with the GOP agenda of free market capitalism. I bet you could get someone to serve as president much cheaper by going off-shore. But where would that leave Romney? I suppose he could join his bank accounts in the Cayman Islands and then qualify as an outsourced candidate.


John Boehner To GOP Donors: I Can’t Make You Love Mitt Romney

Posted by on July 7, 2012 at 1:37 pm. 5 Comments :

Mitt RomneyIn a stunning display of understatement, John Boehner, the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, confided to a group of prospective donors at a fundraiser that Mitt Romney is not all that lovable. In a candid response to a question posed by an attendee, Boehner lamented that…

“The American people probably aren’t going to fall in love with Mitt Romney.”

No kidding! A nation comprised of a large but shrinking middle class is not going to have an affinity for a multimillionaire, ruthless titan of business, who prospered by throwing thousands of Americans out of work. They are not going to embrace an elitist who regards power as a birthright granted via his ruling class status. They will never be seduced by an empty suit who refuses to take a position on vital issues without contradicting himself.

Americans want a leader who is unafraid to tell them what he believes, rather than pandering to partisan extremists. They want a leader who can lay out an agenda more substantive than incessantly bleating that the other guy sucks. They want someone who will level with them about who he is, which includes releasing his tax filings for twelve years as President Obama did (and as Romney’s father did when he ran for president).

Boehner has helpfully allowed some truth to stumble out of his mouth while he was in the midst of a friendly audience. He added that the only people who are affirmatively for Romney are “some friends, relatives, and fellow Mormons.” He could have added to that list wealthy, multinational corporations whom he regards as people. Boehner’s larger point was that, in this election, people will be voting for or against Obama. That’s pretty much an admission that Romney is no more than cardboard cutout who could be replaced by any other celebrity billionaire, like say, Montgomery Burns.

When a prominent surrogate like Boehner is reduced to soliciting donations by highlighting how unlovable you are, your campaign has gone off track. When he confidently asserts that this is “an election about competence,” reminding everyone about the last person to make that a campaign theme (Michael Dukakis), you might want to adjust your strategy. But if even your strongest supporters can’t summon up actual affection for you, then perhaps it’s time to pack it in and retire to one of your seven mansions.


An Arrogant Romney Campaign Shifts Focus To Window Dressing

Posted by on July 6, 2012 at 11:16 am. 2 Comments :

In the past week Mitt Romney has come under severe attacks by conservatives who think that he is blowing any chance he had of beating President Obama. Bill Kristol, Laura Ingraham, and Rupert Murdoch have all made it clear that they are more than disappointed with Romney’s performance as a candidate. Even the Wall Street Journal published a scathing editorial that said that “the campaign looks confused in addition to being politically dumb,” and that those responsible “ought to be fired for malpractice.”

In the wake of this disastrous week that saw stinging criticism from staunch allies, Mitt Romney’s campaign has announced a new shift in tactics. They are now going to commit themselves to better messaging.

“Mitt Romney is planning to fortify his communications and messaging team […] The campaign plans to bolster its rapid response and overall messaging operations.”

Messaging? That’s what Romney thinks is the problem? The Washington Post is reporting that Romney is committed to his current and insular staff of long-time associates. The sense of the campaign is that they are doing just fine but for a lack of effective media.

That’s a fatal misperception. Rather than addressing serious shortcomings in his campaign’s lack of direction, Romney thinks that better PR is all he needs. But Romney’s campaign is almost exclusively centered on his opposition to Obama. He has not articulated an alternative to any policy put forward by the President. There is no Romney health care plan (except for the one that he implemented in Massachusetts that he now disavows).
Mitt RomneyThere is no immigration plan. There is no job creation plan. There is no economic revival plan. There is only heaps of scorn on whatever Obama is doing and promises that he has some magic formula to make everything better – a magic formula that he refuses to disclose.

So now that he is widely viewed in his own circles as being perilously close to blowing it, Romney makes a major announcement that he’s going to beef up his media team. Yeah, that’s the ticket. Continue to rely on all the same people that are driving you into a ditch, but bring aboard some more flacks to lie about it. That should work out just great – for Obama.


Ted Nugent Says: It Would Have Been Best Had The South Won The Civil War

Posted by on July 6, 2012 at 10:09 am. 11 Comments :

OK, I know. Ted Nugent is about as foul and depraved an individual as you’re ever likely to encounter. He is the guy who raged through a profanity-laced tirade that threatened perverse assaults on Hillary Clinton and Diane Feinstein. He’s the guy who implied that he would resort to violence, and possibly assassination, if President Obama is reelected. He’s the guy who Mitt Romney sought out for an endorsement. And now this…

“Because our legislative, judicial and executive branches of government hold the 10th Amendment in contempt, I’m beginning to wonder if it would have been best had the South won the Civil War. Our Founding Fathers’ concept of limited government is dead.”

So Ted Nugent thinks that everything might be better if the South had won the Civil War? Nugent must be terribly disappointed that slavery was abolished and that the union was preserved.

Nugent’s grotesque remarks were published in his regular column for the “Moonie” Washington Times. The article is his response to the Supreme Court’s decision on ObamaCare. But his logic is unfathomable. He seems to think that a limited government is one that permits the ownership of human beings. If the Founding Fathers’ concept of allowing such atrocities is dead, that’s for the better. How can anyone argue against that?

In addition to his repugnant advocacy of slavery, Nugent expresses his desire to end some other popular programs. He contends that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are more “unaffordable, unsustainable, runaway, unaccountable social program[s].” He attacks Chief Justice Roberts saying that he “engineered the ultimate demise of this great experiment in self- government.” It’s startling how wingnut cases like Nugent can argue that democracy is imperiled by ObamaCare when it was passed by a popularly elected congress, signed by an elected president, and affirmed as constitutional by justices who were confirmed by elected senators. At which point in the process was self-government hampered?

This is just another in a long series of heinous outbursts by Nugent. Yet Mitt Romeny, who has embraced Nugent’s support, has never repudiated any of these vile, violent, and unpatriotic sentiments. The media always seems to hold Obama accountable for commentaries from anyone perceived to have even a slight leftward tilt – even when those people have no association with the President or his campaign. When will the media hold Romney accountable for one of his most prominent and contemptible surrogates?


The Fox News Un-American 4th Of July Election Special

Posted by on July 5, 2012 at 9:49 am. 3 Comments :

Demonstrating their blatant hostility to fairly representing the American people, Fox News broadcast an election special on the Fourth of July that consisted of almost exclusively conservative Republicans. Out of eleven political guests there was only one Democrat (Rep. Rob Andrews of New Jersey).

Balancing out that lone voice was Supreme Wacko Allen West (who thinks that there are 80 card-carrying Democratic communists in Congress), virulent Democrat hunter Darrell Issa (who never met a Democrat he doesn’t hold in contempt), and a panel of eight all-GOP House freshmen. Even for Fox this is a strikingly unbalanced division of ideologies.

Frank LuntzThe host of the program was the GOP “Word Doctor,” Frank Luntz. Luntz is best known for developing rhetoric and catch phrases to deceive people into supporting programs they would never back if they were told the truth about them. Recently Luntz held a seminar with GOP leaders advising them on how to mislead their constituents. Luntz advised Republicans to avoid certain words and replace them with others that he had focus-group tested. For instance: “Out: Capitalism / In: Economic Freedom.” When conservative PR flacks tell Republicans not to talk about capitalism, a significant shift is taking place.

The program’s highlights included Allen West reiterating his belief about communists infiltrating Congress. No one bothered to challenge his nightmarish delusions. Darrell Issa was allowed to defend his inquisition of the Obama administration via a softball question about whether he thought he was too hard on Democrats. Did they really expect him to say “yes?” No one bothered asked him why his Committee on Oversight never held hearings on Republican malfeasance.

The program was so steeply slanted that the set was decorated with paintings of past presidents, but not a single Democratic president was on display. It was a feast of both overt and subliminal propaganda that sought to pretend that there was only one political opinion that encompassed the whole of the American population. For Fox News to schedule this brazenly partisan hour of Republican PR on Independence Day and label it an “American Roundtable” is evidence of just how far they will go to promote their benefactors in the party of the Greedy One Percent (aka GOP). They are going to be unpleasantly surprised when they discover that there are millions of Americans who do not share their self-serving, elitist views, but who aspire to a more inclusive and uplifting agenda that seeks to make “liberty and justice for all” more than just a slogan to be exploited by cynical Republicans and deceitful “news” networks.

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GOP Can’t Make Up It’s Mind On ObamaCare

Posted by on July 4, 2012 at 4:44 pm. 1 Comments :

Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney spokesman: “The governor believes that what we put in place in Massachusetts was a penalty and he disagrees with the court’s ruling that the mandate was a tax.”

Reince Priebus, Republican Party Chairman: “Our position is the same as Mitt Romney’s position. It’s a tax.”

There is apparently some internal debate as to Mitt Romney’s position on whether the mandate in the Affordable Care Act is a tax or penalty. This debate has been raging for many months, but escalated considerably when the Supreme Court ruled that ObamaCare is constitutional. So let’s bring in someone who would have to be regarded as an authority on Romney’s position.

Mitt Romney: “I said that I agree with the dissent, and the dissent made it very clear that they felt it was unconstitutional. But the dissent lost. It’s in the minority. And so now the Supreme Court has spoken. And while I agreed with the dissent, that’s taken over by the fact that the majority of the court said that it’s a tax and therefore it is a tax. They have spoken. There’s no way around that.”

There…that should clear it up. Except that it doesn’t. Romney seems to take both sides. He agrees with the dissenting jurists who did not hold that the mandate is a tax. But he also concedes that the majority ruled that it is a tax. So Romney seems to be saying that he acknowledges the ruling of the majority, but that he doesn’t agree with them. Therefore, he acknowledges that the Court holds that the mandate is a tax, but he still thinks it’s a penalty.

That’s a convenient stance because it permits him to criticize the President for raising taxes while asserting that his own identical legislation was merely a penalty. Isn’t that special? And if he’s able to escape the hypocrisy inherent in that, then he is surely the reincarnation of Houdini.

What’s more, Romney also seems to be saying that once the Court has spoken, the matter is closed. Therefore, he must be conceding that ObamaCare is constitutional and that there’s no way around it. So he, and every other right-wing blowhard who insisted that the law not only violated the Constitution, but abolished the very notion of American liberty, were desperately wrong and are terrible interpreters of constitutionality. That’s not much of a recommendation for a prospective president.

Despite the disarray in the GOP, the Court was clear about the administration of the mandate. They did not say that it is a tax (no matter how much Romney and Fox News say they did). It’s not really that hard to grasp. Take it from Cletus, the Slack-Jawed Yokel:

Cletus on ObamaCare



Fox News Promotes Desecration Of The American Flag For 4th Of July

Posted by on July 3, 2012 at 10:06 am. 4 Comments :

Typical of the pseudo-patriots who robotically chant “We’re number one,” shout the loudest about heartland values, and canonize the founding fathers, they don’t know anything about the country and it’s traditions. That ignorance is what produces some of the most repugnant, jingoistic expressions of supremacy and it leads to exploitation by manipulative media whores like Fox News.

Fox Nation Flag DesecrationSo it is not surprising that Fox Nation would post this titillating glamor shot of a teenage singer with the suggestion that you “take a tip” from her on how to show your patriotism. The only problem is that this method of showing patriotism violates the standards of respect for the flag as stated in U.S. Code Title 4 › Chapter 1 › § 8:

“(d) The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery.”

Ironically, in the past Fox News has exploited this issue to criticize others for disrespecting the flag. But even in those incidents they exhibited selective outrage that only reflected on people they intended to malign. They conveniently ignore flag descrators like these:

Flag Desecrators

And then there’s also this:

Bush walks on flag


R.I.P. Andy Griffith. Not Just A Face In The Crowd

Posted by on July 3, 2012 at 8:41 am. 1 Comments :

Lonesome Rhodes: Rednecks, crackers, hillbillies, hausfraus, shut-ins, pea-pickers – everybody that’s got to jump when somebody else blows the whistle. […] They’re mine! I own ’em! They think like I do. Only they’re even more stupid than I am, so I gotta think for ’em.

If you haven’t seen this movie, now would be good time. An amazingly prescient take on the then-new medium of television, and one of the best screen performances of all time.