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.


Bill O’Reilly Is An Idiot Whether Apologizes Or Not

Posted by on July 2, 2012 at 6:25 pm. 2 Comments :

Back in March, Bill O’Reilly had a contentious debate with Caroline Fredrickson, the president of the American Constitution Society, on the potential outcome of the Supreme Court’s hearing on ObamaCare. Ms. Fredrickson presciently predicted that the bill would be upheld as constitutional and even noted specifically that the justification would come from the Constitution’s taxing authority. However, O’Reilly disagreed and concluded the segment by saying this:

“Ms. Frederickson, you’re going to lose, and your argument is specious. We appreciate you coming on. But this is absolutely a mandate. It’s absolutely a force. It’s absolutely police powers from the federal government, and it’s going to be 5 to 4. And if I’m wrong I will come on, and I will play — I will play your clip. And I will apologize for being an idiot. But I think you’re desperately wrong.”

Last week, following the Court’s decision, O’Reilly was on vacation, but he did call into his program and spoke with guest host Laura Ingraham. He said nothing about himself having been so desperately wrong. Today he returned and brought up the the incident in March, however, he did not apologize. Just prior to a disingenuous pseudo-apology, he declared that he is “not really sorry,” which cancels out anything he said afterwards. You don’t get credit for an apology if you precede it by saying that you’re not really sorry.

Rather, O’Reilly spent several minutes blaming CNN’s Howard Kurtz and Media Matters for – well, I couldn’t really figure what he was blaming them for. Apparently they were somehow responsible for his being a complete moron, and therefore he had nothing for which to apologize. He alleged that Kurtz was empowering Media Matters in some respect, and that…

“Kurtz does the bidding of Media Matters, and, I don’t know, maybe I should just ignore that and, as you say, move along down the highway, but it certainly disturbs me a little bit.”

And that was it. No actual apology. No admission that he was an idiot. No integrity in keeping his word. Just an obvious and pathetic dodge. He pointed fingers at others who had nothing to do with any of this and pretended that he never made a spectacularly stupid promise in support of his ill-informed prediction. It was a display of dishonesty and cowardice that befits someone like – well, like Bill O’Reilly. So I thought I’d help Billo out by saying what he is to chickenshit to say:

Bill O'Reilly is a Sorry Idiot

I think that about covers it.

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Rupert Murdoch Proves That A Fish Stinks From The Head

Posted by on July 2, 2012 at 5:52 pm. NO Comments :

The CEO of News Corp, parent company of Fox News, has been tweeting up a storm lately. Much of it was silliness about Tom Cruise’s marital troubles and his view of Scientology as “creepy, maybe evil.” But some of it was revealing and noteworthy.

Rupert Murdoch on Mitt Romney

The first tweet above is interesting because it is so openly disparaging of Mitt Romney’s campaign team. He does not disguise his opinion that they are amateurs who came to their posts by being Romney cronies. More interesting is the vague introduction wherein he says that he “Met Romney last week.” That’s a news bite that had not previously been disclosed.

As it turns out, Romney met with 40 to 50 fatcat supporters at a secret meeting in Manhattan including Murdoch, investment banker Ken Langone, Goldman Sachs head Lloyd Blankfein, and other business barons and political operatives. It’s somewhat disturbing that a meeting with this kind of firepower went unreported until after Murdoch let it slip on Twitter. One thing we learned from the meeting was why Romney has been so hesitant to take an actual position on immigration. He told the group that…

“I know I took some positions in the primary that are” hard to contend with in a general, Romney said, according to two sources. “I am not going to be a flip-flopper,”

He is admitting that, were he to take a position, it would be contrary to what he told conservative audiences during the GOP primaries, so he says nothing instead. The Etch-a-Sketch has spoken. He believes that he can get by with Latino voters by relying on surrogate Marco Rubio and one of his sons who speaks Spanish. Yeah, right.

The second Tweet above is even more revealing. It was Murdoch’s response to all of the flack he got after criticizing Romney. It’s bad enough that he openly states that he wants Romney to win, but what goes farther over the line is his reasoning. He says that he wants Romney to “save us from socialism.”

After years of hearing Fox News anchors and guests making delusional comments about President Obama being a socialist, you sort of grow accustomed it. It’s easy to dismiss (and ridicule) wingnuts like Eric Bolling, Sean Hannity, and Sarah Palin. But now we know where they get their marching orders. Rupert Murdoch himself believes that Obama is a Manchurian candidate bent on delivering America into the arms of our commie adversaries. The conspiracy obsessed right-wing media has a leader and a hero in Murdoch. That little tweet explains a lot.


Fox Nation vs. Reality: Cherry Picking Poll Data

Posted by on July 2, 2012 at 2:03 pm. 1 Comments :

The top-of-page headline at Fox Nation today is a report that falsely declares that “Obama Poll Numbers Drop After Court Upholds His Law.”

Fox Nation Polls

The poll to which the Fox Nationalists refer is from the notoriously GOP-slanted Rasmussen Reports. Rassmussen is best known as a Republican shill. He attends GOP conferences and is a fixture on Fox News. His findings invariably favor right-wing politicians and policies.

As a demonstration of just how far afield he is, take a look at the most recent polls posted on RealClearPolitics:

RealClearPolitics Polls

Notice that Rasmussen is the only one that shows Romney in the lead. What’s more, in every poll taken since the the Supreme Court’s ruling on the health care bill, Obama’s numbers have gone up – not down. And that includes the poll from Fox News.

So Fox News promotes the results of a poll by Rasmussen even over their own poll. That’s how committed they are to deceiving the blockheads who watch their network of lies.


Even Fox Nation’s Vacation Coverage Is Blatantly Biased

Posted by on July 2, 2012 at 11:58 am. NO Comments :

The Republican Press Release Agency known as Fox News can’t even report trivial side issues without resorting to pathetic and insulting misrepresentations. Here is how Fox Nation is portraying the news that both President Obama and Mitt Romney are taking a few days of R & R:

Fox Nation Vacation

Notice that the President is characterized as a shiftless slacker who “Takes the Week Off,” insinuating that he is neglecting his obligations. The Fox Nationalists accompany this headline with a photo of a tropical paradise suitable for sunbathing and luaus, despite the fact that Obama is actually going to Camp David. Furthermore, he is only spending two days there, where he will also be working. This news is viewed as “Obnoxious” by the Fox Nation community.

Romney, on the other hand, is described “Recharging” at his own personal resort destination on Lake Winnipesaukee, where he has his own vacation home. His holiday is seen as a well-deserved respite from the stress of the campaign trail (which everyone knows is much more severe than being the leader of the free world). This news is viewed as “Cool” by the Fox Nation community.

Imagine for a moment if Obama had been photographed in the manner Romney is above. It would immediately have revived memories of John Kerry windsurfing, wherein he was savaged by the media for engaging in a sport that was reserved for upper-crusters (as opposed to dancing show horses). Put Obama on the back of a jet ski with his wife driving and there would be endless mockery of him as a pussy-whipped wimp. And add to that the fact that the jet ski is stalled in mid-lake and Romney is helplessly throwing up his hands, and you have the makings of a story about a clueless and out-of-touch elitist who can’t even get his jet ski started.

These sort of visuals are subtle, but they are also effective and deliberate. The problem with them appearing on Fox Nation is that they will only be seen by people who already share the puerile views of the emotionally-stunted editors at Fox Nation. So the exercise is a waste of time except for the degree to which they validate every criticism of Fox News as a brazenly biased mouthpiece for the GOP.


LMFAO: Sarah Palin Calls Nancy Pelosi A ‘Dingbat’ – No, Really!

Posted by on July 1, 2012 at 10:54 am. 10 Comments :

Sarah Palin’s Friday appearance on Sean Hannity may have produced the funniest moment of the year. In response to a question about how Congress and Mitt Romney should deal with the Supreme Court’s ruling that ObamaCare is constitutional, Palin took a bit of a detour:

Hannity: Politically speaking, how should Congress deal with this, and how should the Romney campaign deal with it if you were to give advice?
Palin: Well, first off, Nancy Pelosi is a dingbat. And she is the perfect spokesperson for this whole agenda of the far-left running the Democrat Party.

Really? A former Miss America runner-up who quit her job as governor mid-term, failed at both presidential politics and reality TV, is calling the first woman Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives a dingbat? That’s a little bit like Charles Manson calling Mother Theresa a mentally deranged butcher.

Sarah Palin Dingbat

And if that weren’t bad enough, Palin also made a disparaging, phallus-related insult directed at President Obama:

“About the 15% of Americans who aren’t paying taxes and are feeding from President Obama’s hands, perhaps they will vote for such a tool.”

I’m not sure where Palin is getting that 15% number, considering that the latest national polls show Obama well ahead of Romney, and the state-by-state electoral college surveys put Obama just shy of victory. But even more disturbing than her made up statistics, and her profane insults, is her characterization of America’s poor as akin to animals “feeding” out of the President’s hands. That’s pretty much how she and the Tea Party/GOP view the less fortunate in our society. And paraphrasing Palin: She is the perfect spokesperson for this whole agenda of the far-right running the Republic Party. And in this interview with Hannity she sounds like she’s … er … medicated. Which may explain her endorsement of radio wingnut Mark Levin for vice-president.