Barack Obama

Fox Nation Makes Dangerous Internet Posting

Posted by on December 30, 2010 at 3:51 pm. 3 Comments :

This morning on the Fox Nation there was an article posted with the title, “Obama Makes Dangerous Recess Appointment.”


The funny thing about this posting is that when you click on it you are delivered to a page that doesn’t explain anything about what makes the President’s appointments dangerous. And if you venture further to read the article Fox Nation links to as its source, you’ll find yourself at The Hill’s Briefing Room blog where it also says nothing about anything dangerous.

The article at The Hill describes Obama’s decision to appoint a Justice Department official and a few ambassadors who have been held up by an obstructionist Republican Party in the Senate. There are still some 200 pending appointees that the GOP has refused to permit to move forward simply out of a desire to cripple this presidency. It is an unprecedented campaign of blocking the fulfillment of important positions in the judiciary and elsewhere in the administration. And it has a manifestly harmful effect on the country.

Many in the conservative echo chamber are already blasting the President for “bypassing the Constitution” in order to seat these appointees without a senate confirmation. Except that the authority to make recess appointments is explicitly granted to the President in the Constitution. However, blocking senate confirmation votes for executive appointees is not. That is a senate rule that will hopefully be dispensed with in the next congress.

The phony outrage being ginned up on the right over this fails to acknowledge the fact that George W. Bush made 171 recess appointments. Ronald Reagan made 243. The hypocrites on the right would like those facts to be ignored. Like most facts for conservatives, they just get in the way. And the fact that the Fox Nationalists can run an item declaring something is dangerous without supporting the claim is just another example of their commitment to keeping their audience angry and dumb. And it is what is truly dangerous.

Fox Nation And The Right-Wing Embrace Of Censorship

Posted by on November 30, 2010 at 2:50 pm. NO Comments :

The release of some 250,000 documents by WikiLeaks has stirred up a hornets nest of protest from the rightist martinets of virtue. There have been calls to shut down the WikiLeaks web site, to arrest its principals, and even to execute those responsible for treason. But what it all amounts to in the end is that the right-wing extremists just simply abhor a free press.

The Fox Nation has been consumed with the issue, promoting it beyond all other news items. The economy, jobs, Iraq, Afghanistan, tax cuts, etc., have all taken a back seat to WikiLeaks. As of this writing the front page of the Fox Nation has six separate articles on this subject.


It is impossible to ignore the fact that in their haste to criticize the WikiLeaks document dump, the Fox Nationalists frame their criticism in a barrage of animus directed at President Obama. The whole thing is somehow his fault. What’s more, they condemn his response to it as “incompetent” and “gutless.” Sarah Palin and Bill O’Reilly are “livid” – and Lord knows we can’t have that.

But here’s the thing: If Obama had taken a hardball approach to this, cutting off access to the WikiLeaks web site and arresting those involved, the reaction from the right would be to assail him as a tyrant intent on imposing censorship on independent media. They would be shocked that an American president would assert such unprecedented control over a private enterprise. It would be portrayed as fascist or Stalinist oppression (take your pick). So either way, the right would engage in a fevered bashing of the President. It’s what they do.

Since the President has accommodated the right by taking a measured approach to ascertain the facts and proceed with due diligence, the right is free to wail about such imaginary violations as treason. But what they are really condemning is freedom of thought and expression. And it isn’t the first time. During the Bush administration a Republican congress voted to condemn the New York Times for publishing a story that revealed the government’s unlawful spying into the banking activities of American citizens. If Obama’s administration were to propose such an intrusion he would be castigated as a dictator bent on destroying America (again).

Make no mistake, the WikiLeaks affair is being used as a cudgel with which to hammer the President. But it is also being used as en excuse to censor independent sources of information and to intimidate anyone who entertains the notion of revealing to the American people what is being done by government in their name. It doesn’t matter if it’s an obscure, off-shore web site or the New York Times. The right is intent on suppressing free expression. They prove it again and again.

Eight False Things The Public “Knows” That Just Aint So

Posted by on October 26, 2010 at 12:54 am. 16 Comments :

OurFuture.org has put together a list that should be in every American’s mailbox before election day. It’s a perfect manifestation of Mark Twain’s admonition that, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” So here is a short list of some things the GOTea Party “knows” for sure:

1) President Obama tripled the deficit.
Reality: Bush’s last budget had a $1.416 trillion deficit. Obama’s first budget reduced that to $1.29 trillion.

2) President Obama raised taxes, which hurt the economy.
Reality: Obama cut taxes. 40% of the “stimulus” was wasted on tax cuts which only create debt, which is why it was so much less effective than it could have been.

3) President Obama bailed out the banks.
Reality: While many people conflate the “stimulus” with the bank bailouts, the bank bailouts were requested by President Bush and his Treasury Secretary, former Goldman Sachs CEO Henry Paulson. (Paulson also wanted the bailouts to be “non-reviewable by any court or any agency.”) The bailouts passed and began before the 2008 election of President Obama.

4) The stimulus didn’t work.
Reality: The stimulus worked, but was not enough. In fact, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the stimulus raised employment by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million jobs.

5) Businesses will hire if they get tax cuts.
Reality: A business hires the right number of employees to meet demand. Having extra cash does not cause a business to hire, but a business that has a demand for what it does will find the money to hire. Businesses want customers, not tax cuts.

6) Health care reform costs $1 trillion.
Reality: The health care reform reduces government deficits by $138 billion.

7) Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, is “going broke,” people live longer, fewer workers per retiree, etc.
Reality: Social Security has run a surplus since it began, has a trust fund in the trillions, is completely sound for at least 25 more years and cannot legally borrow so cannot contribute to the deficit (compare that to the military budget!) Life expectancy is only longer because fewer babies die; people who reach 65 live about the same number of years as they used to.

8‌) Government spending takes money out of the economy.
Reality: Government is We, the People and the money it spends is on We, the People. Many people do not know that it is government that builds the roads, airports, ports, courts, schools and other things that are the soil in which business thrives. Many people think that all government spending is on “welfare” and “foreign aid” when that is only a small part of the government’s budget.

The fact that there are so many people who believe things that are demonstrably untrue is a sad reflection on the media that ought to be informing the public. And worse, it’s evidence of how the corporations that control the press so blatantly misrepresent the truth. That’s why it’s so important for the rest of us to pass along the information above.

Obama: Fox News Is Ultimately Destructive To Country’s Long-term Growth

Posted by on September 28, 2010 at 11:48 am. 22 Comments :

President Obama has not been shy in the past expressing his views of Fox News. It is always encouraging to hear him or his spokespersons articulate clear-eyed perspectives of the network that has made it their mission to destroy his administration and elevate hostility to unprecedented levels. Even before he was elected he knew:

Obama: I am convinced that if there were no Fox News, I might be two or three points higher in the polls. If I were watching Fox News, I wouldn’t vote for me, right? Because the way I’m portrayed 24/7 is as a freak! I am the latte-sipping, New York Times-reading, Volvo-driving, no-gun-owning, effete, politically correct, arrogant liberal. Who wants somebody like that?

In a new interview in Rolling Stone Magazine, President Obama has once again stated the obvious as regards Fox news:

Rolling Stone: What do you think of Fox News? Do you think it’s a good institution for America and for democracy?

Obama: [Laughs] Look, as president, I swore to uphold the Constitution, and part of that Constitution is a free press. We’ve got a tradition in this country of a press that oftentimes is opinionated. The golden age of an objective press was a pretty narrow span of time in our history. Before that, you had folks like Hearst who used their newspapers very intentionally to promote their viewpoints. I think Fox is part of that tradition — it is part of the tradition that has a very clear, undeniable point of view. It’s a point of view that I disagree with. It’s a point of view that I think is ultimately destructive for the long-term growth of a country that has a vibrant middle class and is competitive in the world. But as an economic enterprise, it’s been wildly successful. And I suspect that if you ask Mr. Murdoch what his number-one concern is, it’s that Fox is very successful.

That’s still somewhat more forgiving than I would have been. Fox is not guilty of merely expressing “a point of view.” They shamelessly traffic in lies and personal insults. They have called him a racist, a socialist, and by virtue of their false assertions of him being a Muslim, they imply that he is either a terrorist, or a terrorist sympathizer.

These are the sort of allegations that used to be the exclusive domain of lunatic fringe groups. But Fox has promoted them to the mainstream. They have made it possible for establishment politicians and pundits to parrot the most preposterous rhetoric. And they have provided a platform on television, radio, print, and the Internet, to peddle their invective.

So while Obama continues to be more conciliatory than perhaps he should be, at least he recognizes the basic truth that the Fox model of news can only be harmful to the country in the long-term. I would suggest that it is also harmful in the short-term, and any term in between.

Dishonoring 9/11: Fox Nation’s Calendar For Obama, Palin And Beck

Posted by on September 7, 2010 at 7:39 pm. 4 Comments :

Over at the Fox Nation, where every news item is a right-wing attack piece, they have been alerted to the fact that President Obama will be spending September 11 at the Pentagon, one of the sites targeted by the terrorists ten years ago. But rather than publishing a story with the headline, “Obama to Mark September 11 at the Pentagon,” the Fox Nationalists posted this:

Pres. Obama Not Attending 9/11 Ceremony at Ground Zero

As might be expected, Fox clearly went out of their way to come up with that negative slant on the story They could easily have used the more neutral headline I proposed above, which happens to be the actual headline of the article to which Fox Nation linked.

What Fox News did not report is that Obama is not the only prominent public person who isn’t going to ground zero on 9/11. In fact, the two most prominent employees of Fox News, Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck, aren’t going to ground zero either. They also won’t be at the Pentagon. And they aren’t going to be at the Pennsylvania crash site with Michelle Obama and Laura Bush either. (For the record, Vice-President Joe Biden will be at ground zero).

Palin and Beck care so much about this memorial that they have scheduled an appearance together more than 3,000 miles away from any of these sites, in Anchorage, Alaska, at an event that will cost the public between $73.00 and $130.00 each to attend. Oh yeah, there is also a $225.00 ticket that includes a meet-and-greet with Beck. What a wonderful way to honor the memory of the citizens and responders whose lives were lost on 9/11.

Perhaps Beck decided to visit Palin in Alaska on this anniversary so that the two of them could keep an eye on Russia. More likely, Beck is repaying Palin for her appearance at his Washington BeckFest last week. And it is quite a rich repayment that could bring in half a million dollars. That oughta restore some honor.

So while Obama is honoring the fallen, the Fox all-stars, Palin and Beck, will be hustling their followers. And the only news that Fox sees in all of this is that Obama won’t be at ground zero. Fair and balanced.

Update, 9/10/10: It only took three days for Glenn Beck to buckle under pressure and claim that he “had always intended to donate the speaking fee from the event on Saturday.” Even so, his statement just raises further questions. Since the event stands to raise about half a million dollars, and Palin reportedly is not getting any fee at all, then how much is Beck’s fee? And if it isn’t half a million dollars, where is the rest of the money going? Beck and Palin have received in the area of a hundred thousand dollars for such events. After expenses this would still leave more than a quarter of a million dollars that is unaccounted for. It’s hard to believe that that money isn’t going to end up in the pockets of Beck and/or Palin.

Chris Wallace’s Heart Isn’t Really Into Journalism

Posted by on September 5, 2010 at 11:52 am. 3 Comments :

This morning on Fox News Sunday, the lowest rated of all the network Sunday morning news programs, host Chris Wallace once again demonstrated his lack of commitment to fairness and balance when he asked the Weekly Standard’s Stephen Hayes an absurdly framed question about Obama’s speech on the Iraq troop withdrawal last week:

Wallace: In that speech, to say “my central mission is to restore the economy,” is it unfair to say that this is a president whose heart doesn’t seem to be into winning the war on terror, no matter what it costs?
Hayes: No, I don’t think that’s at all unfair

Hayes deftly picked up the cue from Wallace who was obviously presenting Hayes with a gift-wrapped opening to disparage the President. For either of these notorious hacks to suggest that Obama’s attention to this nation’s serious economic difficulties translates into disinterest in battling Al Qaeda is borderline psychotic.

The President’s focus is pretty squarely aligned with that of the American people who are most concerned about the economy and jobs. That doesn’t preclude anyone from being concerned about national security as well. However, most serious analysts recognize that without a stable domestic economy we cannot expect to have much success in achieving our international security goals.

The ridiculous framing of Wallace’s question is not a fluke. He has long been a source of overt bias even as Fox News touts him as an example of their “real” news personalities, distinct from blatherers like Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Megyn Kelly, Neil Cavuto, Glenn Beck, and the cast of Fox & Friends. Some of Wallace’s great moments in partisanship include:

  • Asking Rush Limbaugh what Obama has done TO the country.
  • Awarding ACORN pimp, James O’Keefe, the Power Player of the Week.
  • Calling Democrats “damn fools” for declining to appear on Fox News.
  • Admitting that he “generally agrees” with Sean Hannity.
  • Jumping to the defense of George W. Bush after director Ron Howard suggested comparisons to Richard Nixon.
  • Declaring Sarah Palin to be a “new star in the political galaxy.”
  • Asked George Bush if he was “puzzled by all of the concern in this country about protecting [the] rights of people who want to kill us.”
  • In a criticism of Democratic health care plans, making the hilarious observation that “people don’t even contemplate end of life until they’re in an irreversible coma.”

Chris Wallace long ago cemented his reputation as a partisan phony in the field of journalism. He was fortunate to find his home on Fox News because few other news organizations would tolerate his level of unprofessionalism. But I suppose we should appreciate his willingness to serve up new examples of deceit and bias with each of his weekly outings. It makes it just that much easier to dismiss him and to prove that he and Fox News are not actually news and are wholly unworthy of our trust.

Glenn Beck: Obama Is Not A Muslim – Or A Christian

Posted by on August 25, 2010 at 12:39 am. 13 Comments :

For someone who continually broadcasts disclaimers that he is not an expert on anything, Glenn Beck sure pontificates on every subject imaginable as if he were the world’s supreme authority. In today’s episode Beck chose as his topic the actual supreme authority, God!

The message that Beck sought to convey to his jello-brained viewers was that President Obama is some sort of spiritual chameleon whose only prayerful commitment is to a collective holy borg. The presumptuousness of Beck believing that he could analyze the President’s faith reveals a measure of pride that would surely condemn him to eternal damnation were it actually the mortal sin it has been advertised as.

A new poll was released that shows that about one in four Americans are still so stupid and ill-informed that they think Obama is a Muslim. Amongst Republicans (who must be even stupider) it’s one in three. Beck blamed Obama for this mass asshattery that, in truth, was more the result of people like Beck and his talk radio lie brigades.

But Beck went further to construct a tower of trash and innuendo that was designed to leave his flock in a state of uncertainty and panic regarding this alien figure residing in the White House. For Beck is was pretty much routine. He simply trotted out the ghosts of Jeremiah Wright and social justice and wove them into a new fabric of fear. And of course, he employed his patented use of out-of-context quotations and eerie micro-focusing of otherwise mundane citations.

Prominently featured in Beck’s fantasia was a passage from Obama’s book, The Audacity of Hope, wherein Obama described his spiritual introduction to Christ:

“Kneeling beneath that cross on the south side of Chicago I felt God’s spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to His will, and dedicated myself to discovering His truth.”

To which Beck responded:

“Even that statement is confusing. Submission? That’s Islam.”

Umm…..Glenn may need to brush up on his scripture:

James 4:7 – Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Job 22:21 – Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you.

This is typical of the way Beck invents red herrings against which he can rail. He simply makes a declarative statement, like “submission is Islam,” and then castigates his target for violating some principle that Beck just made up. Another of his favorite methods of misinformation is to quote some authority and claim that the quote validates his position. Today Beck did this with a citation that he has used before from Pope Benedict:

“Wherever politics tries to be redemptive, it is promising too much. Where it wishes to do the work of God, it becomes not divine but demonic.”

Beck intended for this to be an indictment of Obama’s belief in “collective salvation.” All that means is that Obama places importance on helping others as a method for enhancing his connection to the holy. But Beck, due to his revulsion of helping others, twists it into some sort of evil plot to suppress individual will. That is an invention of Beck’s making and has nothing to do with Obama’s intention. But even more damning, so to speak, is that the Pope’s remark is more an indictment of people like Beck who insert religion into government works. The Pope is saying that when government and politicians try to do God’s work they are actually doing the work of the devil. So all you congressmen who want to draft legislation to outlaw abortion or gay marriage had better wise up.

Finally, I thought it would be fun to note that Beck took a back-handed swipe at CBS News anchor Bob Scheifer. Scheifer’s sin was to express the shocking opinion that there is false information on the Internet (you don’t say) and that that was where some of the misperception of Obama’s faith came from. That didn’t sit well with Beck who wanted to blame everything on Obama. So Beck said…

“Bob Schiefer. You seem like a nice gentleman. I don’t know you. And I’m sure you are a good journalist. I don’t know, because I don’t watch CBS News and, quite frankly, I don’t know anybody who does.”

Oh boy, that’s funny. Beck slammed Scheiffer for having so few viewers. That’s gotta hurt. Except for this little fact: Scheiffer’s CBS News draws twice as many viewers (5.2 million total/1.6 million 24-54) as Beck’s lame cable show (2.1M total/603K 25-54). So the fact that Beck doesn’t know anybody who watches CBS just reaffirms what a sheltered little world he lives in.

Fox Nation Affirms Commitment To Fake News

Posted by on August 20, 2010 at 12:04 pm. 5 Comments :

In an affirmation of their opposition to truthful reporting, Fox Nation posted an article to complain that other news providers have the audacity to strive for truthfulness. The headline on Fox Nation said…

AP Orders Staff to Stop Using Phrase ‘Ground Zero Mosque’.

The Fox Nationalists linked to a memo from Tom Kent, AP’s Deputy Managing Editor for Standards and Production, that said in part…

“We should continue to avoid the phrase ‘ground zero mosque’ or ‘mosque at ground zero’ on all platforms. (We’ve very rarely used this wording, except in slugs, though we sometimes see other news sources using the term.) The site of the proposed Islamic center and mosque is not at ground zero, but two blocks away in a busy commercial area. We should continue to say it’s ‘near’ ground zero, or two blocks away.”

Oh my heavens. AP is ordering their staff to publish accurate accounts of news events. What are these totalitarian, lamestream, fascists trying to do? Do they want to infect the media with honesty and factual analysis? Don’t they know that there is no place for facts in the press as envisioned by Fox News? AP is suggesting that reporters instead use far-fetched phrases like “mosque near ground zero.” It’s a travesty!

Fox News is not going to take this laying down. They have made their reputation (and their fortune) on misrepresenting the truth and misleading their readers and viewers. They have worked hard to advance the cause of propaganda and remain committed to their mission of turning as much of the public as possible into ignorant, rightist zombies. And they aren’t about to let a decades old upstart like the AP interfere with their plans to pervert reality and drive Republican talking points.

Fox News will continue to lie about the non-mosque that is not at ground zero, and they will promote this non-story incessantly to the exclusion of irrelevancies like the economy, jobs, Iraq, Afghanistan, Climate Change, health care, etc. In fact, stay tuned for a special edition of Sean Hannity’s program tonight on the “Mosque at Ground Zero,” proving that Fox News isn’t afraid to call it what it isn’t.

Bonus Fox Nation Fakery: Photo-ops, Fundraisers, and Vacations: Is That All This Pres. Does?

Never mind that Fox has repeatedly castigated President Obama for doing too much. They have regaled against him for addressing reforms of health care, Wall Street, and environmental policy. They attack him for his initiatives in Iraq and Afghanistan. They complain that he has taken on Gay marriage and civil rights. According to Fox this is the busiest president in generations. That is until he takes a vacation and then that’s all he does. Well, if that’s all he does then I suppose that Fox and their right wing constituents will stop complaining about all the harm being done by the projects that he apparently isn’t working on.

Blaming Bush For The Economy Is About The Future

Posted by on August 10, 2010 at 12:47 pm. 1 Comments :

Republicans, and their PR agency Fox News, are infuriated that President Obama and other Democrats continue to lay the blame for the economy on the shoulders of former President Bush. Their apoplexy centers on the notion that at some point Obama must assume some responsibility for the current state of affairs.

That would be a fair argument if sufficient time had elapsed to make a judgment about Obama’s economic policies. Most economists agree that a recovery from the sort of economic collapse that this nation just suffered takes several years to accomplish. It has only been a year and half. And even in that short time there have been notable achievements, including stemming the rate of job loss and injecting billions of dollars of stimulus funds into the economy.

But that isn’t what’s ultimately wrong with the complaints by Republicans. Blaming Bush for the economy isn’t a function of looking backward. First of all, Obama’s criticism has not been directed at Bush personally, but at his policies.

Obama: The policies that crashed the economy, that undercut the middle class, that mortgaged our future, do we really want to go back to that, or do we keep moving our country forward?

It seems inconceivable that anyone could defend the Bush plan knowing what we know today. Yet Republicans in the House and Senate are offering nothing new in the way of solutions. In fact, the only initiative they will articulate out loud is to preserve the Bush era tax cuts for the wealthy that are about to expire.

Republicans are so adamant about carrying water for the rich that they appear to be willing to allow taxes to rise for the 98% of Americans who are not so privileged. What’s more, they also appear to be ready to abandon their concern for deficits since the tax cuts for the wealthy will balloon the deficit by more than $700 billion.

It is not surprising that Republicans should defend themselves and their former leaders. But the media should not be carrying their banner. The criticism of Obama for “bashing” Bush is thoroughly misplaced. If Republicans were offering a new set of solutions that deserved consideration, then they should be accommodated. But if all they are offering are the same ideas that came from the Bush administration, then the debate ought to be over. We already know what that would accomplish.

Therein lies the fallacy of the “blame Bush” complaint. Obama is not reaching backwards to assign responsibility for current conditions to the past president. He is forecasting the future consequences of repeating those mistakes. It is the Republicans who are bringing the Bush era back to the table by proposing nothing but what the Bush administration did. So the Obama administration has no choice but to rebut those proposals. That is not an attack on Bush. It is an attack on the current crop of Republicans who are parroting Bush.

Note to the media: While Obama has every right to remind the nation that the Bush policies got us where we are, that isn’t what he is focused on today. He is merely responding to Congressional Republicans who are advocating the failed Bush policies of the past. It is the Republicans who are reaching back to define a course for the future. Obama is looking forward to chart a course that avoids past mistakes and learns from them.

Fox Nation Exposes Presidential Nuzzling Scandal

Posted by on August 9, 2010 at 10:45 am. 10 Comments :

Just when you think that Fox Nation has demonstrated an utter disengagement from reality they prove that Einstein was right when he said that only…

“…two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.”

The Fox Nationalists posted a story this morning that truly exceeds the boundaries of stupidity. And if that weren’t enough, it is also an obvious and brazen lie. In the photo below Fox Nation accuses President Obama of “nuzzling” Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan and Jorge Muñoz, who was being honored for his work providing meals for the homeless in Queens. In reality, as the video shows, the President was merely leaning over to speak to them. But this is how the Fox Nationalists presented it:

Obama Nuzzle

To make matters worse, the comments by the Fox Nationalists veer off into the repulsive and overtly racist diatribes that they so often complain about. Here is a representative sample:

“The only thing that is surprising is that he doesnt smell butts like the other dogs that make up the so called Progressives.”

Just to be fair and balanced, I thought I would offer this composite of our previous president displaying his affection side:

Bush Kisses

Notice that Bush goes significantly beyond nuzzling. Could Lieberman and Rove be any closer without puckering up? And Bush is plainly sucking face with his Saudi “friend.” And for all we know he may be rounding second base, on his way to third. And doesn’t McCain look content and secure?

It’s getting harder and harder to take these idiots seriously.