The Tea Party Nation Is Revolting

Posted by on November 19, 2009 at 3:55 pm. 2 Comments :

This just in: The Tea Party Nation will be holding their first convention in Nashville, TN, this coming February. This AstroTurf gathering of Baggers should prove to be a lively affair with panels on how to disrupt town hall meetings, forums on the similarities between President Obama and Hitler, workshops on promoting fake issues to protest, and media tutorials led by Fox News anchors.

“The convention is aimed at bringing the Tea Party Movement leaders together from around the nation for the purpose of networking and supporting the movements’ multiple organizations principle goals.”

As a special treat, Sarah Palin has just been announced as their keynote speaker. That should bring the Baggers out in force. The Tea Bagging will be televised. The Baggers are indeed revolting (have you ever eaten with one of them?). And what could be more exciting than to spend three days with these folks:

The Tea Bagger contingent will provide plenty of opportunity to learn about the many important issues facing the nation. And who better than these motivated and engaged citizens who represent the best of the right-wing and the Republican Party. This is, after all, the party for which it has just been revealed that a majority don’t believe that President Obama was legitimately elected. A new PPP poll asked the question:

“Do you think that Barack Obama legitimately won the Presidential election last year, or do you think that ACORN stole it for him?”

Amongst Republicans only 27% say Obama actually won the race, with 52% – an outright majority – saying that ACORN stole it. That would mean that ACORN would have stuffed about 10 million ballots. But the Tea Party Nationalists have no more problem accepting such nonsense than they do doubts that the President is an American citizen, or that “death panels” exist in the health care bill, or that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, or that Marxists are running loose in the halls of the White House.

All of this insures that the first ever conference of Tea Baggers should be a real hoot. Boy, I wish I could be there.

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Now We Know What Sarah Palin Reads

Posted by on November 19, 2009 at 2:54 am. 1 Comments :

Last year, Sarah Palin famously flubbed a softball from Katie Couric. It’s actually not even precise to call it a softball. It was more of a floating feather on a windless day. Couric simply asked Palin what she reads. That was the question that Palin was incapable of responding to coherently.

Now, a year later, the mystery is solved. Palin was interviewed by Sean Hannity yesterday. Hannity came prepared with a bushel full of feathers to lob at Palin, but thanks to his crackerjack investigative skills, he managed to extract a truly newsworthy revelation:

Palin: I read Newsmax and the Frontiersman and the Wall Street Journal and everything online. I absorb the news via many, many sources.

She would have to absorb the news like a ShamWow in order to read “everything” online. However, she does do a good impersonation of the ShamWow pitchman by mentioning first the magazine, Newsmax. Her book, Going Rogue, is currently being peddled by Newsmax as bait to lure subscribers. I’m sure they appreciate the plug. The other two publications she reads are her hometown Wasilla rag and Rupert Murdoch’s financial paper. Need I remind you that Palin’s book is published by Murdoch’s HarperCollins?

This is the woman that virtually every conservative pundit is describing as the terror of liberals and Democrats. They are mostly echoing the sentiments of Bill O’Reilly whose Talking Points yesterday were devoted to “Why the Left Fears Sarah Palin.” The only problem is, I can’t find anyone on the left who is afraid of Sarah Palin. To the contrary, she is a great source of amusement to all the lefties I know. If anyone is afraid of Palin, I think it is the Republican Party. A recent CBS poll shows that only 43% of Republicans think Palin is qualified to be president. And 48% don’t even want her to run (more than the 44% who do). And that’s just Republicans.

In my highly unscientific poll of liberals I know personally, 100% are praying for her to run and win the Republican nomination. They’re not fearful, they’re giddy.

For the record: The DNC has conveniently complied a list of errors and falsehoods in Palin’s book, “Going Rogue.”


Fox Uses False Video (Again) To Inflate Sarah Palin’s Crowd

Posted by on November 18, 2009 at 5:58 pm. NO Comments :

Just one week ago, Jon Stewart exposed Sean Hannity for inserting video of a rally last summer to make a less successful rally this month look like it was well-attended. It was a blatant distortion that could not plausibly have happened by accident. Nevertheless, that is exactly the excuse Hannity coughed up, as he sought to trivialize the affair and sweep it under the rug. I wonder how Fox News will explain it this time.

ThinkProgress has caught them red-handed again. The video below was introduced by Fox anchor Gregg Jarrett saying…

“Sarah Palin continuing to draw huge crowds while she’s promoting her brand new book. Take a look at…these are some of the pictures just coming into us. You can see the lines earlier had formed this morning. There’s a crowd of folks.”

The problem is that this video clearly shows Palin at a campaign event last year, not a current stop on her book tour. McCain/Palin signs are plainly visible in the audience. But Jarrett’s commentary identifies these images as “just coming in.” It should also be noted that Jarrett is considered by Fox to be an actual “news” anchor, not a part of their editorial programming, like Hannity.

Following the takedown by Stewart, Fox and their apologists insisted it was an innocent mistake and that they had no intention of being deceptive. But how many times does this need to happen before their alibis are dismissed for the lies that they are? Real news enterprises do not misrepresent events to advance their agenda. You will notice that they have never made a mistake like this that increased the size of a Democratic rally. The dishonesty of Fox News seems to have no lower boundary. Before too long we should expect it to look something like this:

Update: Fox News has responded to this latest Faux pas by typically blaming a lowly editor:

“This was a production error in which the copy editor changed a script and didn’t alert the control room to update the video,” Michael Clemente, senior vice president of news at FOX, sad [sic] this evening. “There will be an on-air explanation during Happening Now on Thursday.”

That’s twice in two weeks. And on different programs. This is either intentional or a pattern of incompetence. Perhaps they should schedule a daily program to make their on-air explanations so they don’t have to interrupt their mistake-filled propaganda.


Bill O’Reilly Doesn’t Care About The Constitution

Posted by on November 18, 2009 at 11:40 am. 3 Comments :

The Big “O” of Fox News let it slip on his program yesterday. While it has been apparent for years, Bill O’Reilly finally admitted on air his utter disdain for America and its values. We have always known that he has little knowledge of the Constitution, and now we know why – he just doesn’t care.

This accident of candor is revealing on a number of levels. Obviously, the literal meaning of his remarks are repugnant. But his justification transcends common idiocy. O’Reilly tells Judge Andrew Napolitano that he doesn’t care about the Constitution because the Constitution isn’t there and the Judge is. So as far as O’Reilly is concerned, if the Constitution isn’t physically present, it is irrelevant. Don’t bother to cite the Constitution or advocate its provisions around O’Reilly unless the two of you are standing in the National Archives Building in Washington, DC. O’Reilly went on to call the Judge a pinhead for having the audacity to bring Constitutional law into a discussion about Constitutional law.

O’Reilly has demonstrated his aversion to Constitutional principles on many occasions. He opposes dissent unless it’s by Tea Baggers. He imposes religion via his defense of marriage and his annual War on Christmas nonsense. He disposes of fourth and fifth amendment rights for those he preemptively declares are guilty until proven innocent.

At least now it’s out in the open. From her on out, anytime he makes one of his tortured arguments about his twisted perspective on freedom or liberty, we can remind him and his flock what he confessed here. He really doesn’t care.


The Newsmax Dream Ticket: Palin/Beck

Posted by on November 17, 2009 at 7:00 pm. 4 Comments :

This is just too delicious not to pass on. The uber-rightist magazine/web site, Newsmax, has been flapping hard for Sarah Palin since she fell from her nest in Alaska and took wing. They are presently hawking her new book as a free premium with a one year year subscription to their magazine. And if you don’t want a subscription, you can still buy the book for $4.95, a $25.00 discount from the retail price. Shipping and handling is $5.95, a dollar more than the book itself.

But here’s the fun part, Newsmax asked Palin about her future plans and specifically inquired as to whether she would entertain the idea of running on a ticket with Glenn Beck. They described it as their “dream ticket.” Palin’s response:

“I can envision a couple of different combinations, if ever I were to be in a position to really even seriously consider running for anything in the future, and I’m not there yet,” Palin tells Newsmax. “But Glenn Beck I have great respect for. He’s a hoot. He gets his message across in such a clever way. And he’s so bold – I have to respect that. He calls it like he sees it, and he’s very, very, very effective.”

That’s the dream ticket for NewsMax: Hockey Mom/Hoot 2012. I think it may be my dream ticket too.


Comparing Sarah Palin To Howard Dean

Posted by on November 17, 2009 at 11:43 am. 1 Comments :

Yesterday on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Time Magazine editor-at-large and senior political analyst, Mark Halperin sought to make a comparison between Sarah Palin and Howard Dean. Commendably, the show’s co-hosts would have none of it. Mika Brzezinski said flatly that it was “not the same.” Joe Scarborough went even further:

Joe Scarborough: “It is such a disservice to compare Sarah Palin, in any aspect to Howard Dean. Yes, because that is an insult to Howard Dean’s intelligence.”

Fox Nation and other rightist webizens are aghast at Scarborough’s slap at Palin. But do you think they ever bothered to actually compare the two?

Sarah Palin: Howard Dean
Attended four universities before attaining a degree in journalism. Earned a BA in political science at Yale and medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Miss Wassila and third runner up in the Miss Alaska pageant. Stock broker on Wall Street.
Brief stint as a sportscaster for local Anchorage TV. Practiced family medicine in Vermont.
Served two-terms as Mayor of Wassila, AK. Elected to the Vermont House of Representatives and later, lieutenant governor.
Quit half way through her first term as Governor of Alaska. Served six terms as Governor of Vermont.
Selected by John McCain as VP candidate. Ran for the nomination of the Democratic Party for President.
Went Rogue. Was elected to chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee.

The similarities are mind-boggling. Scarborough was quite right to admonish Halperin for his simplistic and incorrect analysis. But the bigger issue here is how someone like Halperin can be accorded the respect and authority of an editor’s role at Time Magazine. Exactly how low are their standards?

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The Communists In Glenn Beck’s Pointy Little Head

Posted by on November 16, 2009 at 10:58 pm. 2 Comments :

This is going to be brief because Glenn Beck really speaks for himself.

GLENN BECK, 11/12/09: I’ve been very consistent on all of this stuff. But they don’t even look at any of that. In fact, the claims that I make about socialist Marxism, et cetera, et cetera, communist, I’ve only charged that there was one communist in the White House, in the administration, one. I have not made a claim that there’s more. Only one.

GLENN BECK, 8/31/09: Why does the president have so many Marxists, socialists, radicals and self-proclaimed communists advising him?

GLENN BECK, 10/17/09: It is not a crime to admire communist murderers, but to me – pardon the pun – it is kind of a red flag. But even more chilling than all the admiration is the fact that so many in and around our nation’s capital and the White House, in the halls of power, adhere to the tenets of socialism, Marxism, and communism.

GLENN BECK, 10/26/09: I have made an unchallenged case that there were and are communist revolutionaries, socialists, Marxists, people that follow Chairman Mao, people that do not believe in the free market system, people that are radicals that have been appointed by Obama to the executive branch positions in government.

Beck frequently claims that he would immediately correct any mistake, but we really can’t hold him to that. If he actually had to correct his lies and misstatements, how would he have time to do his show?


Glenn Beck’s Cast Of Racists and White Supremacists

Posted by on November 16, 2009 at 4:57 pm. 9 Comments :

The case was made long ago that Fox News is a haven for racism and hate. So many of the network’s presenters have been caught expressing repulsive views that they should just stop pretending and pull their sheets out of the closet.

Let’s give Glenn Beck a taste of his own medicine. He revels in phony guilt by association scams, but he is also vulnerable to them. Sam Stein at the Huffington Post has done some investigative work that documents what rational observers already know. His column itemizes a parade of purported hate mongers that Beck has featured on his radio and TV programs. People like…

  • Michael Hill, the founder and president of the League of the South.
  • Thomas Naylor, the secessionist head of the Second Vermont Republic.
  • Tom Woods, radical, pro-Confederate author.
  • Larry Pratt, the president of Gun Owners of America.
  • Roy Beck, the founder and president of NumbersUSA.
  • Charles Goyette, Phoenix-based radio host and 9/11 skeptic.

The research done by HuffPo’s Stein is a useful addition to accumulated evidence against Beck. Stein notes that Beck is well known for casting aspersions on his enemies based on associations he can make between them and other dubious figures. By that standard, Beck is the leading candidate for Grand Wizard in America today. And remember, Beck is the guy who called President Obama a racist. Beck is also the guy who has been on an obsessive campaign against African Americans in public service. Along with organizations that represent the interests of the poor, minorities, and workers, like ACORN and SEIU, Beck has attacked mostly black staffers in the Obama administration:

Anyone who thinks that the election of a black president put an end to the problem of racial prejudice in this country is terminally naive.


US President Shames Nation By Bowing To Foreigners

Posted by on November 16, 2009 at 11:26 am. 6 Comments :

It is about time that somebody takes on the embarrassing behavior of an American president supplicating himself to foreign leaders. The United States is a nation of superior values and goals. We must never show subservience to others, even as a measure of humility or respect. Leave it to the conservative media to put this critical issue front and center. We have already wasted too much time on trivialities like health care and war. It’s time to refocus on the issues that matter to America.

Thank you Fox Nation.

However, the Fox Nationalists seem to be having trouble keeping their War on Christmas alerts straight. Today they are featuring a story on this year’s War on Christmas: “Santa = Swastika? War On Christmas Begins In Massachusetts.” But on October 29, they posted this declaration: “War on Christmas Starts in KY.” I guess everyone wants credit for firing the first shot.

Update: The Fox Nationalists must not have thought their first slap at Obama for bowing (Again?) was hard enough. So the next day they took another swing (Our Most Embarrassing President?).

I assume they’ll just keep changing the headline until they find one that is sufficiently insulting. It would probably be a lot easier if they just went with “Obama Hates America” and used that for the headline of all of their biased, dishonest stories.


The Relative Importance Of Health Care And War

Posted by on November 15, 2009 at 6:59 pm. 2 Comments :

This will be a quick examination of the appropriate response time for critical public decision making. It is an area of cognitive analysis that the media, and most of the political order, have neglected to explore. For instance…..

When addressing the current debate on health care, Republicans have concluded that the issue is too important to rush:

Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority Leader (R-KY): Americans are telling us that health care is too important to rush.
John Boehner, House Majority Leader (R-OH): Health care reform is too important to rush through a flawed proposal that will raise costs
John Kline (R-MN): Health care reform is far too important to rush through Congress in a few days or a few weeks.
Rick Boucher (R-VA): It’s important that we take the time to consider all of these measures thoroughly.
Mike Johanns (R-NE): Health Care Too Important To Rush
Mike Crapo (R-ID): Health care is too big, too personal, too important to rush or get it wrong.
Paul Broun (R-GA): Whoa, this is an issue that is too important to rush through.

Setting aside for the moment that health care has been debated for several months already in this administration, and for decades if you include prior administrations going back to FDR, the Republican’s judgment to give due consideration to matters of importance is generally commendable. It seems obvious that weighty issues that have the potential for great impact should be more thoroughly considered than trivial issues. Good call, Republicans.

However, the same GOP have similarly concluded that a decision on the conduct of the war in Afghanistan is too important to delay:

Mitch McConnell (R-KY): Any failure to act decisively in response to General McChrystal’s request could serve to undermine the other good decisions the president has made on national security
John Boehner (R-OH): I do believe that the quicker he makes this decision, the quicker General McChrystal can get on with the task at hand.
Dick Cheney (R-VP): The White House must stop dithering while America’s armed forces are in danger.
Jon Kyl (R-AZ): Clearly time is of the essence here.
John McCain (R-AZ): Every day we delay will be a delay in this strategy succeeding.
Steve Scalise (R-LA): Our commander in chief continues to delay action on Gen. McChrystal’s assessment that calls for more troops in Afghanistan
David Vitter (R-LA): We simply cannot afford to let the insurgents gain ground.

So the Republican approach to policy is that health care is so important that we must slow down the process to give it more thought, but war is an insignificant little affair that we can just dash off cavalierly. Either that or that war is so important that we need to hasten an abrupt decision, but health care we can afford to dally with and resolve when we get around to it.

This reminds a bit of Aesop’s fable of the man who blew on his hands to warm them, and blew on his soup to cool it. The satyr who had taken him in then threw him out saying…

I will have nought to do with a man who can blow hot and cold with the same breath.

Sounds like good advice when dealing with Republicans.