Andrew Breitbart

Poor Andrew Breitbart. His Sleaze Is Showing.

Posted by on January 27, 2010 at 4:49 pm. 1 Comments :

ACORN: Pimp, Prostitute & BoratWith the arrest of the Fox News’ “pimp,” Andrew Breitbart, the pimp’s Godfather, is struggling to distance himself from his own Frankenstein monster. He created James O’Keefe and now his creation has gotten loose and is terrorizing the countryside.

For his part, Breitbart wants nothing more to do with O’Keefe. He is disclaiming any knowledge of him or the activities that got him busted in New Orleans. O’Keefe told reporters, as he slipped into a cab leaving the jailhouse that “Truth will set me free.” I believe this was a reference to Truth Bail Bonds of Louisiana. He also released this statement from prison directly addressing Breitbart:

“Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” ~Snark

Dare I say it is a scandal of biblical proportions. But O’Keefe’s prophecy was right on the mark. Breitbart issued his denial on all three of his “Big” web sites (Government, Journalism, and Hollywood). But he did not throw O’Keefe entirely under the bus. Breitbart left room for some legal squirming to insinuate that nothing dastardly actually took place.

“But there is absolutely no allegation in the criminal complaint that ‘wiretapping’ or ‘bugging’ is any part of this case, just the charge that O’Keefe and the others entered Sen. Landrieu’s office in New Orleans ‘for the purpose of interfering with the office’s telephone system.'”

That’s right. The perpetrators merely entered the Senator’s office dressed as telephone repairmen, fiddled with the phones, and sought access to the central wiring facility. What about that would lead anyone to believe there was intent to tap the lines?

Breitbart argues fiercely that judgement should be withheld until all of the facts are in. That’s an interesting position from someone who has never been especially enamored of facts. Nor has he ever shown an interest in reserving judgment. His assaults against ACORN were unambiguously accusatory. Even though ACORN was never found guilty of any crime. They weren’t even charged with any crime. And they were exonerated by an independent investigation as well as a non-partisan Congressional probe. Now, all of a sudden, Breitbart is advocating restraint.

But the piece de resistance came when Breitbert was interviewed on the Hugh Hewitt radio program. He continued his chorus of denial as Hewitt engaged in a friendly interrogation designed to setup Breitbart’s foes as slanderers, or so he thought. However, one part of the exchange was particularly notable as Hewitt inquired what Breitbart would have done if he had known what O’Keefe was up to:

Hewitt: Would you have told him don’t do that, if he had asked you?
Breitbart: No, I have nothing to do with what James O’Keefe does. James O’Keefe is an independent filmmaker.

So if O’Keefe had told Breitbart that he was on his way to New Orleans to bug Sen Landrieu’s phones, Breitbart would have said nothing to dissuade O’Keefe from his felonious mission. Even though O’Keefe was, at that very time, on Breitbart’s payroll, which Breitbart admitted during the Hewitt interview.

This is an outstanding display of the ethical deficiencies at work in Breitbart’s sphere. He is unrepentantly slanderous towards others. He has a sociopath’s sense of loyalty and self-preservation. And he has no problem with people he pays engaging in felonious conduct. Look for Fox News to make him their next managing editor. What a perfect fit.

ACORN’s “Pimp” Pinched By FBI In Wiretap Plot

Posted by on January 26, 2010 at 2:37 pm. NO Comments :

Breaking news from New Orleans, Louisiana:

“Alleging a plot to wiretap Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office in the Hale Boggs Federal Building in downtown New Orleans, the FBI arrested four people Monday, including James O’Keefe, a conservative filmmaker whose undercover videos at ACORN field offices severely damaged the advocacy group’s credibility.”

For those who don’t recall, O’Keefe, along with his hooker pal, Hannah Giles, unlawfully videotaped ACORN representatives so that they could deceptively edit their footage to deliberately slander the organization. It should come as no surprise that someone so brazenly criminal would violate the law again to manufacture his fake news stories. It is nice to see that the FBI is enforcing the law. I assume that all good law-and-order Republicans will agree that it is unacceptable to plant bugs in senators’ offices.

While ACORN’s credibility was indeed damaged by the phony “journalists,” they were subsequently exonerated by an independent investigation headed by Scott Harshbarger, the former Attorney General of Massachusetts. Even an attempt by Congress to prohibit funding to the group, despite no charges against them having been proven (or even brought), was reversed by a court that deemed the action an unlawful bill of attainder.

O’Keefe and company have a long association with right-wing media. They were mentored by Matt Drudge apprentice, Andrew Breitbart. It was on Breitbart’s BigGovernment web site that the ACORN videos were first made public. Oddly enough, at this time BigGovernment has no mention of their favorite pimp’s arrest. There is a link on Breitbart.com to a story in the Associated Press that does not mention any names, although the names are available in other news accounts and in the arrest affidavit.

Fox News is another friend of O’Keefe. In fact, it is the only television “news” service that O’Keefe would grant an interview to. Both O’Keefe and Giles appeared several times on Fox News, but nowhere else. Fox News hyped the ACORN story incessantly. On one day last year they featured sixteen separate stories on the subject on their Fox Nation web site. Fox Nation even helped to solicit donations for a Hannah Giles Defense Fund.

What remains to be seen is the extent to which there may be other unknown accomplices. Is Breitbart in on this? Or Glenn Beck? Could Fox News have encouraged this action to manufacture a news story they could exploit? It has been a while since the ACORN scandal, the Tea Bagger uprising, or any other of the sensationalistic events that Fox likes to promote.

One thing for sure is that O’Keefe’s defenders cannot claim that this is the result of Obama’s henchmen going after him in retribution for the ACORN affair. After all, these guys were caught red-handed in a senator’s office tampering with the phone equipment. On second thought, the right will almost certainly claim persecution. They will somehow blame liberals, Obama, or George Soros. It’s not like they ever needed facts to support their assertions in the past.

[Update] Breitbart comments: “We have no knowledge about or connection to any alleged acts and events involving James O’Keefe at Senator Mary Landrieu’s office,” said Breitbart. “We only just learned about the alleged incident this afternoon. We have no information other than what has been reported publicly by the press. Accordingly, we simply are not in a position to make any further comment.”

Not much of a comment, and not much more than you would expect even if he were involved. At least he has the story posted on his “Big” web sites now (same AP story on both).

Addendum: As if being a felon isn’t bad enough, O’Keefe also fraternizes with racists and anti-Semites.

What You’re Missing On Breitbart’s BigJournalism.com

Posted by on January 9, 2010 at 1:31 pm. 1 Comments :

For those of you lacking the hardy constitution to stomach Andrew Breitbart’s BigJournalism, I have compiled the current list of stories featured on the uber-rightist web site that launched last week. This is what you’re missing by not visiting the site that aspires to fix everything that’s worng with the media:

A Fox News intern complaining that people responded negatively when they heard she worked at Fox.
That’s actually pretty good news. Obviously people know about Fox and are responding appropriately. The sad thing is that after her internship she still thinks that “Fox actually does investigative journalism.”

A criticism of public officials who have relationships reporters – particularly if they are Democrats and are nerdy looking.
This story seeks to expose the bias of reporters who are in bed with partisan political operatives. Somehow they left out Howard Kurtz and Sheri Annis; Campbell Brown and Dan Senor; and Elaine Chao and Sen. Mitch McConnell. But I can’t argue with the author’s (Ben Shapiro) credentials on nerdiness.

A defensive screed by Breitbart who didn’t like the interview with him published on another web site.
This one is a pathetic attempt by Breitbart to puff himself up. He is quite obviously too thin-skinned for this business.

A polemic on why we shouldn’t worry about Global Warming because thirty years ago we worried about nuclear war and that hasn’t happened – yet.
The case being made here is that the arms race was once looked on as a potentially catastrophic endeavor, but has waned in urgency over the years. The problem with the author’s logic is that the reason nuclear annihilation is no longer viewed as an imminent threat is that we did worry about it back then and took steps to alleviate the danger. But this author opposes such common sense actions today.

An attack on Media Matters for correctly criticizing shoddy journalism at the New York Times.
If you want to read a substanceless diatribe that mocks George Soros and trivializes responsible media analysis, this is the article for you. But don’t expect any meaningful revelations or maturity.

An argument in favor of respecting the opinions of bloggers over scientists with regard to Climate Change.
This may be my favorite. The author, Patrick Courrielche (who helped Breitbart and Glenn Beck attack the National Endowment for the Arts), actually celebrates what he calls…

“…the death of unconditional trust in the scientific peer review process, and the maturing of a new movement – that of peer-to-peer review.”

By this he means that biased blogs disseminating stolen emails (that proved nothing with regard to Global Warming) are more trustworthy than climatologists whose work has been validated through rigorous research and testing. He’s advocating peer-to-peer (i.e. partisan bloggers) over academically sound and objective scientific modeling. In other words, he’s advocating ignorance over knowledge. I can only suppose that it’s because he has more personal experience with the former.

A lament that the media has given short shrift to the bogus ClimateGate story.
BigJ is going after the environment in a big way. This is the third story on the subject and they still fail to grasp the reason that some in the media haven’t covered it: There is no story. The deceptively edited clippings from the stolen emails were mischaracterized and out of context. And none of it disputes the voluminous findings compiled by thousands of researchers over dozens of years.

A critique of the Los Angeles Times (owned by the notoriously right-wing Tribune Company) as being too liberal.
When the Times endorsed Barack Obama last year, it was the first time it had EVER endorsed a Democrat for president. This is their idea of a liberal paper?

Another defensive screed by Breitbart.
He just can’t stop thinking about himself.

A review of the allegedly friendly treatment of Obama by the media
This is one I still can’t figure out. After a campaign that obsessed over Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, flag lapel pins, and birth certificates, Obama took office facing criticism for being a socialist indoctrinator of children who bowed too much. If the media has been friendly over the past year, I’d hate to see them turn nasty.

So now you’re caught up on what BigJournalism thinks is news and you can go enjoy your Saturday. Rest assured that BigJ will continue to misinform their readers and contribute to the general decline in intellectual discourse in America. But don’t expect me to continue bringing you these reports. I think I can find more productive uses for my time. Well, that’s a pretty low bar that would include separating M&Ms by color or counting the hairs on my forearm.

Andrew Breitbart’s BigHypocrite.com

Posted by on January 4, 2010 at 4:50 pm. NO Comments :

Today on Fox Nation they are featuring a story on whether President Obama’s advisor, David Axelrod, is losing control of the President’s image. The headline is accompanied by a photo collage of what the Fox Nationalists must think are silly pictures, but which most people would regard as human pictures.

What’s truly silly about this is that the item links to an article at Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment web site that expounds at length on what a terrible job of image building the White House is doing. The author, Kristinn Taylor, is appalled by what he regards as inadequate visual communications:

“Richard Nixon had advertising executive H.R. Haldeman; Ronald Reagan had image master Mike Deaver; Barack Obama has public relations guru David Axelrod.

“All three men understood the power of visuals in communicating the strengths of the presidents they served on the campaign trail and in the office of the presidency.

“I don’t know where David Axelrod has been since President Obama began his ten-day Christmas vacation in Hawaii, but it is safe to say he is goofing off as much as his boss.”

Taylor goes on to lament that the Obama team has…

“…failed in their most basic duty of reassuring the American public that the president is on the job.”

First of all, it is rather revealing that right-wingers like Taylor, and his boss Breitbart, so openly revere the manipulative art of public relations. The fact that they regard the most basic duty of presidential staff as providing pictorial reassurances that the President is on the job, as opposed to helping the President to actually get the job done, says a great deal about the Breitbart philosophy.

These are a breed of propagandists whose heroes are masters of deception like Haldeman, Deaver, and Fox News CEO Roger Ailes. And they are not in the least embarrassed to admit their preference for style and appearances over substance. That is the cornerstone of conservative leadership for decades. Reagan’s tough-guy, movie hero persona was thoroughly manufactured by PR professionals, as was Bush, Jr.’s cowboy everyman. Taylor’s article reinforces this superficial approach to public service and criticizes the Obama administration for not being sufficiently shallow.

It is also interesting to note that the complaint made by Taylor and company contradicts previous conservative complaints that this White House has been preoccupied with image. They never seem to tire of lame jokes about the President’s use of TelePrompters, or his photo-ops with the troops. On those occasions the President was being disingenuous for exploiting imagery. His aides were cynically attempting to manipulate the public, and were considered dishonorable for doing so. But now they are accused of failing in that “most basic duty” by not performing it.

I suppose it might be too much to expect Breitbart’s crew to refrain from hypocrisy. Taylor complained that it took four days for the White House to post a picture of the President on the phone. Oh my stars, someone get the smelling salts. In fact that wasn’t even true. There were many pictures of the President working, just not the ones Taylor cared to notice. He was too busy whimpering about presidential tiewear or the price of his hotel room.

In the end, as with most matters concerning this president, Obama cannot win. He is damned if he uses PR effectively, and he is damned if he doesn’t use it all. As Hillary Clinton once said, if he were to walk on water his critics would gripe that he can’t swim. But even more disturbing to me is the lust these people have for phoniness. They celebrate it and curse those who fail to worship it as they do. There is a place for reasonable image-making. But clearly the right has taken it way too far.

The News Corpse 2009 Retro-Speculum

Posted by on December 31, 2009 at 12:46 pm. 1 Comments :

Looking back on 2009 can be a harrowing experience. There has been much that many people would rather not recollect. It was a year that began with dreadful economic suffering. From there it went on to unprecedented political division, animosity, and disappointment from virtually every perspective. And it ended with a reminder of our vulnerability to violent extremists at home and abroad. For that reason, like the mythical Medusa, it may be best not to look back on 2009 directly.

Nevertheless, News Corpse has compiled some moments that, for our own good, ought not to be forgotten.

SPINCOMMedia Malfeasance of the Year:
SPINCOM. In 2008, David Barstow wrote an article for the New York Times detailing how television news programs were employing Pentagon-trained military analysts to promote the Bush administration’s agenda for an unnecessary and illegal war in Iraq. In 2009, that article won a Pulitzer prize, a Golden Keyboard from the New York Press Association, and an Emmy nomination. Yet the article and its author never once appeared on television to discuss it. Despite Barstow’s many accolades and awards, the story was blackballed by the same TV producers who hired the phony pundits (who were also enriching themselves as consultants for the military contractors who benefited from the war). And by refusing to report on one of the most egregious examples of propaganda ever directed at the American people by their government, they also covered up their own complicity in cheerleading for the war.

2010 Prediction:
Someone famous will die while fleeing from police in a high-speed TV chase after being caught cheating on a spouse for a new reality show.

ACORN: Pimp. Prostitute, BoratThe Pimp & The Prostitute
What passes for journalism took a huge hit in 2009 when a couple of rightist activists dressed up for a Halloween expose on what they regarded as America’s most feared enemy: community organizers. James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles played the roles they were made for, a pimp and a whore, as they visited offices of ACORN. The results were dishonestly edited videos that were played incessantly on Fox News despite having zero news value. The pair never appeared on any other television news network as they were closely guarded by their mentor Andrew Breitbart, and their patrons at Fox. Sadly, the other networks acquiesced by reporting the story despite having no access to the pseudo-news team.

2010 Prediction:
 Osama Bin Laden will buy Philip Morris, thus taking responsibility for killing 197,000 more Americans EVERY YEAR than he did that one time on 9/11.

Glenn Beck Rodeo ClownColor of Change We Can Believe In:
After Glenn Beck called the President a racist, a previously little-known group embarked on a boycott campaign directed at Beck’s advertisers. By last accounting Color of Change had persuaded over 80 advertisers to pull or withhold their ads from Becks show. What’s more, they compelled a retraction from the DefendGlenn web site (whose proprietor, Gary Kreep, is a story unto himself) that had been falsely disparaging the boycott efforts.

2010 Prediction:
Twitter will fold when its enfeebled users decide that 140 characters is too many to comprehend. It will be replaced by Blather, where messages are restricted to 26 characters and you can only use each letter of the alphabet once. The media will herald it as a phenomenon.

Fox News Tea PartyThe Tea Party Delusion
What can be said about the year’s most overblown non-story: The Tea Party Movement? Never has there been a less significant amalgamation of disruptive whiners that received more attention from a controversy-challenged media. The Tea Baggers were always just a noisy minority who were fully sponsored by right-wing lobbyists and Fox News. But near the end of the year a poll was released that revealed the truth, even though the true part was ignored. The NBC/Wall Street Journal poll hit the airwaves proclaiming that Tea Baggers (at 41%) were more popular that Democrats (35%) or Republicans (28%). What they didn’t report, although it was in the same poll, was that 48% of respondents knew very little or nothing at all about the Tea Baggers. When almost half of the country doesn’t know who you are, you are not much of a movement.

2010 Prediction:
Fox News will lie. (I know. That one was too easy, but it’s New Year’s Eve and I have a party to go to).

Undisputed Scumbag Pundit Hall of Shame
This award is a tie due to the presence of two so thoroughly deserving Scumbag Pundits. These despicable cretins earned their awards by claiming a couple of the most repulsive utterings ever contemplated in the press:

Retired Lieutenant Colonel, Ralph Peters: “Although it seems unthinkable now, future wars may require censorship, news blackouts and, ultimately, military attacks on the partisan media.”

Former CIA employee Michael Scheuer: “[T]he only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States.”

And just for fun, I now present the Comedy Colonoscopy Award for 2009. So far as I know, there was only one entry. But it’s a doozy:


HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Study: ACORN Did Nothing Illegal – Fox News: So What?

Posted by on December 13, 2009 at 1:56 pm. 6 Comments :

Fox News Borat/ACORNLast summer Fox News participated in a media frenzy surrounding some sensationalistic videos produced by conservative activists and promoted by right-wing propaganda outlets. The ACORN representatives in the videos appeared to counsel a couple of cartoonish characters posing as a pimp and a prostitute on how to apply for loans without disclosing the nefarious nature of their pretend business.

The subsequent controversy led to ACORN initiating an independent review to ascertain the facts and to propose solutions. To that end they retained former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger to conduct a thorough investigation. The results of the investigation were released last week (pdf) and revealed that…

“While some of the advice and counsel given by ACORN employees and volunteers was clearly inappropriate and unprofessional, we did not find a pattern of intentional, illegal conduct by ACORN staff; in fact, there is no evidence that action, illegal or otherwise, was taken by any ACORN employee on behalf of the videographers. Instead, the videos represent the byproduct of ACORN’s longstanding management weaknesses, including a lack of training, a lack of procedures, and a lack of on-site supervision.”

Harshbarger pulled no punches in his condemnation of ACORN’s failings. While he found that there was no unlawful conduct, this was no vindication. There was much about which to be embarrassed. Reporting on the study’s release could have justifiably focused on that aspect. However, Fox News and its affiliates chose instead to virtually ignore the matter. It was reported on the air with the typical Fox slant, and there was a single story on their web site and another on Fox Nation. Also, Glenn Beck did a segment on it that focused more on how it tied into the carnival of unrelated conspiracy delusions that occupy his so-called brain. Then it vanished.

What makes this peculiar is that Fox was wall-to-wall ACORN for several weeks when the videos were released. You couldn’t turn the network on without seeing a report or a replay of clips from the Borat News Team. On one day in September, the Fox Nation posted sixteen separate stories on their web site – all with disparaging viewpoints. This past week the Fox Nationalists had a single story on the report and another on Acorn-shaped cookies at a White House dinner (I’m not sure that counts).

Now that a study is released that actually delves into the factual details of the affair, Fox has gone silent after an obligatory wave. And when they did address the issue, it was with their typical sneering disdain. The Fox News account of the study’s results was something less than “fair and balanced.” While they did include excerpts from statements released by Harshbarger and ACORN CEO, Bertha Lewis, they interviewed no one from the ACORN side of the story. On the other hand, Fox did do interviews with James O’Keefe, the videographer, Republican senator Lamar Smith, and a spokesman for Republican congressman Darrel Issa. All of these critics dismissed the study despite not even bothering to dispute any of its findings.

The findings, by the way, also revealed some notable information about the folks who brought the story to Fox. For instance, efforts by Harshbarger to interview O’Keefe and his hooker/partner Hannah Giles were rebuffed. It should be noted that O’Keefe and Giles have declined EVERY interview request that didn’t come from Fox News, or an otherwise similarly prejudiced venue, since this story went public. They are being kept in a hermetically sealed, undisclosed location. Also, the punking pair and their patron, Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment, refused to make the unedited videos available to Harshbarger for review. Thus, preserving the producers intent to deceive, as well as to assure that any exculpatory material was edited out of the tapes before anyone could see them. However, Harshbarger was still able to establish that the videos were materially altered prior to broadcast:

“The videos that have been released appear to have been edited, in some cases substantially, including the insertion of a substitute voiceover for significant portions of Mr. O’Keefe’s and Ms. Giles’s comments, which makes it difficult to determine the questions to which ACORN employees are responding. A comparison of the publicly available transcripts to the released videos confirms that large portions of the original video have been omitted from the released versions.”

The release of this report may not absolve ACORN for acts that were improper by the people captured on video, but it demonstrates another incidence of their being tarred with allegations of illegality that are unproven and irresponsible. ACORN has been the victim of repeated smears related to voter fraud when there has never been a single case of it documented. Another news item this week reported that congressional efforts to defund ACORN were ruled unconstitutional.

Most of these relentless attacks against ACORN are motivated by right-wing politicians and organizations with a vested interest in suppressing low and middle income voters. These are the citizens that ACORN serves and conservatives recognize that empowering them will be adverse to their agenda of advancing the interests of the wealthy and powerful. That’s why so many attempts have been made to undermine and discredit ACORN’s operations. And despite the fact that all of the allegations against ACORN have so far been thoroughly debunked, we can expect the harassment to continue.

We can also expect the reporting from Fox to continue to be brazenly one-sided. They will plaster their air with unverified allegations that harm the interests of ordinary Americans, and they will look the other way when there is positive news about them and the groups that are their advocates. How can we expect Fox to be impartial when they actually partnered with Giles to raise money for her defense?

The Harshbarger report proves not only that ACORN is not guilty of breaking the law, it also proves that conservative media like Fox IS guilty of suppressing the truth.

The Felons Of Fox News: Glenn Beck’s Blind Spot

Posted by on December 8, 2009 at 7:44 pm. 4 Comments :

For two days now, Glenn Beck has aimed his goofball dementia at what he hopes will be his next Van Jones. Beck is employing all of the same smear tactics that prodded a weak White House into jettisoning Jones even though the circumstances are not remotely similar.

Chief amongst these tactics is calling your target a convicted felon over and over again as if your audience were mentally incapable of grasping a thought without repeated hammering. Well, Beck obviously knows his audience. However, Jones was never a convicted felon (which Beck recently acknowledged after months of lying), and Robert Creamer, Beck’s latest target, can’t be fired because he doesn’t work for the administration.

Robert Creamer is longtime activist and the author “Stand Up Straight: How Progressives Can Win.” He is also married to Democratic representative Jan Schakowsky (whose name Beck thought it would be funny to mock). The double infraction of being a progressive and related to a Democrat was all that was needed for Beck to go bonkers.

On a tip from his pet propagandist, Andrew Breitbart, Beck laid into Creamer for having been convicted of financial charges in connection with a non-profit organization that Creamer ran. As per Beck’s modus operandi, he related a thoroughly dishonest version of Creamer’s past, accusing him of stealing from the group he was heading. In fact, Creamer pleaded guilty to check kiting in an attempt to help his struggling organization to continue providing services. The judge even cited the fact that none of Creamer’s unlawful activities benefited him personally as justification for a lenient sentence. But far be it from Beck to let facts get in the way of a good smear campaign.

Now, this being Glenn Beck, it certainly is not enough to slander and lie about an obscure activist and author. To really make it worthwhile it has to be tied to a global, socialist conspiracy, preferably involving the President. This is where Breitbart comes in with his tip that Creamer had attended an event at the White House. That was all that was necessary for Beck to connect the dots and conclude that Barack Obama is fraternizing with convicted felons (in addition to the radical communists and the terrorists he has been known to pal around with).

Glenn Beck, of course, is pure as the driven snow in this regard. He would never associate with convicted felons. Never mind that he himself is an unconvicted felon, as he has admitted to using copious amounts of drugs. He never got caught, and therein must lie the difference. And he had this to say on the subject of felonious literature:

“Obama – He must read a lot of books, cause I read a lot of books and I don’t usually get to the ones that were written by…uh…felons, that were written in prison.”

That’s too bad, because Beck must therefore not have gotten to books written by Martin Luther King, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, Malcolm X, or Nelson Mandela. He must also have missed the literary musings of people like St. Paul, Mahatma Gandhi, and Jesus Christ, all of whom have suffered incarceration and have either written, or been written about, extensively. These are the sort of people that I’m sure Beck would object to being on a White House guest list.

Here are a few more books Beck must not get around to: Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau, Letters and Papers from Prison by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Le Morte d’Arthur, by Sir Thomas Malory, Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes, Pilgrim’s Progress, by John Bunyan, A Hymn to the Pillory, by Daniel Defoe. It’s safe to assume that Beck is not particularly literate.

So that brings us to the caliber of people for whom Beck does have high regard. People like convicted felon, Oliver North; convicted felon, G. Gordon Liddy, and convicted felon, Mark Fuhrman. All of these folks not only have criminal records but they are also Beck’s colleagues at Fox News. Liddy is the spokesperson for one of Beck’s most frequent advertisers (a gold scam). Other Fox personnel who have had brushes with the law include Judith Miller and Shepard Smith. And I wouldn’t want to leave out prostitute toe-sucking pundit Dick Morris. These are all people with whom Beck has ongoing relationships, not casual encounters at a party. I wonder when he will do a couple of days of programs about any of them.

Beck appears to be obsessed with the prison aspect of this story. Aside from repeating it incessantly for his addle-brained viewers, he now calls the health insurance reform bill being debated in Congress the “Prison Bill,” because it has something to do with the book Creamer wrote, which was allegedly written in prison, and is somehow the basis for the bill, except that that’s not actually true, and…oh…I don’t really have any idea why he calls it that. I’d need more background in clinical psychology to be able to figure out Beck’s labyrinthine thought processes. He probably just liked the sound of it, and thought it would make a good cudgel with which to bash the President. Any deeper analysis of Beck’s psychosis will have to come from a professional. I sure hope he finds one.

Fox Nation Finger Bangs Obama

Posted by on December 7, 2009 at 2:49 pm. 3 Comments :

Alas, technology has not yet developed a measuring device strong enough to gauge the stupidity of the Fox Nation, its partners, and the community it hosts.

Obama FingerFeatured today on Fox Nation is a story asking whether President Obama gave the finger to a guest in the audience. This controversy was triggered by video of the President scratching his head. To the Fox Nationalists this is a cryptic, Da Vinci coded gesture of disdain. Apparently Fox is now forming strategic political direction by watching episodes of Seinfeld. Thank goodness Fox Nation was there with their secret decoder rings to capture the incident.

The Fox Nation story linked to a post on the uber-rightist Breitbart web site where the FingerGate scandal has blown up into near Balloon Boy proportions. This is not simply an itchy eyebrow at issue. It is a covert master plan to flip off America and impose a tyrannical dictatorship, or something. And you’ve got to “hand” it to the Fox Nationalist/Breitbart/Tea Bagger crowd for turning this into a racial cesspool and a platform for (once again) advocating assassination.

This is becoming more and more representative of the level of discourse from this pathetic throng of losers. They have already tried to make federal cases out of phony death panels, presidential bowing scandals, child indoctrination via stay-in-school speeches, White House guest lists, and how many pages a bill contains. The ever more lame content of their complaints reveals just how desperate they are to come up with something about which to bitch.

There is an obvious evolution of lameness on the right. In the old days they employed the primitive flag lapel pin gambit. Then they tacked to the War on Christmas. And there is the always popular idiocy of “Who would you rather have a beer with?” But now they have shattered all previous records if idiotic asininity with the ticklish temple tactic.

Next on the Republican scandal agenda: How often does Obama floss? I probably shouldn’t give them any ideas.

SNL Faceoff: Victoria Jackson vs. Al Franken

Posted by on July 8, 2009 at 11:05 am. 7 Comments :

Andrew Breitbart’s Big Hollywood is providing us with an intimate look into what has become of a couple of former Saturday Night Live cast members and how their paths have diverged.

First we have Al Franken who holds a degree from Harvard in political science. And while he ended up pursuing a career in comedy, he often featured political content in his work, hosted a radio show on Air America, and authored several books. In short, he was never too far from his academic focus or from the public debate over important issues that faced our nation.

Then there is Victoria Jackson. Jackson is a graduate of Palm Beach Atlantic University, a faith-based institution, where she received a degree in theater. She achieved star status by reciting poetry while doing handstands and portraying an array of ditzy blonds.

Franken went on to become a United States senator. Jackson went on to appearances on Pat Robertson’s 700 Club and a reality TV show for overweight celebrities (Celebrity Fit Club).

Now we can see an example of Jackson’s unique insight into public affairs and political discourse in an article written for Breitbart’s Big Hollywood. Amongst her revelations are accusations that “Obama legally kills babies and now he can legally kill Grandmas!” She continues…

“Hitler did this. He killed the weak, the sick, the old, and babies and races/religions he didn’t like. Hitler also controlled the media. (Where’s the public debate between scientists on ‘Climate Change/Global Warming?’) Hitler had the VW bug invented as the state car. What will O’s nationalized car be? So… kill off the weak. That’s the plan. Tax the workers to death. Erase the middle class. Sounds like the evil governments we studied in high school long ago. The evil governments were : kings, oligarchies, facist, socialist, and communist. Now it’s called the Obama Administration. Sounds like candy or a rock band.”

Jackson is just another in the lengthening list of Tea Baggers who compare Obama to Hitler. But she does so in a distinctly demented tone that disparages Volkswagons, puts climate change deniers on equal footing with peer-reviewed scientists, and seems to think that the Democrats’ proposals to rollback tax cuts for the rich is somehow going to harm workers and the middle class.

To top it off, Jackson relates a tale wherein she harangues the proprietor of gift shop in Burbank with her paranoid delusions. She is surprised that the store’s owner and employees are less than anxious to jump on to her crazy train. After failing repeatedly to get a rise out these poor folks, she writes that she drove away thinking “Ignorance is Bliss.”

She oughta know.