Posted by Mark NC on September 27, 2012 at 10:51 am.
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A new video is trending on the InterTubes that features Oscar-winning actor Samuel L. Jackson in a parody of the bestseller “Go the F**k to Sleep” by Adam Mansbach. The video follows Jackson and a young girl warning her family that this election is too important to become complacent. It’s not safe for work, and also hilarious.
So queue up the right-wing outrage over a liberal from Hollywood unleashing a string of (bleeped) profanities. The conservative blogosphere is aghast at this display of uncivil language.
Which is funny because they absolutely worship Ted Nugent when he does it. Here is a video of him threatening President Obama, and Senators Boxer and Feinstein with machine guns while calling them “piece[s] of shit” and “worthless whores.”
Nugent: I was in Chicago last week I said, “Hey Obama, you might want to suck on one of these, you punk?” Obama, he’s a piece of sh*t and I told him to suck on one of my machine guns. Let’s hear it for them. I was in New York and I said, “Hey Hillary, you might want to ride one of these into the sunset you worthless bitch.” Since I’m in California, I’m gonna find Barbara Boxer she might wanna suck on my machine guns. Hey, Dianne Feinstein, ride one of these you worthless whore.
And don’t forget that Mitt Romney actively solicited (and received) Nugent’s endorsement for president, but has never repudiated these remarks. In fact, he seems to be completely OK with Nugent’s performance as his surrogate. He never complained about his either:
There’s nothing subtle, creative, or humorous about the way these miscreants communicate their hate. It’s just a load of the sort of vacant bravado that appeals to Republicans. They cheered when bush stood on a mound of rubble on 9/11 shaking his fist at the terrorists, even though he failed to bring them to justice, as Obama did. They admire chickenhawks who advocate for more and bigger wars, but who have never served in the military. Both Nugent and Romney went to great lengths to evade military service. It’s typical of their mind-numbing hypocrisy and, now they present another example of just how detached they are from reality.
Last March Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney personally solicited the endorsement of washed-up raunch-rocker, and demented pseudo-patriot Ted Nugent. At the time Nugent disclosed Romney had phoned him and that “after a long heart&soul conversation with MittRomney…I endorsed him.”
Last week Nugent appeared at a senile rockers concert in Ft. Worth and delivered a message to the audience that was really meant for people who wouldn’t be caught dead (literally) at a Nugent affair:
“I vow that I will use our freedom to get these dirty c*ck-suckers out of the White House. The president is a bad man. The vice president is a bad man. They’re all bad people. If you don’t get that, you’re a dead motherf*cker.”
It is not particularly noteworthy that Nugent said something hostile and stupid. He rarely says anything else. But somebody needs to hold Romney accountable for the sort of people who he has embraced as his surrogates. Nugent’s latest tantrum is obviously profane in the extreme, but it also borders on terrorism. What exactly does he mean when he says that people who “don’t get that” are “dead.”
This is a man who has made openly hostile threats before. Last April he earned a visit from the Secret Service for saying “If Barack Obama becomes the President in November again, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year.” And then there was his notorious meltdown at a concert in Chicago where he brandished automatic weapons and shouted…
“Hey Obama, you might want to suck on one of these, you punk? Obama, he’s a piece of sh*t and I told him to suck on one of my machine guns. Let’s hear it for them. I was in New York and I said, ‘Hey Hillary, you might want to ride one of these into the sunset you worthless bitch.’ Since I’m in California, I’m gonna find Barbara Boxer she might wanna suck on my machine guns. Hey, Dianne Feinstein, ride one of these you worthless whore.”
President Obama is constantly hounded by the press any time a remotely liberal person says something that Tea-publicans find offensive, even if the speaker has no relationship to Obama or his campaign. But Nugent was personally selected by Romney to represent his candidacy, yet he is never asked to repudiate Nugent’s abhorrent behavior. That’s the “liberal” media for you.
OK, I know. Ted Nugent is about as foul and depraved an individual as you’re ever likely to encounter. He is the guy who raged through a profanity-laced tirade that threatened perverse assaults on Hillary Clinton and Diane Feinstein. He’s the guy who implied that he would resort to violence, and possibly assassination, if President Obama is reelected. He’s the guy who Mitt Romney sought out for an endorsement. And now this…
“Because our legislative, judicial and executive branches of government hold the 10th Amendment in contempt, I’m beginning to wonder if it would have been best had the South won the Civil War. Our Founding Fathers’ concept of limited government is dead.”
So Ted Nugent thinks that everything might be better if the South had won the Civil War? Nugent must be terribly disappointed that slavery was abolished and that the union was preserved.
Nugent’s grotesque remarks were published in his regular column for the “Moonie” Washington Times. The article is his response to the Supreme Court’s decision on ObamaCare. But his logic is unfathomable. He seems to think that a limited government is one that permits the ownership of human beings. If the Founding Fathers’ concept of allowing such atrocities is dead, that’s for the better. How can anyone argue against that?
In addition to his repugnant advocacy of slavery, Nugent expresses his desire to end some other popular programs. He contends that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are more “unaffordable, unsustainable, runaway, unaccountable social program[s].” He attacks Chief Justice Roberts saying that he “engineered the ultimate demise of this great experiment in self- government.” It’s startling how wingnut cases like Nugent can argue that democracy is imperiled by ObamaCare when it was passed by a popularly elected congress, signed by an elected president, and affirmed as constitutional by justices who were confirmed by elected senators. At which point in the process was self-government hampered?
This is just another in a long series of heinous outbursts by Nugent. Yet Mitt Romeny, who has embraced Nugent’s support, has never repudiated any of these vile, violent, and unpatriotic sentiments. The media always seems to hold Obama accountable for commentaries from anyone perceived to have even a slight leftward tilt – even when those people have no association with the President or his campaign. When will the media hold Romney accountable for one of his most prominent and contemptible surrogates?
Posted by Mark NC on April 22, 2012 at 3:16 pm.
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The army base at Fort Knox announced today that they will not permit Ted Nugent to play at a scheduled concert there with fellow 70’s rockers REO Speedwagon and Styx. They posted the announcement on their Facebook page saying…
“After learning of opening act Ted Nugent’s recent public comments about the president of the United States, Fort Knox leadership decided to cancel his performance on the installation.”
That seems to be a fairly responsible course of action. It would be unseemly, to say the least, to sanction the appearance on base of someone who casually refers to the Commander-in-Chief as a vile, America-hating, criminal. Nugent told an audience at the recent convention of the National Rifle Association that he would be either “dead or in jail” by this time next year if Obama is re-elected. Without meaning to, Nugent gave the American people another good reason to vote for Obama.
I’m still amazed that the pseudo-patriots of the right can get so incensed by the Dixie Chicks saying merely that they were ashamed to be from the same state as Bush, but those same patriopathic zealots applaud far more derogatory language by nutcases like Nugent.
This past weekend there was a media feasting on a few poorly chosen words by CNN commentator Hilary Rosen. Although Rosen is not a representative of President Obama’s administration or campaign, the President and his staff was hounded for reactions and responses to her comments. Republican operatives and media flacks spent countless hours falsely asserting that Obama was in some way responsible for Rosen’s opinions.
OK then, let’s have some fairness and balance. This weekend another political partisan had a few things to say about the upcoming election. Washed-up, geriatric rocker, Ted Nugent appeared at the NRA conference in St. Louis and what he had to say ought to have similar repercussions for Romney. His unhinged rant was an onslaught of invective wherein he called the President and others in the administration “evil” and “vile,” and he spoke of his desire to oust “the enemies in the White House.” Here are a few more choice moments from his psychotic spewing:
“If you don’t know that our government is wiping its ass with the constitution, you’re living under a rock someplace.”
“We’ve got four Supreme Court justices who don’t believe in the constitution.”
“If Barack Obama becomes the President in November again, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year.”
“Our President, Attorney General, our Vice-President, Hillary Clinton – they’re criminals.”
“We need to ride into the battlefield and chop their heads off in November.”
“It’s as Nazi Germany as it gets.”
“We need to become warriors on the streets of America.”
These remarks run the gamut from merely disrespectful to hostile to treasonous. And this is not coming from an unassociated cable news talking head, Nugent is a Romney advocate whose endorsement Romney purposefully solicited. Last month Nugent Tweeted his support after a personal call from Romney:
“after a long heart&soul conversation with MittRomney today I concluded this goodman will properly represent we the people & I endorsed him”
At the time I wondered whether the media would hold Romney accountable for actively seeking the endorsement of a psychopath who has threatened the President and others with assassination. Apparently the media wasn’t interested. However, after the press’ mobbing of Rosen you might think that they would expect similar responses from Romney for what his campaign surrogate says.
The differences in the way that the press handle these situations should put an end to any talk of the so-called liberal media. Nugent’s violent and revolting rhetoric (which he means sincerely) far exceeds the comparatively tame opinions of Rosen (which were misconstrued). And Romney ought not to be allowed to evade questions on the matter.
[Update] New York Magazine contacted the Secret Service with regard to Nugent’s threats and they confirm that “We are aware of it, and we’ll conduct an appropriate follow up.”
Here is a highlight reel of Nugent’s remarks (and if you have the stomach for it, here is the whole thing[Note: The NRA has removed this video]).
The likely GOP nominee for president of the United States, Mitt Romney, already has some pretty repellent supporters, including Birther King Donald Trump and the abhorrent Ann Coulter. But it seems impossible to come up with someone more repulsive than Romney’s newest endorser, the incontinent Ted Nugent.
With the recent ruckus being made over Rush Limbaugh’s blatantly misogynistic attack on Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown University law student, it should not be forgotten that Ted Nugent is no slouch when it comes to hating and insulting women. The cover for his album “Love Grenade” features a nude woman on a platter, in bondage like a pig, with a hand grenade in her mouth. It is an undisguised fantasy of dominance and violence. Yet this is the man that Romney personally solicited for support. He granted Nugent some portion of his scarce time on the campaign trail to persuade the schlock-rocker to endorse him. Nugent was convinced and proudly Tweeted…
after a long heart&soul conversation with MittRomney today I concluded this goodman will properly represent we the people & I endorsed him
The question that must arise for the media is whether Romney will be held to account for actively seeking the endorsement of a psychopath who has threatened the President and others with assassination in a vulgar public display of hatred and overt hostility. Let’s go to the videotape:
And the transcript:
Nugent: I was in Chicago last week I said, “Hey Obama, you might want to suck on one of these, you punk?” Obama, he’s a piece of shit and I told him to suck on one of my machine guns. Let’s hear it for them. I was in New York and I said, “Hey Hillary, you might want to ride one of these into the sunset you worthless bitch.” Since I’m in California, I’m gonna find Barbara Boxer she might wanna suck on my machine guns. Hey, Dianne Feinstein, ride one of these you worthless whore.
That’s the caliber of man from whom Mitt Romney went out of his way to secure an endorsement. This was not some random, unsolicited freak who confessed his adoration for the candidate, and over whom Romney had no control. Nugent was a prize that Romney actively pursued. Nugent even told reporters that he had compelled Romney to pledge that there would be no new gun laws or regulations during his administration. So Romney has not just begged for this endorsement, he has traded policy positions for it. And this particular position is especially troubling considering Nugent’s preoccupation with guns and politicians he doesn’t like.
Is anyone in the press paying attention? If the shameful obscenities were not enough to warrant further inquiry into this relationship, then surely the flagrantly hostile rhetoric ought to be. There is absolutely no excuse for this sort of vilification to be used in the political arena. Reasonable candidates should shun people like Nugent, not court them. Mitt Romney has to be made to answer for this, and the press should do their job to see to it that he does.
The busy news fictionalizers at Fox Nation are hard at work this Saturday creating the stream of asinine idiotainment that their glassy-eyed readers demand. Here is an abridged selection of what Fox regards as newsworthy reporting today:
Starting off with a hard-hitting investigative news item, the Fox Nationalists uncover a juicy morsel about a new Obama campaign hire. Apparently this low-level social media promoter in a Wisconsin campaign office used to be employed by Charlie Sheen. That automatically makes him the subject of ridicule deserving of taunts from the Fox family of dimwits. No matter what you think of Sheen, his social media presence is impressive. He has 6.7 million followers on Twitter and 2.3 million people “LIKE” his page on Facebook. Anyone who contributed to that success could be a real asset for any political campaign.
On the other hand, in the world of unfortunate associations, Mitt Romney has picked up the endorsement of the incontinent Ted Nugent. It will be interesting to hear Romney defend Nugent’s assassination threats against President Obama, Hillary Clinton, and senators Feinstein and Boxer (if anyone in the media has the integrity to ask him).
Nugent: I was in Chicago last week I said, “Hey Obama, you might want to suck on one of these, you punk?” Obama, he’s a piece of shit and I told him to suck on one of my machine guns. Let’s hear it for them. I was in New York and I said, “Hey Hillary, you might want to ride one of these into the sunset you worthless bitch.” Since I’m in California, I’m gonna find Barbara Boxer she might wanna suck on my machine guns. Hey, Dianne Feinstein, ride one of these you worthless whore.
Fox Nation continued its quest for journalistic malpractice with a story it headlined: Memo: Obama To Raise Taxes For Middle Class If Re-Elected. The source to which Fox linked was an article at a web site called WeaselZippers. That should be the first sign of its credibility. The truth behind the data that Fox is deliberately misconstruing is related to the tax cuts for the wealthy that Bush pushed through more than a decade ago with a sunset provision that has already passed. It was Bush who predetermined that taxes would go back up. Obama has repeatedly tried to cut a deal where only the tax cuts for the rich would expire, but the GOP has fought him every step of the way.
The next story is one that tries to imply that Obama’s Department of Justice is aligning itself with Taliban terrorists. Just how stupid do they think their readers are? (Don’t answer that). The real story is that an attorney who has been working for the DOJ for three years has been promoted as a result of his exemplary performance. In his role as the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, Tony West “recovered more than $8.8 billion in taxpayer money, the highest three-year total in department history.” One of the many things that the right-wingnuts never understand about the Constitution is that every defendant is entitled to representation. It is the foundation of our justice system. And trying to smear an attorney for carrying out his constitutional obligations is reprehensible.
Finally, the Fox Nationalists were kind enough to post a link to the GOP response to Obama’s weekly address. But astute observers will note that they never posted a link to the address that the GOP were responding to. You know, the one Obama delivered. It’s like posting the answer to a question without ever posting the question. Fox is valiantly protecting its readers from any exposure to information that would give them a full and complete understanding of current events. That explains why they are so pitifully ignorant. Thank Fox’s dedication to fairness and balance for that. Here, by the way, is the Obama video:
Ordinarily I wouldn’t go out of my way to chastise celebrities for articulating an opinion. In fact, I believe that artists were meant to express themselves and that they are capable of shaping insights in ways that enable people to relate. Contrary to the censorious right-wingers who reduce artists to court jesters whose only value is to amuse, I support the rights and obligations of all people to exercise their freedom of speech – even artists who are often the best at doing so.
However, the uber-conservative magazine Human Events posted another typical rightist paean to the “shut up and sing” nonsense practiced by society’s self-appointed defenders of virtue and approved thought. Their slate of “The Eight Most Irritating Liberal Celebrities” contains some of the brightest and most charitable people in the entertainment business, including in descending order:
Robert Redford
Matt Damon
Al Gore
Janeane Garofalo
Joy Behar
Michael Moore
Rosie O’Donnell
Roger Ebert
Suffice it to say that Human Events took liberties with the facts. They disparaged these fine, talented people with innuendo and misrepresented their positions and thoughts. They resorted to juvenile insults akin to calling people dumb or fat. They even mocked Ebert’s recent bout with cancer.
Since these are some of the most popular public figures of the day, America doesn’t seem to agree with the folks at Human Events. The irony of that is made clearer when you compare them their counterparts on the right. And therefore, I give you my list of…
The Eight Most Irritating Conservative Celebrities:
Ben Stein
This hybrid actor/pundit’s career was literally built on his being irritating (Bueller?). In the years following that electrifying debut, Stein escalated the breadth of his annoying personality to embrace a free market fantasy that revealed the shallowness of his reputed expertise in economics. Throw in a heap of sexism and a willingness to whore himself out as a spokesperson for disreputable credit schemes and you have a recipe for chronic distemper.
Mel Gibson
Gibson demonstrated his theatrical gifts early in his career. His roles in “The Year of Living Dangerously” and “Mad Max” proved he could tackle depth, action, and humor. Unfortunately, his filmography after that became an almost non-stop succession of vengeance, violence, and scenery chomping as a stand-in for emoting. But what’s worse was his submersion into cultist Christianity and anti-Antisemitism. Nothing is quite as irritating as overt hate-speech.
Chuck Norris
Having to watch this no-talent hack embarrass himself through his atrocious movies is bad enough. But having to endure him on the campaign trail is just cruel. His lame attempts to portray Mike Huckabee as a superhero fell as flat as the notion of himself still claiming that mantle despite his advanced age and decrepitude.
Stephen Baldwin
What can I say? Baldwin was never not irritating. He built on that reputation by starring in unreality shows and begging for donations to “restore” himself from bankruptcy. Clearly Stephen’s brothers hogged all the talent in the family and selfishly left him a miserable loser and a wretched failure. Come to think of it, he may be more pathetic than irritating.
Jon Voight
This one-hit wonder has managed to keep his name in the papers by having a very public feud with his more famous (and more talented) daughter, Angelina Jolie, and by drinking the Glenn Beck Kool-Aid by the gallon. With a prominent ignorance of history and government, Voight still mouths off about socialist conspiracies and Constitutional abuses that exist only his Beck-infected brain.
Dennis Miller
One of the saddest stories in the entertainment world is the tale of the once promising newcomer who winds up a pathetic has-been and resorts to desperately grasping for attention by any means he can muster. Even if it means becoming a toady for the likes of Bill O’Reilly and dressing up as a born again neo-con. Miller’s new persona is devoutly conservative, but he retains his penchant for indecipherably obscure references. Listening to him is like sitting through a Xenophanic allocution on Byzantine incandescence.
Ted Nugent
Approaching the nadir of irritatability is the Motor City Jackass himself. Nugent has become a cartoonish proponent of guns and animal massacre. His rants against government spending and social welfare are high decibel testimonials to selfishness and coldhearted disinterest in anyone less fortunate than he is. During the 2008 campaign Nugent brandished machine guns on stage and made obscene threats directed at Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and other Democrats. His behavior crossed the line from irritating to abusive, hostile, and unconscionably grotesque.
Victoria Jackson
To wit…..
Nuff said.
If the editors at Human Events want to get into this battle they first need to explain how they can criticize the left for embracing their Hollywood allies, while simultaneously latching on to their own decidedly less talented batch of elitists. They ought to think twice before provoking a “Battle of the Irritating Stars.” when they have a far more annoying roster of vexatious celebrities. And it is notable that most of their idols are rejects who have no current career opportunities save for appearances on Fox News and at Tea Parties.
[Update] Tim Graham, the Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center, has posted a response to this article at NewsBusters. He took a shot at me, referring to News Corpse as a “vicious media-criticism website.” I regard this as a compliment considering the source. NewsBusters is the model for vicious media-criticism websites.
Time Magazine once again brings us their list of the 100 most influential people of the year. And once again they include some sour notes that evoke a tortured combination of laughter and groans. By naming Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck as “most influential” Time is courageously cutting against the grain. After all, Palin received the Lie of the Year award from Politifact last year. And Beck was Media Matters’ Misinformer of the Year. But perhaps the funniest part of this year’s worst honorees is the people selected to honor them.
Sarah Palin, number nine on the list, received an adoring tribute from the Motor City Jackass, Ted Nugent. Palin must be so proud to be praised by the has-been rocker whose last album featured a woman in bondage, on a platter like a pig, with a hand grenade stuck in her mouth. Also, during the last presidential campaign Nugent said this while brandishing a couple of assault weapons:
Nugent: I was in Chicago last week I said, “Hey Obama, you might want to suck on one of these, you punk?” Obama, he’s a piece of shit and I told him to suck on one of my machine guns. Let’s hear it for them. I was in New York and I said, “Hey Hillary, you might want to ride one of these into the sunset you worthless bitch.” Since I’m in California, I’m gonna find Barbara Boxer she might wanna suck on my machine guns. Hey, Dianne Feinstein, ride one of these you worthless whore.
Ted Nugent was obviously the best qualified person to represent the political philosophy of Palin, especially her commitment to equal rights and respect for women. In his commentary he even had the guts to praise Palin for her “herculean work ethic,” by which he must mean her decision to quit halfway through the gubernatorial post to which she was elected so that she could stuff her pockets full of cash.
Glenn Beck got an even more fitting tribute from an even bigger jackass – Sarah Palin. Beck was lauded by Palin as a “history buff,” and “America’s professor of common sense.” That’s mighty high praise coming from someone who couldn’t cite a single magazine that she read, and who thinks that the Constitution gives the vice-president authority over the Senate.
“Glenn’s like the high school government teacher so many wish they’d had, charting and connecting ideas with chalk-dusted fingers – kicking it old school – instead of becoming just another talking-heads show host.”
Excuse me, Sarah. But Glenn Beck IS just another talking-heads show host. What exactly do you think he does for a living? And I don’t know anyone who wishes they had Beck as high school government teacher. Certainly not anyone who was actually interested in learning. There may have been some who thought he would be an easy grader since he wouldn’t have known any of the correct answers himself. And if his fingers were dusted with anything, it would have been cocaine.
Nevertheless, Time has seen fit to honor both Palin and Beck. It’s hard to see what Time regards as influential when both of these people have higher unfavorable ratings than favorable, and most of the country/world pays them no attention at all. Even a majority of Republicans think that Palin is unqualified to be president and Fox News left Beck off of their new ad promoting the network as “The Most Powerful Name In News.”
But that’s Time Magazine and the liberal media for ya.
The economy continues to spiral downward in the U.S. and the world. Nearly a million Americans have lost their jobs just this year. Trillions of dollars in value have been lost in retirement and pension funds. Home foreclosures long ago surpassed all-time highs. Close to 50 million Americans have no health insurance. But why focus on the negative?
In some quarters there is good news and unreserved celebration. That’s because there is an unshakable bull market in Fox News Pundits (Or should I say bullshit market?). In just the past few weeks Bill O’Reilly signed a four year contract extension for more than $10 million annually. Sean Hannity re-signed a multimillion dollar per year contract for TV, plus another $20 million for his radio show. Glenn Beck will receive millions more for his new Fox hackfest. Neil Cavuto’s income leapt when he was promoted to managing editor of the Fox Business Network (the “Business-Friendly Business Network”) In addition, Mike Huckabee, Judith Miller, and Karl Rove, were all hired on as Fox contributors within the last year.
So when you hear the elitists at Fox dismiss the severity of this downturn, when you hear them say that things aren’t really so bad, remember that what they are really saying is that things aren’t really so bad for them. It’s easy for them to be stoic in the face of adversity when they are raking in more millions every year. Their mansions and limos and vacation villas are as glamorous as ever.
They have absolutely no sense of the loss or pain or sacrifice that the rest of us are suffering through. And yet they will continue to pretend to speak for us. They will push their phony arguments as fighting for the average Joe (Six-pack, Plumber, Blow, or whatever). They will soft-peddle the crisis and project blame on the lazy, and the irresponsible and, of course, on Barack Obama. Just minutes ago Cavuto did just that, saying that the markets were reacting to Obama’s comments on “spreading the wealth.” For confirmation, Cavuto then turned to well known financial experts Joe the Plumber and Ted Nugent. Seriously!?! That’s the sort of ludicrous financial analysis you can expect from Fox.
For the record, a little over a year ago Cavuto, disputed reports of the economy’s weakness saying that he “[didn’t] believe a word of it.” Bill O’Reilly, recently asserted that the market was tanking because traders were pricing in a presumed Obama victory in November. He also foolishly claims that the drop in the stock prices of GE and the New York Times affirms his positions opposing them. But the stock of Fox News’ parent company, News Corp., has fallen even farther than either of them, so whatever O’Reilly thinks is wrong with GE and the Times, it is even more wrong at Fox. Here’s the real reason for the market’s decline.
In the end, these disingenuous con men have no frame of reference for what ordinary Americans are experiencing. They only have their comforting wealth and their rightist agenda that is focused exclusively on enriching themselves and their friends. And anyone who believes that these impostors are advocating on their behalf is terminally naive.
Ordinarily I wouldn’t go out of my way to chastise celebrities for articulating an opinion. In fact, I believe that artists were meant to express themselves and that they are capable of shaping insights in ways that enable people to relate. Contrary to the censorious right-wingers who reduce artists to court jesters whose only value is to amuse, I support the rights and obligations of all people to exercise their freedom of speech – even artists who are often the best at doing so.