After LL Cool J called Fox News out for trying to sell Sarah Palin’s Real American Stories clip show as new programming, the network responded by claiming that LL does not want to inspire people and took at jab at his acting career. LL’s real motivation was not his concern about inspiration, but the idea that people were going to be fooling into watching an old clipped interview hosted by Palin.
Fox News keeps trying to spin itself away from Tea Party violence. The latest example came tonight on The O’Reilly Factor as host Bill O’Reilly made the claim that MSNBC engages in hate speech and promotes violence. O’Reilly said, “You’re talking about MSNBC and they traffic in hate speech from sign on to sign off.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham was on NBC’s Meet The Press today where he maintained his conservative stance on health care, but he took a moment to criticize the right wing rhetoric on Obama and racism of the Tea Party. Graham said, “When you use the N word and when you question somebody’s patriotism, you’re off base. President Obama is a fine man. He’s a good father. He’s a good role model.”
In a desperate attempt to explain away the violent actions of the Tea Party, Fox News contributor Liz Trotta claimed the left wing invented violent dissent. No, really, Trotta said, “You know the left wing virtually invented violent dissent during the 1960’s.” In the bizzaro world of Fox News people like Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy invented violent dissent.
During her speech at the Tea Party Express rally in Searchlight, NV today, Fox News employee Sarah Palin blamed the media for her target list and her violent rhetoric. Palin said, “It’s a bunch of bunk what the media is trying to feed you. Don’t let them distract you from the debate.” Media criticisms aren’t nearly effective when they come from someone who makes their living on cable news.
As Sarah Palin basks in both the cash of and the love from the Tea Party, a new Washington Post poll reveals that her political popularity among the nation as a whole has never been lower. Conservative Republicans give her a 71% approval rating and tea partiers put her at 60%, but the nation as a whole gives her only a 37% approval rating, and a 55% disapproval rating.
Leave it to the tea party to turn the original intent of Woodstock, peace, love, and music into an excuse to beat down dissent. According to MSNBC’s Contessa Brewer the tea partiers in Mesa, NV got rough with hecklers, as one heckler was drug out by the arm, and another by the hair, because nothing says freedom like beating down dissent.
Fox News is spending the day, amping up the tea party rage for the protest in Senate Majority leader Harry Reid’s hometown. Host Neal Cavuto spoke to former vice president Dan Quayle who said, “God bless these folks,” and he proclaimed them a, “not so silent majority.” When a movement’s intellectual leaders are Dan Quayle and Sarah Palin, it has some really big problems.
Sarah Palin’s ties with the AIP (which itself has strong ties with white supremacists groups, the same groups the Secret Service blamed for the death threats against candidate Obama) should have been a warning about what kind of person she was, but the media were charmed by her folksy mom image. And while Americans finally decided she was unqualified to be Vice President, they never got a glimpse of the real Sarah. The real Sarah is a dangerous extremist. And she has the past to prove it.
While fear mongering about health care on his radio show with Noel Sheppard from Newsbusters, Glenn Beck said, “I don’t believe liberals have hearts. No, no, no, they have hearts. They have no brains.” Interestingly enough, liberals were smart enough to beat Beck and his mindless followers on health care, so if liberals lack brains, what does that make him?
Righteous Eric Cantor claimed yesterday that his office was the target of gun violence. I wondered at the time the teabaggers may have shot at his office, seeing as they are now furious with Republicans for allowing a “Marxist Socialist Nazi†to “take over†the healthcare sector. But whose fault is that? They wouldn’t be so angry if Republicans hadn’t been lying to them for so long. So how would that have made the violence equal, if in fact, he had been targeted by the teabaggers? You lay down with dogs….Just to be sure, I checked Palin’s target map and I didn’t see Eric name on there anywhere. And then I remembered how Republicans love to play victim as soon as the heat gets turned up on them. Unfortunately for Cantor, the police don’t concur with his version of events. So much for Cantor’s desperate attempt to take cover for being a bully by hopping on the victim bus.
When I started politicususa is the spring of 2008, I didn’t know what to expect. I had been a political columnist and editor for the previous four years, but heading out on my own was an uncertain prospect at best. I launched the site and within a few weeks, it began to outperform all of…
On his radio show today Rush Limbaugh backed out of his promise to leave the country and move to Costa Rica if health care reform passed. Limbaugh said that he never said that he was going to move there but that, “Once all this gets implemented, I am going there for my health care.” Apparently, Limbaugh’s trip to Costa Rica will happen at the same time Sean Hannity gets waterboarded.
McCain is everywhere this post-healthcare reform passage morning. McCain is apparently feelin’ rather badly for himself and his party, as his main message today is “Everything we did wrong in the last year, we’re going to do more of! We’re going to run on repealing healthcare reform. We’re not going to be a part of any solutions. And lastly, I am bringing Palin back for another Hail Mary next week.â€
On the day after the House passage of health care reform, denial is running rampant through the right wing. Sarah Palin took to her Facebook page today to continue to lie about health care reform. She said, “It was supposed to make health care more affordable, but our premiums will continue to go up. It was supposed to help more people get coverage, but there will still be 23 million uninsured people by 2019.” Of course, none of this is true.
For almost a year and a half Republicans have been nurturing a dream that they could turn Barack Obama into Jimmy Carter by stopping the passage of health care reform, but with the House passage of the health care bill by a vote of , Republicans have not only seen their dream of turning Obama into a one termer shatter, but have in fact made him stronger through their obstructionist opposition. Their dream is dead, and Obama remains strong.
Fox News continued today their last ditch attempt to muster hatred against democracy and the passage of the health care reform bill. In an interesting bit of propaganda during America Live, the network went to commercial by showing angry tea partiers chanting kill the bill. Only most mentally challenged could miss the point of this blatant Fox News propaganda message.
On C-SPAN’s Washington Journal this morning Rep. David Nunes (R-CA) expressed his approval of tea party protesters who shouted faggot at Rep. Barney Frank and nigger at Rep. John Lewis. Nunes said, “Yeah, well I think that when you use totalitarian tactics, people, you know, begin to act crazy.” Racism and homophobia have nothing to do with health care, but everything to do with the tea party movement.
There was an undeniable tone of victory in President Obama’s remarks today to the House Democratic caucus. Obama not only urged the Congressional Democrats to finish the job, but he also took the fear mongering tactics of his GOP critics to task. Obama said, “They know that after this legislation passes and after I sign this bill, lo and behold, nobody is pulling the plug on Granny.”
In an interview that will air on CBS’ 60 Minutes on Sunday night, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel waded into the civil war that is going on within the Republican Party. Emanuel refused to identify the tea partiers by name, but he described the state of the GOP as being, “at the behest of a fringe group that’s taken control of their own party and their own leaders are scared of it.”
The half-term governor of Alaska who quit mid-term due to an inability to get her agenda passed and indeed, even her own Attorney General nominated (a first in Alaska), strikes out at Obama, calling him “inexperienced†and unable to get a bi-partisan bill due to his “lack of management experience.”
Some more of that Fox News fairness and balance was on display today as President Obama held an event on health care reform that was covered by all three cable networks, but only two thought that it was important enough to show the entire event to their viewers. Jon Scott of Fox News cut in and called the President’s event a pep rally and cut away to a press conference from John Boehner.
On last night’s The Daily Show, complete with a full Beckesque set, and a dead on impression, Jon Stewart mocked Glenn Beck’s recent attacks on progressivism as a cancer. Stewart said, “I looked approvingly at child labor laws, inspections of meat and poultry and other food stuffs, women voting. I thought it was progress…America I have cancer, we in this country have cancer, value and document eating cancer.”
Last night, Jon Stewart, that lone courageous patriot, explained to us how Conservative Libertarians are really Aryan Cons lying to us all and making us all slaves using nothing but a chalk board and some ovals! Yes, SLAVES! Jesus, theocracy, fire and brimstone!
Hagiographer, Fox News “commentator”, and palm reader Sarah Palin has been desperately pitching her reality TV series to the major networks, but it seems the Big Boys have better things to do with their primetime air then follow a half-term former quitter around Alaska as she pretends to be folksy and outdoorsy.
On his radio show today, the unstable Glenn Beck was discussing health care reform with bat poop crazy Rep. Steve King (R-IA) and they both came to the interesting conclusion that health care reform is an affront to the conservative sensibilities of God, because the vote may be held on Sunday. Beck said, “Here is a group of people that have so perverted our faith and our hope and our charity, that is a this is an affront to God.”
Things have swung into full panic mode over health care on Fox News. Today a supposed lawyer, Megyn Kelly, freaked out on the air today and said, “What is happening? No one gets it…I don’t understand anything they are talking about when it comes to this potential law.” Maybe Kelly could understand it if Fox News would stop lying and confusing their viewers about deeming.
The Nuns have came together to say they care MORE about pragmatic reality, MORE about helping people, MORE about correcting the unjust practices in the current healthcare system than they do obeying the patriarchs of the Catholic Church, who are cynically catering to political powers. This is a gift to humanity, the women’s movement, social justice, Democrats, and certainly Jesus if one believes.
Everyone’s favorite quitter, Sarah Palin was on FNC’s Hannity tonight where she called the centuries old deem and pass legislative technique. Palin said, “The process that Pelosi is pushing right now is unconstitutional.” She then lied and said this bill would not have been passed by both houses of Congress. The problem is that the bill will, in fact, be identical. Once again, Palin mangled the Constitution, and the legislative process.
Tonight on FNC’s Special Report with Bret Baier, President Barack Obama effortlessly rolled through an at times combative interview with Baier, who tried to talk about special deals on the healthcare bill and emails from “the people” who oppose healthcare reform, but Obama was more than up to the task as he used Fox News to push his own healthcare reform message.
Let’s say you were going to cast a Republican Clown Show of Hypocrites who ran on “Family Values†whilst cheating on their wives and voting against women’s rights at every turn.
Let’s imagine this is the most ridiculous Clown Show ever… so bad that these Republican Clowns actually voted against protecting battered women from being cut off from health insurance access. Yes, let’s pretend that they actually voted to ensure that in nine states, health insurance companies could tell a woman who has been battered that she has a pre-existing condition.
The Huffington Post ran a piece today which claimed that Barack Obama’s record on openness and transparency was worse than that of George W. Bush. However, some deeper research shows that there is more to the story than the Huff Po piece described. Obama is doing battle with a bureaucracy that has dug in its heels and has resisted and in some cases not implemented his new Freedom of Information Act policies.
The brewing battle between the journalists at Fox News and Glenn Beck took a new turn today as Hill reporter Carl Cameron refuted the right wing, including FNC’s own Glenn Beck’s attack, on the so called Slaughter Solution as an unprecedented move to pass healthcare reform. Cameron said, “Deeming has been used literally for centuries.”
On the Monday edition of his Fox News program, Glenn Beck claimed that America is not a democratic society. While smearing the mother of a woman who died without healthcare, Beck said, “Well, we’re not a democratic society. I think that was the Soviet Union. I believe it is the democratic socialist republic in China as well.” Beck appears to be calling for the abolition of democracy in the United States of America.
There are many potential or would-be leaders for the Tea Party craze – from libertarians to conservatives to Christian dominionists like Sarah Palin. It does not seem to be only conservatives lining up for tinfoil hats but libertarians with a fear of big government who have perhaps let their imaginations run away with them. The “New World Order” phenomenon is by no means limited to conservatives and Christian apocalyptic millenialists awaiting the return of Jesus but is embraced by some libertarians as well.
Last night on The Daily Show, Jon Stewart delivered what could be the defining commentary on the Glenn Beck/Eric Massa interview fiasco. Stewart said, “But the more Beck struggled the clearer it became that he was opening Al Capone’s vault, only to find some dog eared, well combed over, old men’s fitness magazines.” Check out the video.
On his radio show today, Glenn Beck claimed that the concept of social justice is a perversion of the gospel, and that social justice is not something that Jesus would talk about. Beck said that social justice is, “a perversion of the gospel.” Beck’s point was that the gospel is really about capitalism and free market economics. According to Beck, Jesus was an anti-government conservative.
Even though the far right is trying their best to unseat John McCain, the Republican establishment continues to line up behind him, as today Jeb Bush endorsed McCain over his primary challenger J.D. Hayworth. Bush said, “John is a proven conservative leader committed to reducing taxes, fighting wasteful spending and keeping America safe.” McCain is calling in lots of favoring and showing why the tea party movement has little chance of overthrowing the GOP establishment.
The right wing media has come up with a new twist on an old scare tactic, as they are now citing an opinion column on ESPNoutdoors.com to claim that President Obama is going to ban fishing. According to them, Obama is now not only going to take away your guns, but also your rod and reel. The problem is that there are no facts to back up this ridiculous claim, but that hasn’t stopped Rush Limbaugh and others from putting it out there.
Today on his radio show Glenn Beck continued to react to the fact that he turned himself into a national laughingstock with his Fox News interview of former Rep. Eric Massa yesterday. Beck tried to place all of the blame on Massa for yesterday’s 60 minutes of train wreck television. The Massa interview could end up being a watershed in Beck’s career, because it was at this point his hubris and arrogance finally derailed his Fox News stardom.
On his radio show today, Rush Limbaugh kept it classy by going on the attack against the decreased Ted Kennedy. Limbaugh took offense at Karl Rove saying that he was impressed with Kennedy, and showed his displeasure by saying, “You and I look at Ted Kennedy. He’s a buffoon, a dangerous buffoon.” Rush must have been having some sort of drug induced flashback, because he kept speaking about Kennedy in the present tense.
Glenn Beck hosted Michelle Malkin on his radio show today, presumably to discuss Eric Massa’s appearance today on Beck’s Fox News show, but he and Malkin got into a huge argument over why Beck is promoting and giving air time to Massa. Malkin asked Beck, “How much oxygen do you really want to give a guy who is trying to save his job?” Beck then questioned whether or not he and Malkin were on the same side.
In an interview with Newsmax, Mitt Romney was asked about a growing libertarian movement within the GOP, and Ron Paul’s victory in the CPAC straw poll. Romney managed to dismiss the defeat and also claim that, “I don’t think there is a growing portion of Americans who are Ron Paul devotees.” Romney completely dismissed Ron Paul and his CPAC straw poll victory.
While Sarah Palin was off in Calgary delivering a speech for, presumably American dollars, she told the story about how as a youngster her family used to grow across the border to Canada for some of that socialized medical care. She didn’t bash the Canadian medical system. She played to the audience with her Canadian connection, proving once again that her political positions are malleable depending on who is signing the check.
On his radio show, today Glenn Beck went off on a rant against the leaked RNC fundraising power point. Beck told his listeners that they should be “hacked off” at the RNC because they are playing on people’s fears. Without a hint of irony in his voice, Beck was upset that the RNC was using people’s fears to make money.
In his remarks today about the successful completion of Iraq’s second ever national election, President Barack Obama said that there are now less than 100,000 troops in Iraq and he assured the Iraqi people that the United States will fulfill their obligation and have U.S. combat troops out of Iraq by the end of August. Obama said, “By the end of August, our combat mission will end.”
Sarah Palin continues to try to explain away why she had to write her answers to the questions at last month’s Tea Party gathering in Nashville. Palin’s latest attempt occurred at a right to life fundraiser in Ohio last night. She said, “If what was good enough for God, scribbling on the palm of his hand, it’s good enough for me, for us.” Palin has now been reduced to invoking God to explain away her ineptitude.
Mitt Romney continued his 2012 presidential campaign launch disguised as book tour today on Fox News Sunday, where he claimed that Obama’s positions are lending support to international 9/11 truthers like Ahmadinejad. Romney said, “These sorts of voices should not receive any kind of support from the words of the President of United States.” Romney conveniently forgot that the truthers have been around since the days of George W. Bush.
Tea Partiers present themselves as average, everyday Americans who have been pushed too far. From their perspective, they are us. They are America. But they are no America I know or am familiar with. Their America seems to be a phobic, paranoid little place rife with conspiracies intent on overthrowing “real†America. They claim to represent the ideas of the Founding Fathers, but the Founding Fathers did not wear tin foil hats.
After the right wing took a beating this week due to Jim Bunning one man filibuster of jobless benefits, they counter attacked by doing what they do best. They spread a heavily edited seven second video of Harry Reid that makes it seem like he is calling the loss of 36,000 more jobs good news, but they leave out the fact that the good news Reid was referring to is that job losses were less than expected.
On The Daily Show last night host Jon Stewart and correspondent John Oliver satirized Republicans like Rep. Todd Akin for invoking the rapture and asking God to stop healthcare reform. Oliver said that the rapture would, “link healthcare reform with lakes of fire, marauding demons, and the destruction of mankind on earth in the minds of surviving swing voters.”
On his FNC program The O’Reilly Factor, host Bill O’Reilly engaged in full blown fear mongering tonight as he compared President Obama’s attempts to pass healthcare reform with George W. Bush’s belief that Saddam Hussein was a threat to the United States. Only in the fractured realm of Fox News could a healthcare bill be equated with an unjust war that has killed thousands of people.
Sarah Palin’s publisher HarperCollins announced today that Fox News contributor, and unabashed media whore, Sarah Palin will be writing a second book. The follow up to her best seller Going Rogue will focus on, “a celebration of American virtues and strengths.” The book doesn’t have a title yet, so may I suggest Going Rogue 2: The Quest for Cash?
After Sen. Jim Bunning gave up his filibuster, the Senate quickly passed an extension of jobless benefits 78-19. All 19 of the no votes were from Republicans, and of those eight of them came from states that face higher than the national average unemployment rates and seven of these senators come from the South. This is the kind of ideologically driven vote that could come back to haunt Republicans in November.
Last night on her MSNBC program, Rachel Maddow went after the Senate Republicans’ hypocrisy and lies against healthcare reform, but she specifically targeted Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT). Maddow characterized Hatch’s recent op-ed in The Washington Post as containing, “blatant, outright, laugh out loud falsehoods.”Hatch responded by Twittering to complain about how Maddow ran him down and he called it a badge of honor.
The most interesting portion of President Obama’s statement on healthcare reform today was not that he called for an up or down vote on the bill, but that he rejected both the positions of the left and the right on healthcare reform. Obama said, “I don’t believe we should give government bureaucrats or insurance company bureaucrats more control over health care in America.”
For years Republicans have been trying to get former president Ronald Reagan’s face on United States currency. The latest effort is being spearheaded by Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), who has proposed legislation that would replace Grant with Reagan on the $50 bill, but here are five reasons why Ronald Reagan should never be on the fifty or any other United States currency.
On his radio show today, Rush Limbaugh jumped in to defend Sen. Jim Bunning’s blocking of an extension of unemployment benefits to 1.1 million jobless Americans. Limbaugh referred to Bunning as, “a hero to people here.” Limbaugh argued that Bunning’s treatment of the unemployed will actually win the Republicans more support. Perhaps, Rush has never heard of Herbert Hoover?
On The Daily Show last night host Jon Stewart offered his take on Sen. Jim Bunning’s (R-KY) filibuster of the proposed 30 day extension of unemployment benefits. Stewart said, “You hear that unemployed people in the middle of one of the worst recession in history, no 30 day extension of benefits until we balance the entire federal budget to Jim Bunning’s liking.”
ABC News reporter Jonathon Karl tried to get Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) to answer questions about his one man filibuster an extension of unemployment benefits. Bunning told Karl he was not talking to anyone and on his way to elevator, before the cameras arrived, gave ABC the finger. Bunning may have thought that he was only flipping off Karl, but he is really flipping off every unemployed person in America.
On his radio show today Glenn Beck responded to Van Jones’ shout out to him while he was receiving an award Friday night from the NAACP. Jones said that he loved Beck, and there was nothing Beck could do about it. Beck responded that he loves Van Jones too. His attacks were nothing personal, and he never wanted to see him fired. When confronted with love, Beck could not defend his hate.
