http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/09/17/acorn_hysteria/index.html
Earlier this week, I wrote about how the Fox-News/Glenn-Beck/Rush-Limbaugh leadership trains its protesting followers to focus the vast bulk of their resentment and anxieties on largely powerless and downtrodden factions, while ignoring, and even revering, the outright pillaging by virtually omnipotent corporate interests that own and control their Government (and, not coincidentally, Fox News). It's hard to imagine a more perfectly illustrative example of all of that than the hysterical furor over ACORN.
Showing posts with label conservatives. Show all posts
Showing posts with label conservatives. Show all posts
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Friday, September 25, 2009
Chuck Norris On Desecrating the American flag?
I thought, for the most part, conservatives like Chuck Norris were against flag burning? But now they want to stain them?
At least we know liberals will defend Chuck Norris' right to do it. But that surely wouldn't be the case if this were the other way around.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
ACORN files suit against filmmakers
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/27501.html
ACORN filed suit today in Maryland against conservative filmmakers James O’Keefe, Hannah Giles and conservative Web site Breitbart.com for secretly taping the organization’s employees at its Baltimore office.
In the complaint, ACORN alleges that the filmmakers entered into the organization’s offices in July with a “hidden camera and microphone” and taped employees Tonja Thompson and Shera Williams. Both employees are listed as plaintiffs on the complaint, filed in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City.
The crux of the lawsuit centers around a Maryland law which makes it illegal to tape someone without their consent – ACORN is alleging O’Keefe and Giles did so. ACORN is asking for $500,000 in damages to be awarded to each of the employees filmed by O'Keefe and Giles, and ACORN itself wants $1 million in damages.
ACORN filed suit today in Maryland against conservative filmmakers James O’Keefe, Hannah Giles and conservative Web site Breitbart.com for secretly taping the organization’s employees at its Baltimore office.
In the complaint, ACORN alleges that the filmmakers entered into the organization’s offices in July with a “hidden camera and microphone” and taped employees Tonja Thompson and Shera Williams. Both employees are listed as plaintiffs on the complaint, filed in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City.
The crux of the lawsuit centers around a Maryland law which makes it illegal to tape someone without their consent – ACORN is alleging O’Keefe and Giles did so. ACORN is asking for $500,000 in damages to be awarded to each of the employees filmed by O'Keefe and Giles, and ACORN itself wants $1 million in damages.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
All About Michelle... Malkin That Is
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-09-22/michelle-malkin-has-feelings-too/?cid=hp:mainpromo3
Michelle Malkin Has Feelings, Too
Really?
In college she was known as 'the Eva Braun of Oberlin.' Today, she’s the right's biggest bomb-thrower—and queen of the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list.
Michelle Malkin Has Feelings, Too Really?
In college she was known as 'the Eva Braun of Oberlin.' Today, she’s the right's biggest bomb-thrower—and queen of the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Why we're talking about race - again
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Perspectives/Default.aspx?id=690926
The Democrats have lost the healthcare debate.
For months now, polls have been showing that Americans don't want the massive new government controls, regulations, taxes, and spending that Democrats are pushing.
Latest Gallup polling shows 60 percent saying that President Barack Obama's proposal will not expand health coverage without raising taxes on middle-class Americans and without affecting the current quality of healthcare.
Forty-three percent approve of how Obama is handling healthcare and 52 percent disapprove.
You would be hard pressed to find a Democrat or Republican who does not agree that we can improve how we deliver healthcare.
So the logical conclusion we'd expect now from well-intentioned people would be that we go back to square one. We do what Obama promised but never did -- have a truly open, bi-partisan discussion, with all ideas are on the table, to generate the best possible product for the American people.
Why is this not happening? Because it's not about healthcare. It's about ideology.
Despite claims from our Democrat administration that it wants civility, it does not. It wants control.
This nation is already torn apart ideologically. In the last four months, we've witnessed two cold-blooded, ideologically motivated murders. An abortion doctor shot in a church, and a pro-life demonstrator murdered in a drive-by shooting in front of a school.
There are fewer and fewer "self evident truths" about which we all agree.
The current charade to paint ideological differences with our president as racially motivated dangerously pours gasoline on the burning embers of our differences.
But this is what Democrats want. They have lost the healthcare debate on substance, so they want to make it emotional. They want to intimidate. And nothing intimidates and polarizes like race.
Continued at the link:
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Perspectives/Default.aspx?id=690926
The Democrats have lost the healthcare debate.
For months now, polls have been showing that Americans don't want the massive new government controls, regulations, taxes, and spending that Democrats are pushing.
Latest Gallup polling shows 60 percent saying that President Barack Obama's proposal will not expand health coverage without raising taxes on middle-class Americans and without affecting the current quality of healthcare.
Forty-three percent approve of how Obama is handling healthcare and 52 percent disapprove.
You would be hard pressed to find a Democrat or Republican who does not agree that we can improve how we deliver healthcare.
So the logical conclusion we'd expect now from well-intentioned people would be that we go back to square one. We do what Obama promised but never did -- have a truly open, bi-partisan discussion, with all ideas are on the table, to generate the best possible product for the American people.
Why is this not happening? Because it's not about healthcare. It's about ideology.
Despite claims from our Democrat administration that it wants civility, it does not. It wants control.
This nation is already torn apart ideologically. In the last four months, we've witnessed two cold-blooded, ideologically motivated murders. An abortion doctor shot in a church, and a pro-life demonstrator murdered in a drive-by shooting in front of a school.
There are fewer and fewer "self evident truths" about which we all agree.
The current charade to paint ideological differences with our president as racially motivated dangerously pours gasoline on the burning embers of our differences.
But this is what Democrats want. They have lost the healthcare debate on substance, so they want to make it emotional. They want to intimidate. And nothing intimidates and polarizes like race.
Continued at the link:
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Perspectives/Default.aspx?id=690926
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Fair and Balanced Huh? Fox News Producer Coached 9/12 Crowd
It just keeps getting more ridiculous...
Below is video of the segment as it aired on Fox News:
A Fox News Channel producer has been caught in a behind-the-scenes video rallying the crowd during last weekend's 9/12 protest in Washington.
The Huffington Post has confirmed that the woman in the below video — seen raising her arms to rally the crowd behind Griff Jenkins, who was reporting from the scene for Fox News — is Fox News producer Heidi Noonan.
"The employee is a young, relatively inexperienced associate producer who realizes she made a mistake and has been disciplined," Bryan Boughton, Fox News Channel Washington Bureau Chief told the Huffington Post.
The 9/12 movement has been championed by Glenn Beck, and is designed to "bring us all back to the place we were on September 12, 2001" when "we were united as Americans, standing together to protect the values and principles of the greatest nation ever created."
Fox News heavily promoted the protest event, and took out an ad in newspapers Friday asking how other news networks could "miss [the] story," only to have competitors hit back with proof that they covered the protest extensively.
Watch:
Below is video of the segment as it aired on Fox News:
Conservatives use liberal playbook
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/27285.html
Conservatives are coming for Democrats on their blind side -- the left.
Conservatives are coming for Democrats on their blind side -- the left.
Rush vs. Beck
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/27282.html
Two conservative heavyweights battle it out for the title of King Con.
Two conservative heavyweights battle it out for the title of King Con.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
The Wrong Side of History
Some pumped demoralizing signs into the air, others shouted down anybody they didn’t feel were on their side. It didn’t take long for the name-calling and insults to commence.
“Somebody started yelling. Lynch her! Lynch her! I tried to see a friendly face somewhere in the crowd — someone who maybe could help. I looked into the face of an old woman and it seemed a kind face, but when I looked at her again, she spat on me.”
These are the words of Elizabeth Eckford. She is not talking about town hall protesters or tea baggers. Eckford, one of nine black students to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., was recalling how hundreds of white protesters — with backing from powerful politicians — tried to block her and eight other children from entering a public school in 1957.
They became known as the Little Rock Nine.
Protesters faced by the nine youths repeatedly warned that if blacks were allowed into “their schools” (much like the “their country” sentiment currently being echoed) it would harm their children. It is ironic that thousands of angry, mostly white protesters converged on Washington last weekend at the same time I happened to be reading Cooper v. Aaron, a 1958 Supreme Court case stemming from the Little Rock Nine. The case is about Arkansas Democratic Gov. Orval Faubus and his refusal to obey federal orders to integrate the state’s schools. His defiance caused Republican President Dwight Eisenhower to send in federal troops to force Faubus to follow the law. The nation was so polarized that it was nearly impossible for most people to foresee what many now take for granted: Integration would benefit the whole country, not just a particular demographic group. We also now know that those screaming protesters were on the wrong side of history. Some may ask what the Little Rock Nine story has to do with the current health care debate, especially when the apparent villain in the case was a Democrat and the hero, a Republican. Here’s a clue: This column is not really about race. It’s about the way history repeats itself, and about our place in it. Faubus’ opposition to allow black children to integrate Arkansas schools was politically motivated: He risked losing political support if he sanctioned integration, even though it was the right thing to do. Just like Republicans now risk losing political support if they show agreement with President Obama’s health care ideas — or any of his ideas, for that matter.
Medicare "Maligned"
One casualty in the attacks against expanding health insurance is perhaps the most popular federal program ever created: Medicare. Foes are careful not to say it too directly, but the implication is that the retiree insurance program exemplifies what's wrong with government-run health care. And the daughter of the president who created Medicare is fed up with that argument.
Here's Lynda Bird Johnson Robb in a video message to a retiree group on Medicare, which was signed into law by her father, Lyndon Johnson, in 1965:
Mad Man: 'Time' Gives Glenn Beck The Cover Treatment
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2009/09/time_gives_glenn_beck_the_cove.html
And wonders if he can be trusted.
By whom? That's my question.
And wonders if he can be trusted.
By whom? That's my question.
Conservative Talk Radio Hosts Descend on Washington to Make Immigration Demands
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112876325
More than 40 conservative talk radio hosts from across the country - including Lou Dobbs - gathered in the nation's capital to pressure Congress and the Obama administration to slam the door on illegal immigrants.
More than 40 conservative talk radio hosts from across the country - including Lou Dobbs - gathered in the nation's capital to pressure Congress and the Obama administration to slam the door on illegal immigrants.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Another Tea Party Meltdown
This stuff is so common now that it has become a general rite of passage for these tea party people to fall over themselves in abject stupidity.
But I'm posting this anyway because it is way too funny to keep to myself!
Monday, September 14, 2009
Frank Schaeffer: Glenn Beck and The 9/12 Marchers: Subversives From Within
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/glenn-beck-and-the-912-ma_b_284387.html
Who are these people?! Where do they come from?! Ordinary Americans might wonder why anyone would stoop so low as to follow Glenn Beck, Fox News and Dick Armey (and their corporate sponsors masquerading as "FreedomWorks") as they organize their "9/12 March On Washington" to cynically exploit the 9/11 attack.
Patriotic Americans might question the organizer's aim to provide a media forum for dimwitted right wingers to scream "Liar!" "Socialist!" "Antichrist!" "Muslim!" "Death Panels!" "He's not an American!" and so on and on and on about the commander in chief charged with defending us from further attacks. And some people might even cry "shame on you!" to the more mainstream Republicans participating that include Dick Armey of FreedomWorks, as well as GOP Reps. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Mike Pence of Indiana, Tom Price of Georgia, and South Carolina GOP Sen. Jim DeMint.
Ordinary folks from Planet Earth may ask why the Republican Party, right-wing activists and members of the Religious Right seem so unreachable with mere facts let alone decency and decorum. (As the proud father of a US Marine who fought in Afghanistan, I'm particularly outraged that these people would exploit the 9/11 attacks after my son and others were prepared to give their lives in response to our enemies.)
As a former Religious Right leader, who was raised (and home-schooled by my Evangelical-leader parents, Francis and Edith Schaeffer) in the movement, let me explain just why the ordinary rules of decency don't apply to the right these days.
Let me also answer this question: Who are these people?
You have to finish reading this one:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/glenn-beck-and-the-912-ma_b_284387.html
Who are these people?! Where do they come from?! Ordinary Americans might wonder why anyone would stoop so low as to follow Glenn Beck, Fox News and Dick Armey (and their corporate sponsors masquerading as "FreedomWorks") as they organize their "9/12 March On Washington" to cynically exploit the 9/11 attack.
Patriotic Americans might question the organizer's aim to provide a media forum for dimwitted right wingers to scream "Liar!" "Socialist!" "Antichrist!" "Muslim!" "Death Panels!" "He's not an American!" and so on and on and on about the commander in chief charged with defending us from further attacks. And some people might even cry "shame on you!" to the more mainstream Republicans participating that include Dick Armey of FreedomWorks, as well as GOP Reps. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Mike Pence of Indiana, Tom Price of Georgia, and South Carolina GOP Sen. Jim DeMint.
Ordinary folks from Planet Earth may ask why the Republican Party, right-wing activists and members of the Religious Right seem so unreachable with mere facts let alone decency and decorum. (As the proud father of a US Marine who fought in Afghanistan, I'm particularly outraged that these people would exploit the 9/11 attacks after my son and others were prepared to give their lives in response to our enemies.)
As a former Religious Right leader, who was raised (and home-schooled by my Evangelical-leader parents, Francis and Edith Schaeffer) in the movement, let me explain just why the ordinary rules of decency don't apply to the right these days.
Let me also answer this question: Who are these people?
You have to finish reading this one:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/glenn-beck-and-the-912-ma_b_284387.html
How Pathetic! Teaparty Goers Circulate Fake Photos of March
Tea Party protesters trying to tout the size of their march on Washington last weekend have been passing around a photo of a packed National Mall. But the picture is years old.
Politifact asked Pete Piringer, public affairs officer for the D.C. Fire and Emergency Department, if the rally was big enough to fill that space. Piringer said no -- and moreover, the picture can't be from 2009.
Politifact asked Pete Piringer, public affairs officer for the D.C. Fire and Emergency Department, if the rally was big enough to fill that space. Piringer said no -- and moreover, the picture can't be from 2009.
"It was an impressive crowd," he said. But after marching down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol the crowd "only filled the Capitol grounds, maybe up to Third Street," he said.
Yet the photo showed the crowd sprawling far beyond that to the Washington Monument, which is bordered by 15th and and 17th Streets.
There's another big problem with the photograph: it doesn't include the National Museum of the American Indian, a building located at the corner of Fourth St. and Independence Ave. that opened on Sept. 14, 2004. (Looking at the photograph, the building should be in the upper right hand corner of the National Mall, next to the Air and Space Museum.) That means the picture was taken before the museum opened exactly five years ago. So clearly the photo doesn't show the "tea party" crowd from the Sept. 12 protest.
"I've seen bigger crowds at Montreal Expos games, but I still wouldn't fake a photo just to justify your predictions of millions descending on Washington," said one gleeful Democratic media strategist. "This is grade-A stupid and just plays into the argument that these were astroturf protests to begin with. They've always brought the noise, but the question that was supposed to be answered this weekend was, could they bring the numbers? In that respect this was an unmitigated disaster."
A number of conservative blogs have since taken the photo down. Some have corrected their posts. Others say the circulation of the picture was a left-wing conspiracy to discredit the event. However, many of them are still claiming that at least a million people attended the march. Nate Silver estimates about 70,000 protesters showed up.
It isn't the first failed attempt by the protesters to inflate the size of the event. On Saturday, organizer Matt Kibbe announced on stage that ABC News had estimated a crowd of 1 to 1.5 million. ABC News had reported no such thing.
~ Huffington Post
Bush Speechwriter: "Paranoid Delusions" Undermining GOP
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gop-fringe14-2009sep14,0,940651.story
Amid a rebirth of conservative activism that could help Republicans win elections next year, some party insiders now fear that extreme rhetoric and conspiracy theories coming from the angry reaches of the conservative base are undermining the GOP's broader credibility and casting it as the party of the paranoid.
The Republican establishment hopes cooler heads will prevail over strongly anti-Obama parts of the conservative base.
Amid a rebirth of conservative activism that could help Republicans win elections next year, some party insiders now fear that extreme rhetoric and conspiracy theories coming from the angry reaches of the conservative base are undermining the GOP's broader credibility and casting it as the party of the paranoid.
The Republican establishment hopes cooler heads will prevail over strongly anti-Obama parts of the conservative base.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Assemblyman Mike Duvall resigns after his sex comments are broadcast
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-duvall10-2009sep10,0,2300584.story
Another social conservative lawmaker goes down in hypocritical flames.
Another social conservative lawmaker goes down in hypocritical flames.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Inside Sarah's Church
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-09-05/inside-sarahs-church/?cid=hp:mainpromo2
I know, you ask, why should we care? Well, I read this paragraph and couldn't help but laugh...
“Oh father, use her to turn this nation around,” Bishop Muthee shouted, his left palm on Sarah Palin’s head, “so that the curse can be broken.”
So Palin losing means that God's will was done, and she should sit down and shut the heck up, right? I mean, we are supposed to pray for God's will to be done, not to ask for selfish things-- like winning elections.
So Palin's loss, for those Christian conservatives out there, was divine intervention and the curse was broken... That is if you really believe in what this pastor preaches.
I know, you ask, why should we care? Well, I read this paragraph and couldn't help but laugh...“Oh father, use her to turn this nation around,” Bishop Muthee shouted, his left palm on Sarah Palin’s head, “so that the curse can be broken.”
So Palin losing means that God's will was done, and she should sit down and shut the heck up, right? I mean, we are supposed to pray for God's will to be done, not to ask for selfish things-- like winning elections.
So Palin's loss, for those Christian conservatives out there, was divine intervention and the curse was broken... That is if you really believe in what this pastor preaches.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Tort Reform Unlikely to Cut Health Care Costs
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=az9qxQZNmf0o
Annual jury awards and legal settlements involving doctors amounts to “a drop in the bucket” in a country that spends $2.3 trillion annually on health care, said Amitabh Chandra, a Harvard University economist. Chandra estimated the cost at $12 per person in the U.S., or about $3.6 billion, in a 2005 study. Insurer WellPoint Inc. said last month that liability wasn’t driving premiums.
I'll blog about this more later.
Annual jury awards and legal settlements involving doctors amounts to “a drop in the bucket” in a country that spends $2.3 trillion annually on health care, said Amitabh Chandra, a Harvard University economist. Chandra estimated the cost at $12 per person in the U.S., or about $3.6 billion, in a 2005 study. Insurer WellPoint Inc. said last month that liability wasn’t driving premiums.
I'll blog about this more later.
Excuse to Brainwash?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20090903/pl_ynews/ynews_pl888_1
Obama goes back to school, has some right-wingers crying foul.
Obama goes back to school, has some right-wingers crying foul.
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