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Coverage of the Tea Parties

Some coverage from CNN featuring a protestor calling Obama a fascist and holding a sign depicting Obama as Hitler. The reporter asks him several times why he thinks Obama is a fascist, and his reply is only “because he is”.

A more accurate answer to her question might have been “because Fox News tells me he is.” In this coverage from the “we report, you decide” cable news channel, their reporter Cody Willard calls the stimulus bill a “fascist” piece of legislation, and exhorts viewers to “wake up and start fighting the fascism that seems to be permeating this country.”

See also this video, which shows Fox’s Neil Cavuto blatantly lying. On the air he claims that the crowd size at a protest in Sacramento as “easily” 10,000 to 15,000 people, while just before that (but off the air) he and his producer estimated the crowd at 5,000. The California Highway Patrol independently estimated the crowd to be 5,000 at its peak. Crowd numbers were expected to be higher in California than most other states, because anti-tax sentiments are running especially high after Governor Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers made a budget deal in February that included temporary increases to sales, income and vehicle taxes.

Thanks to DailyKosTV.

UPDATE: OMG! View this clip from the Fox affiliate in Boston:

UPDATE 2: The Fox News blog features an article by Peter Roff titled “Tea Parties — Mission Accomplished”. Do these people really not get the irony of this? It was bad enough that they kept calling it teabagging.

UPDATE 3: Good summary of the whole thing: “Fox News-driven “tea parties” fail to ignite popular uprising among U.S. conservatives“. Of course it is not in a US newspaper.

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Late Night Political Humor

“President Barack Obama got quite a reception when he was in Europe last week. Did you see while he was visiting Germany, the crowd started chanting, ‘Yes, we can! Yes, we can!’ Pretty amazing, a bunch of Germans chanting, ‘Yes, we can.’ That has got to make the French a little nervous, huh?” – Jay Leno

“President Obama made a surprise visit to Iraq this week where he declared it is time for Iraqis to take responsibility for their country. Said Iraqis, ‘You guys first.'” – Seth Meyers

“President Obama on Thursday night hosted what may have been the first Passover Seder in the White House, and in a sign of the president’s popularity, Elijah showed up.” – Seth Meyers

“They had a big Easter egg hunt in Central Park yesterday. And the kids, as usual, were great at finding stuff. They ought to send them out looking for bin Laden, that’s what they ought to do.” – David Letterman

“Oh, I tell you, the economy’s in bad shape. You know Fort Knox? Well, they changed their name to cashforgold.com. That is how bad the economy is.” – Jay Leno

“This Wednesday, April 15th, taxes are due, but people who work for President Obama are busy doing their taxes for 1998, ’99, 2000.” – Jay Leno

“Well, look at this. I pick up the paper today, and according to a survey on how Americans will spend their tax returns, 48 percent say they’ll pay debts, 39 percent will save it, 27 percent will use it for everyday expenses, 11 percent will make a major purchase, and another 11 percent will use it for vacation. OK, that adds up to 136 percent. OK, there’s the problem right there!” – Jay Leno

“Well, you’ve been watching the big score over the weekend, huh? Navy 3, pirates 0. Yeah! As you know, Navy Seals kicked some Somali pirate booty this weekend. I tell you, those Navy Seals, what incredible marksmen. They shot the three pirates without hitting the captain or any of the parrots that were sitting on the pirates’ shoulders.” – Jay Leno

“So the Navy Seal snipers shot three pirates. They shot them at the same time, simultaneously. I mean that is sharp shooting, ladies and gentlemen. Boom, all of them gone. I mean, something like that hasn’t really happened since the last Dick Cheney hunting trip.” – Jimmy Fallon

“I tell you this, this Capt. Richard Phillips is a genuine American hero. He allowed himself to be taken hostage to save the lives of his crew. And did you know that this Captain Phillips used to be a cab driver in Boston? In fact, so were half the Somali pirates that kidnapped him.” – Jay Leno

“The pirates were trying to negotiate but it was a tough deal. They were hoping to be adopted by Madonna.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Anyway, they asked Captain Phillips what he’s going to do now. And he said he’s going to Disneyland to wipe out the Pirates of the Caribbean. So I think he’s a little wound up.” – Jay Leno

“And speaking of naval heroes, we have one on the show here tonight. Senator John McCain. Let me tell you something, McCain knows a thing or two about battling pirates, because, as a young man, he led the crew that sank the famous pirate Blackbeard’s ship.” – Jay Leno

“Anyway, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder tried to put all this in perspective. He said this is the first act of piracy against the United States literally ‘in hundreds of years.’ Well, if you don’t count AIG, of course.” – Jay Leno

“Speaking of that, the New York Post says that Bernard Madoff’s wife, Ruth Madoff, may go back to using her maiden name. But I don’t know if that’s going to work because her maiden name is bin Laden.” – Jay Leno

Puppy Love

“Of course, the big story is that the Obamas got their new puppy! How about that, huh? On Fox News, they declared that the dog is a Muslim socialist.” – Jay Leno

“No, it’s a Portuguese water dog, which sounds like something you order in a bar, doesn’t it?” – Jay Leno

“Bo arrived just in time, because Sasha and Malia were getting tired of throwing Frisbees at Joe Biden.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Of course, the hardest thing these days about paper-training a puppy is finding a newspaper that’s still in business.” – Jay Leno

“It’s a great day for America’s first family. The Obamas finally got their puppy. Apparently, it took a long time because Obama had to find a dog that’s paid all its back taxes.” – Craig Ferguson

“Barack Obama’s daughters are very smart. They told him they will take the same responsibility for the dog that he is taking for the economy. That way, if the dog leaves a mess in the White House, it’ll be cleaned up by future generations.” – Jay Leno

“President Obama says his daughters will take care of the dog, but who picks up the dog’s poop after the kids go to sleep? Well, that duty will fall on a low-level employee with nothing else to do. Joe Biden’s going to be cleaning up.” – Craig Ferguson

“Now the new puppy is a Portuguese water dog named Bo. Apparently, they call the dog Bo because Michelle’s father’s nickname is Diddly. So Bo Diddly. It’s very complicated. Settling on a name for the President’s dog is like having to name one of the octomom’s kids.” – Craig Ferguson

“Anyway, reports are saying that the White House staff loved the dog. But the chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, is jealous, because until the puppy arrived, he was the cutest little guy in the White House.” – Craig Ferguson

“Right now, the dog and Joe Biden are working out who brings in the morning paper. And then they’ll make the announcement.” – Jimmy Fallon

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Astroturf Politics

The term “astroturf” was coined to refer to “grass-roots” events that are faked — typically organized and financed secretly by a hidden organization to promote their political goals.

One of the most famous examples of astroturfing was the “Brooks Brothers Riot” that succeeded in stopping the Florida recount during the 2000 presidential election. That somewhat violent riot was designed to appear to be spontaneous, but was actually organized by Republican congressman John Sweeney, and the protestors were Republican congressional staffers who were flown in specifically for the event.

teabaggerToday, on Tax Day, we are seeing essentially the same thing in the “Tea Bagging” parties that are being promoted by various well-financed conservative organizations, including Fox News. What makes these events particularly ironic is that they are being organized and paid for by the very people that the tea baggers should actually be protesting.  As Matt Taibbi puts it “You know you’re a peasant when you worship the very people who are right now, this minute, conning you and taking your shit.”

Doubly ironic is that the “tea bagging” parties are supposedly protesting high taxes, but a new Gallup poll shows that more Americans say that their tax rate is “about right” than say that it is “too high”. In other words, there is no groundswell of protest against tax rates, other than perhaps among the rich — who of course are the people financing the tea bag events. Not only that, but the tea parties are targeting their rage at Obama, even though he is actually cutting taxes for anyone making less than $250,000 per year.

But those events are just practice for what might turn out to be the largest astroturf in history — the coming sham “grass-roots” campaign against the reform of the health insurance industry. Already, health insurance lobbyists have hired a PR firm to send phoney letters to the editor. In fact, the PR firm is sending in letters using the names of actual senior citizens, without their consent or even knowledge. The PR firm even called up a newspaper to see if a letter supposedly sent by Gloria Gosselin was going to be printed, and pretended to be her grandson. Except Gosselin didn’t write a letter, and the caller wasn’t her grandson.

The health insurance industry was able to derail reform during the Clinton administration, and as a result we now pay more for health care than any other nation, and get less in return. Will we get fooled again?

UPDATE: PopCrunch has a list of some of the worst examples of Astroturfing that is worth a read.

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Focus on the Family Loses Focus

The Religious Right in the US is finally starting to come to their senses and realize that the Republican Party has been playing them for fools for the last 30 years. James Dobson, who recently resigned as the head of Focus on the Family, gave a farewell speech to his staff that acknowledged they have lost all of their battles. Abortion is still legal, the number of states permitting gay civil unions (or even marriage) is rising, and one of the issues that got religious conservatives to go political in the first place — prayer in schools — has gone nowhere.

According to an article in the Telegraph, the problem is that rather than pushing their agenda themselves, the Religious Right — led by organizations such as Focus on the Family — worked directly with the Republican party to court Christian voters to elect Republican candidates. Unfortunately, once elected those politicians betrayed them by failing to pursue the conservative agenda. All the church’s energy was used up by the political process, with nothing left to actually accomplish the agenda.

This viewpoint was summed up by Steve Deace, an evangelical radio talk show host in Iowa:

Conservatives became so obsessed with the political process we have forgotten the gospel.

Personally, I think it is actually worse than that. By trying to mix politics with religion, the Religious Right lost their way. Not only did they fail at politics, they failed at religion. In other words, it isn’t just that they failed to accomplish their agenda, they picked the wrong agenda.

Jesus preached tolerance (“let he who is without sin cast the first stone”) and love. What would he think of an anti-gay agenda? Jesus even drove out the money changers from the church. What would he think of churches doing fundraising for political candidates and issues?

The problem is that politics is played by pushing hot buttons to get your base riled up. But religion is based on attaining understanding (what some religions call enlightenment). What kind of religion do you have when you are obsessed solely with hot button items? A religion that not only loses elections, but also loses their own believers.

Maybe our forefathers were wise when they separated church and state, not just for the sake of the state, but even more so for the sake of the church.

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Clarence Thomas’ Dishwasher

It is not often that you hear something that just seems so bizarre considering the person who is saying it, that it kind-of boggles your mind. Such is the case for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. We don’t often hear from Justice Thomas. He hasn’t asked a question in court since February 2006. His public appearances are rare. But a few nights ago he gave a talk and answered questions to the winners of a high school essay contest.

People (Mother Jones, Blue Girl, Political Carnival) are already analyzing the things he said, but those of you who frequent this blog know that I prefer to let people’s words speak for themselves.

The event was sponsored by the Bill of Rights Institute, but here’s what Thomas had to say about those rights:

Today there is much focus on our rights. Indeed, I think there is a proliferation of rights. I am often surprised by the virtual nobility that seems to be accorded those with grievances. Shouldn’t there at least be equal time for our Bill of Obligations and our Bill of Responsibilities?

Thomas called working at the Supreme Court an “ordeal”. “That’s one thing about this job. You get a little tired.”

Later on, he came back to the challenges of his job:

This job is easy for people who’ve never done it. What I have found in this job is they know more about it than I do, especially if they have the title ‘law professor’.

As for what gives him pleasure:

I have to admit that I’m one of those people that still thinks the dishwasher is a miracle. What a device! And I have to admit that because I think that way, I like to load it. I like to look in and see how the dishes were magically cleaned.

I have on many occasions or a number of occasions when things were becoming particularly routine gone down to my basement to watch ‘Saving Private Ryan’. I can’t tell you why that particular movie, except we have it and it’s about something important in our lives — World War II.

Or how can you not reminisce about a childhood where you began each day with the Pledge of Allegiance as little kids lined up in the schoolyard and then marched in two by two with a flag and a crucifix in each classroom?

From the NY Times.

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Getting your fact-checking facts straight

Whenever I receive one of those chain letters making some unbelievable claims, I wander over to Snopes to see if it is true (or if it really is literally unbelievable). But recently a chain letter has been going around that claims that Snopes itself lies, and is secretly run by Democrats (horrors!).

Which brings up the interesting question — how do you fact check a fact checking site? With another fact checking site, of course. The Annenberg Foundation’s factcheck.org stepped in to dispel any nasty rumors about Snopes. And since factcheck.org is funded by a conservative foundation, you can probably believe them when they say that Snopes does not have a liberal bias.

That is, unless you discount the fact that facts have a notoriously liberal bias.

xkcd
From xkcd
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Elementary, my dear Beck

So, is the line in the first panel about looking pale a dig at Glenn Beck? In the immediately preceding post here, he is looking a bit ghoulish.

Tom Tomorrow
© Tom Tomorrow

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Faux News can’t get anything right — part two

Earlier today, I posted a story about Fox News Channel blatantly lying about its role in the “tea parties” that are being held around the US. Not willing to merely rest on their laurels, Fox News then proceeded to get the whole pirate standoff story wrong, taking it as an opportunity to lambast the Obama administration for being weak even before they had any of the facts. They bet that Obama would not be able to resolve the crisis. They were wrong.

When Fox claims “we report, you decide” how can anyone not roll on the floor laughing at them?

Fox News — why do they hate America so much that they bet against it?

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Laboring Ironic

Picketing SEIUAs they say, the shoemaker’s children go barefoot, but it is a bit ironic that employees of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) are picketing the union itself for unfair labor practices. SEIU recently laid off around 75 workers. The employees claim age and race discrimination, and that SEIU dismissed workers without proper notice and refused to meet with employees before their collective bargaining agreement expires next week. You know, the kind of things that the SEIU accuses all those greedy corporations of doing.

The employees have their own union, the UUR (Union of Union Representatives), which represents around 210 SEIU organizers and  field staff around the country. UUR president Malcolm Harris said:

This union is supposed to be at the forefront of the progressive movement, but it can’t seem to follow its own ideology. … SEIU’s treatment of employees could undermine the union’s effort to pass federal legislation that would make it easier to organize unions.

Harris also accused the SEIU of “borrowing unsavory management tactics” from the companies they normally fight against.

Hypocrite

If you think this is an isolated occurrence, a similar thing recently happened at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The federal agency that is supposed to enforce labor laws was found in violation of its own worker’s rights for not paying overtime.

Supporters of the EEOC claim that the agency was “gutted” during the Bush administration (along with most other regulatory agencies), and that the Obama administration is making good on his campaign promise to restore the EEOC to something more than a laughingstock.

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Associated Press YouTube Fail

It is well known that traditional media sources are in trouble, largely due to the rise of the internet and what that is doing to their business model. You might think that the media would at least try to understand their biggest competitor. But you would be wrong, as evidenced by this recent epic fail on the part of the Associated Press, the news agency that is cooperatively owned by its contributing US newspapers, radio, and television stations (you know, kinda like how the RIAA supposedly works for recording artists).

It seems that the A.P. recently ordered radio station KTNQ-FM to stop posting A.P. videos on its website, accusing the station of “stealing their licensed content”. But there are a few things that are a bit curious about this. First, all of the videos in question were from the A.P.’s official YouTube channel (yes, the A.P. has its own YouTube channel, at http://www.youtube.com/user/AssociatedPress). Even worse, at the time, this channel had the YouTube “embed code” turned on, so that anyone could embed the A.P. videos in their website.

But the real giggle comes from the fact that KTNQ-FM is an A.P. affiliate. The whole purpose of the A.P. is to create content for its affiliates, who after all are the owners of the A.P. Here’s a quote from the station employee who talked to the A.P.’s vice president:

We’re an A.P. affiliate for crying out loud! I stumped him on that one. … What is really shocking is that they were shocked that they’ve got a YouTube channel that people are embedding on their Websites. He seemed shocked by that. “Oh, I am going to have to look into that” is what he told me.

When you’re this clueless about the “innerTubes”, is it any wonder it is eating your lunch?

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Faux News can’t get anything right

Despite their claim to be “fair and balanced”, hardly anyone is surprised at the stupid antics pulled by the Fox News Channel anymore. Nevertheless, some people complained when FNC started actively promoting anti-Obama “tea party” protests across the country, even inviting their viewers to participate in “FNC Tax Day Tea Parties” featuring their top stars:

Fox News Channel Tax Day Tea Parties

FNC’s Neil Cavuto bristled at those complaints, claiming:

We are are going to be in the middle of these protests because at Fox, we do not pick and choose these rallies and protests. We were there for the Million Man March, even though, as I pointed out, it turned out to be well shy of a million men.

What’s really hilarious about this is that the Million Man March took place in October 1995, while Fox News first went on the air a year later, in October 1996.

Even ignoring that ginormous faux pas, reporting on protests is not the same as promoting and sponsoring them. Somebody please take away their press credentials.

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Late Night Political Humor

“Hey, before we get started tonight, I want to remind any potential cabinet members you have until April 15th to not pay your taxes, okay?” – Jay Leno

“President Obama took on the teachers union by saying he wants merit pay for teachers and to fire the ones who do not perform well. That is pretty bold. A Democrat taking on the unions is like Rush Limbaugh going after the doughnut manufacturers.” – Jay Leno

“Here’s some good news. Bernard Madoff, the sleaze-ball guy in that $50 billion Ponzi scheme thing, is going to plead guilty. But Madoff’s lawyer is trying to get all the charges dropped by arguing that Madoff is no longer a threat to society because there aren’t any rich people anymore.” – Jay Leno

“And there was a big rally on Wall Street yesterday after Citigroup reported a profit for the first two months of the year. That just goes to show you what determination, hard work, and 45 billion of our bailout dollars can do.” – Jay Leno

“Here’s a sign of the times are a-changin. The governor of Virginia has signed a new law banning smoking in bars and restaurants. In Virginia. See, that’s significant because Virginia is, like, the tobacco state. That would be like the governor of California banning breast implants.” – Jay Leno

“Three different customers at a grocery store in Queens, New York, all bought peppers that turned out to have bags of cocaine stuffed inside them. Well, you thought spicy food kept you up all night.” – Jay Leno

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Parental Rights, and Wrongs

Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich), along with 70 Republican co-sponsors, has introduced in Congress an amendment to the US Constitution to enshrine “Parental Rights”. These rights include the right of parents to beat their children and the right of parents to choose the religion of their children. They are worried that these rights might be taken away from parents, and want to put them into the constitution.

Sigh.

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The World of NO

Jim Morin
© Jim Morin

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Obama’s Big Habeas Flip-Flop

Glenn Greenwald has a stunning article about Obama’s complete about-face on the issue of habeas corpus and enemy combatants. Habeas corpus is one of our fundamental rights, which says that a government cannot simply arrest you and toss you in jail without at least telling you for what you have been arrested and giving you a chance to protest your innocence. When you travel, habeas corpus is what protects you from the petty foreign official who decides he doesn’t like you and throws you in jail to rot.

This was a big issue during the presidential campaign, and Greenwald’s article has numerous quotes from Obama, but I’ll include just one short one that he said after the Supreme Court overruled the Bush administration and declared that enemy combatants do indeed have habeas corpus rights:

Today’s Supreme Court decision ensures that we can protect our nation and bring terrorists to justice, while also protecting our core values. The Court’s decision is a rejection of the Bush Administration’s attempt to create a legal black hole at Guantanamo – yet another failed policy supported by John McCain. This is an important step toward reestablishing our credibility as a nation committed to the rule of law, and rejecting a false choice between fighting terrorism and respecting habeas corpus. Our courts have employed habeas corpus with rigor and fairness for more than two centuries, and we must continue to do so as we defend the freedom that violent extremists seek to destroy.

Which is why it is extremely surprising that now that Obama has been elected president, his Justice Department is fighting tooth and nail to preserve the right to abduct anyone they don’t like and throw them in jail, without charges or any legal rights of any kind.

We aren’t talking about people captured on a battlefield here. These are people who were abducted from their homes or workplaces, transported to places like Guantanamo or Bagram, Afghanistan, and disappeared. And we know that at least some of them were innocent victims of mistaken identity, but without habeas corpus rights they had no way to resolve the mixup.

Ignoring for a moment whether you think the government should imprison suspected terrorists without any legal rights at all, this is a complete reversal for Obama. During the campaign, Obama repeatedly declared that:

abducting people and imprisoning them without charges was (a) un-American; (b) tyrannical; (c) unnecessary to fight Terrorism; (d) a potent means for stoking anti-Americanism and fueling Terrorism; (e) a means of endangering captured American troops, Americans traveling abroad and Americans generally; and (f) a violent betrayal of core, centuries-old Western principles of justice. But today’s Barack Obama, safely ensconced in the White House, fights tooth and nail to preserve his power to do exactly that.

I and many other Obama supporters were dismayed during the election when Obama voted for the FISA bill to give retroactive immunity to telecoms for tapping the telephones of American citizens, in contradiction to his earlier promises, and I never felt like we received a reasonable explanation as to why he reversed his position. But reversing his position on habeas corpus is even more confusing.

Making this even worse is how quiet the mainstream media is being about this issue, even news organizations that reported this in the past. The Columbia Journalism Review has an article about the coverage (or lack thereof) on this issue.

Doesn’t one of our fundamental rights deserve more attention than this?

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