Hey, Kool-Aid. ... But, Seriously, Why Go There?

This a video that I found to be quite interesting. This is one of those classic segments on a news program where someone comes out to cook and demonstrate a recipe. These segments pop up this time of the year during Thanksgiving and perhaps Christmas.

The recipe, in this case, is for peach cobbler (one of your blogger's favorites). During the course of the segment, with a black cook and a biracial child, host Brian Kilmeade inexplicably asks the woman about making Kool-Aid. For those of you wondering why this is significant: Kool-Aid is a drink stereotypical, in the eyes of some people, for black people. I'm pretty sure people of other races and ethnicities drink it, too, but that's not the main point.

It was quite the "What were you thinking?" awkward moment, to say the least.

The question is: Was it asked on purpose, with malice, or was it asked based on sheer ignorance?

Our Friends At Fox Try As They Might, But Can't Politicize High-School Player Who Prayed After TD And Was Flagged

Fox News Moron-In-Residence Brian Kilmeade Driven To Make Absurdly False Statement About Muslims

What drives some of these right-wing morons on Fox News to make such outrageous anti-Muslim comments?

Are they trying to inflame their white and conservative followers?

Are they trying to create an anti-Muslim climate (even more than the one that already exists in the U.S.)?

This is from Media Matters for America:

Kilmeade: "Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims." On the October 15 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, Kilmeade defended O'Reilly's comments on the October 14 edition of ABC's The View by claiming the show's hosts "were outraged that somebody was saying there's a reason -- there was a certain group of people that attacked us on 9-11. It wasn't just one person. It was one religion. Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims."

Later during his radio show, Kilmeade asserted that it's a "fact" that "every terrorist is a Muslim." On the October 15 edition of Fox News Radio's Kilmeade & Friends, Kilmeade stated: "Not every Muslim is an extremist, a terrorist, but every terrorist is a Muslim. You can't avoid that fact." From Kilmeade & Friends:

KILMEADE: Muslim extremists, Al Qaeda, blew up those buildings -- blew up the Khobar Towers, blew up the Cole, blew up the embassies, tried to blow up Times Square, tried to blow up the plane. The shoe bomber, the Times Square bomber, the underwear bomber -- they have one thing in common. They are all extremists, and they are all Muslims.

Not every Muslim is an extremist, a terrorist, but every terrorist is a Muslim. You can't avoid that fact. And that is ridiculous that we got to keep defining this - the people that equate Timothy McVeigh with the Al Qaeda terrorist organization, which is growing and a threat that exists.

Kilmeade seems to have (pun intended) whitewashed what it means to be a terrorist. He has minimized the cowardly and devastating terrorist act of Timothy McVeigh and his cohorts. Perhaps Kilmeade would have been tougher on McVeigh were he a little more Muslim.

He has minimized the wanton acts of terrorism committed by anti-abortion extremists. Because they are not Muslim (and because conservatives agree with the core principles of these anti-abortion idiots), this kind of terrorism is minimized.

I eagerly await Kilmeade's clarification of his idiotic stance. It's interesting that it will take him a whole weekend to think of the damage control he needs kick into gear.

If Kilmeade worked at a television station with ethics he probably would have gotten a pink slip. But, because he works at Fox News, he can say the most idiotic of things (as long as it is in line with far-right bigotry) and can survive.

Brian Kilmeade Of Fox News Proves To Be An Idiot Of Epic Proportions

Keith Olbermann has it right with this moron Brian Kilmeade of Fox News.

Cantor, Fox News Hosts Essentially Blame Democrats For Death Threats They Are Getting

Far-right extremists are hurling death threats at Democrat members of Congress related to the health care legislation.

On Fox News, hosts Brian Kilmeade, Gretchen Carlson and Steve Doocy agreed with Republican Rep. Eric Cantor (the House minority whip), who in essence accused Democrats of essentially encouraging death threats by talking about them publicly.

People receive death threats and Fox News/Eric Cantor blame the victims, "Democrat lawmakers are feeding the public's frenzy over the threats by discussing them so openly in the media." Doocy makes excuses and blames the Democrats and Kilmeade makes what seems to be a joke about it and Carlson essentially says they should shut up and live in fear and not call out the extremist threats of violence.

Media Matters for America:
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201003250007

Fox News Excuse Making For Sarah Palin Begins

Most of us could care less about whether or not politicians use teleprompters or read it off a sheet of paper when giving speeches. I do find it interesting, however, the large number of people using this to attack President Obama (as if no other president has ever used a teleprompter or read a speech off sheets of paper). So, whether it’s Barack Obama, President Reagan, President Bush, President Clinton or gold ole former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, it really makes no difference to me how they deliver a speech. But, for some reason, it does seem to spark something inside of Sarah Palin who seems to be taking wild shots at President Obama (like a boxer in the final round down on points and needing a miracle knockout to win). Getting in front of the Tea Party nuts sparked something inside of her to go after the president again and prove that the Tea Party movement is little more than an extremist splinter group of the GOP.

Fox and Friends, and its Republican hosts, went on the defensive to defend Palin for using notes to deliver her speech (as just about anyone on Fox is apt to do when it comes to Palin).

Gretchen Carlson, Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade (all right wingers) go out of their way to do damage control for the Fox News newbie Palin and her campaign (which is in the silent phase aided by the network conservatives trust).

CARLSON: I think she did it on purpose.

DOOCY: You do?

CARLSON: I think she did it on purpose. Yeah, because I think it’s an exact opposite of reading off the teleprompter. Reading off complete script written for you with every word in a sentence, and here she’s just taking crib notes on her hand. It makes it look as if she can just talk off the cuff and that she just jotted down a few couple notes before she went off to give a big, long speech.

KILMEADE: I am jealous.

DOOCY: I think she did — I think she did it because she probably does it a lot. I do that all the time.

KILMEADE: I personally am jealous, because I used to get in trouble if I wrote on my palms because my mom explained to me the ink would get through my pores and I would die. So I stopped doing that in the fifth grade.

DOOCY: Really?

KILMEADE: Why doesn’t she just — there’s nothing wrong with if she had a card. Just jot a card down — energy, taxes, hope, whatever it is. But — then no one has a problem. But to sit there and look at — do the interview and then look down at her hand, I think that is — it’s, like you said, Gretchen, before, folksy, absolutely. Down to earth. I can identify. But if you’re going to write it on your hand, why not just say, staffer, can you hand me a card? And then it would have been OK.

CARLSON: Like I say, I think it was on purpose. But anyway, we may never know.

Once again, Fox News comes to the rescue of their beloved Sarah Palin.

Check out how conservatives are rushing to the aid of Palin, who quit on Alaska (to make money selling books and gain publicity for herself) and yet criticizes other leaders for their leadership.

Fox And Friends Hosts Are Ridiculous

Leave it to Fox News to come to the rescue of just about any Republican who gets in trouble.

The hosts of Fox and Friends are reaching like crazy in their effort to somewhat defend the disgraceful demonstration of South Carolina Republican U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson.

Predictably, Fox News anchors Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade (card-carrying right wingers) tried to drag down House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (a favorite target of right wingers who need someone to attack) and others (comparing apples to oranges) to take the heat off Wilson’s disgraceful actions. Wilson showed a lack of respect and a lack of discipline, civility and self control with his outburst as he screamed “you lie” like an uncivilized town hall nut at one of the president’s comments.

The Pelosi situation was a completely different situation. This is a reach even for Fox and Friends.

As one commenter said on this thread … if you ever get in trouble just put (R) by your name and you can ensure that regardless of your crime Fox News is probably going to come to your defense.

Media Matters for America:
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200909100011

Fox News Asks: Why Are Jews Liberal?

Obviously, the far-right nuts on Fox and Friends did not seem very happy about the overwhelming support Democrats, in general, and Barack Obama, in specific, have been getting from Jews. The graphic header reads, “Why Are Jews Liberal” and the subheadline reads “JEWISH CONSERVATIVE ANSWERS IN NEW BOOK.” So, already the stage is set for three right wingers (Brian Kilmeade, Steve Doocy and author Norman Podhoretz) to engage in an unbalanced and biased conversation. Doocy then comes in and uses the guest to attack President Obama by talking some garbage about buyer’s remorse. This is nothing more than trying to eat away at President Obama’s base by trying to smear him in the eyes of Jews. He is using this guest to try and brainwash Jewish people into coming over to the GOP. Then, Kilmeade comes on and predictably tries to rehabilitate George W. Bush and smear President Obama … as you would expect from a far-right extremist masquerading himself on a network that lies about being fair and balanced. There is no counterpoint or anything to balance these three right wingers blasting Jews for supporting Democrats. By the numbers that Fox News flashed earlier in the segment, that would indicate that this man (Podhoretz) is outside the mainstream.

Media Matters:
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200909090006

Another Great Example Of Bias At Fox News

The hatred we see on the right-wing Fox News channel, directed at anything that isn’t favorable to Republicans, long ago spiraled out of control. It was even more evident when some of the Fox and Friends hosts launched an attack on Rep. Barney Frank (obviously, he’s a democrat) who was trying to respond to some aggressive nuts targeting him during one of these increasingly hostile town hall meeting fiascoes we see more and more in the media.

Here is one part:

STEVE DOOCY: Well, give him credit for showing up. But let’s face it, he was downright rude. Somebody asked him a question –

BRIAN KILMEADE (co-host): Smug.

DOOCY: OK, somebody asked him a question, then he said, “On what planet do you spend most of your time?” And then to somebody else he said, “Trying to have a conversation with you would be like arguing with a dining room table.” Barney, they showed up at the senior center in Dartmouth last night for some answers. Give them some answers, don’t give them attitude.

First, the irresponsible and borderline sinister Doocy flat-out fails to put into context the hateful and ridiculous rhetoric (invoking the word Nazis) that prompted that response from Rep. Frank.

They did not show up looking for answers. Their minds are already made up. They showed up eager to spew right-wing hateful venom.

It’s especially sad because how Doocy and company are whining about Rep. Frank standing up for himself there is an image of Barack Obama as Hitler (apparently that did not spark anger in Doocy, Kilmeade or anyone else on the set).

Note to Doocy and Kilmeade, give us some context.

DOOCY: Meanwhile, a health care confrontation like you’ve never seen before. Congressman Barney Frank starts attacking the same people who put him in office.

FRANK [video clip]: Ma’am, trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table. I have no interest in doing it.

DOOCY: Oh, yeah, he’s a sweet talker. Is this really the way Democrats are defending their plans for health care — referring to them as dining room tables?

No, this is the way Democrats are defending themselves from hateful labels like “socialist” and “Nazi” from far-right extremists.

DOOCY: Well there were some extraordinary other sound bites that he had. At one point, after a person asked him a question, he said, “On what planet do you spend most of your time?” And then he said, to somebody else, “Trying to have a conversation with you would be like arguing with a dining room table.”

Maybe Barney Frank has spent a little too much time in Washington, D.C., away from real people, because real people have real questions. And rather than answers, a lot of those folks up in Dartmouth last night got attitude.

Do real people insult those (and the family of those) who suffered at the hands of Nazis by referring to people who want health care for all people as Nazis?

When you give venomous hate (as we’re increasingly seeing at these town hall meetings) you should be lucky that someone is classy enough to just give back attitude.

Again, Doocy conveniently ignores the context for Rep. Frank’s comments and lets the far-right crazies off the hook for their ridiculous and irresponsible rhetoric.

Maybe Doocy has spent too much time sucking up Republican talking points and has become so far out of touch with the mainstream. Rep. Frank showed a lot of courage doing these town hall meetings and going on Fox News from time to time (in both cases knowing he is going to encounter far-right bias). This garbage from Fox News proves the bias that has become all too prominent at the biased Fox News.

Honestly, I applaud Rep. Frank for taking a stand against this hateful garbage being spewed by these nuts at these town hall meetings.

Online Petition Calls For Fox News Host Brian Kilmeade To Answer For His Racist Comments

To: Fox News and News Corporation

On the July 8, 2009 episode of the morning show “Fox and Friends,” co-anchor Brian Kilmeade made a crude and bafflingly ignorant attempt to dismiss a study on marriage and Alzheimer’s that was conducted in Sweden and Finland.

Mr. Kilmeade stated: “we [Americans] keep marrying other species and other ethnics . . . Swedes have pure genes . . . in America we marry everybody…”

We don’t know where to begin. Did the study not apply to Americans because of racial intermarriage? Are racially integrated couples more likely to exacerbate the symptoms of dementia?

Mr. Kilmeade’s outlandish comments were more than silly and worthy of ridicule. They validate, under the guise of light-hearted humor, the basest of white supremacist ideologies, the notion that white people and non-white people are of different species, with the white race as “pure.” Without question, the comments should have been denounced immediately as racist, ignorant and bigoted.

Instead, a baffled co-host Gretchen Carlson rightly questioned Kilmeade’s mental state, and someone off-camera whistled “If I Only Had a Brain.” The song was well-chosen, seeing as the comments lacked intelligence, heart and courage, and should not have a home on anything resembling a news program.

UNITY: Journalists of Color, Inc., a multicultural coalition of national journalism organizations with an outreach to over 10,000 supporters, hereby calls for Fox News and its parent company, News Corporation, to:

- Issue an immediate apology for Mr. Kilmeade’s offensive comments
- Enter into a serious discussion on the program regarding intermarriage and the value of diversity in our society.

(The full video can be viewed here: http://tinyurl.com/lnb8rn)

Sincerely,

SIGN THE PETITION BY VISITING: http://www.petitiononline.com/UJOC/petition.html

What is Brian Kilmeade Thinking?

Those of you who regularly follow this blog know I don’t think too highly of the Fox News show Fox and Friends (mainly because their hosts leave plenty to be desired in my opinion). Brian Kilmeade, probably the most hardcore right wing of them all, offered this head-scratching comment that almost sounds as if it could have been lifted from a white supremacist Web site. Honestly, this truly is disturbing stuff coming from Kilmeade who failed to get the hint that he needed to shut his trap and quickly reflect about how he was throwing himself under the bus.

GRETCHEN CARLSON (co-host): Speaking of spouses –

BRIAN KILMEADE (co-host): Yes.

CARLSON: — did you know that being married is healthy for you? At least when it comes to Alzheimer’s disease or dementia or things like that. This group did a study. They first interviewed middle-aged people around 50 in the 1970s and the 1980s, and then they came back to look at them 21 years later. Those who were married at that point in their life, in the midpoint of their life, ended up having much fewer cases of Alzheimer’s than those who were –

DAVE BRIGGS (guest co-host): Yeah.

CARLSON: — divorced, single, widowed, et cetera.

BRIGGS: I’m kind of conflicted on this one. Because on one hand, I think my wife keeps me sane, because I lose everything and she helps me find it. But I leave cabinets open –

CARLSON: You too, huh?

BRIGGS: Does your husband leave cabinets open?

CARLSON: That first thing you said.

BRIGGS: Losing things? Right?

CARLSON: Yeah.

BRIGGS: But I leave these cabinets open all over the house. I come back in the room, and they’re closed. And sometimes I think I’m losing my marbles a little bit. Then I realize she just likes to come behind me and –

CARLSON: She’s just looking out for you, Mr. Briggs.

BRIGGS: — close things and put things away.

KILMEADE: I’m just amazed that they thought about doing this study in the — by interviewing people in the 1970s and the 1980s.

BRIGGS: A little dated, you think?

KILMEADE: The average is 50, and they see that they keep it together. I find this — I find this somewhat –

BRIGGS: Go ahead.

KILMEADE: Different. Leave it to the Finns and Swedes to some up with something. They literally –

CARLSON: Don’t look at me, pal.

KILMEADE: Because that’s a — we are — we’re — we’re a — we’re — we keep marrying other species and other ethnics and other –

CARLSON: Are you sure they’re not suffering from some of the –

KILMEADE: I mean, the Swedes –

CARLSON: — causes of dementia right now?

BRIGGS: What are you getting at?

KILMEADE: See, the problem is, the Swedes have pure genes.

BRIGGS: OK.

KILMEADE: Because they marry other Swedes. Because that’s the rule. Finland — Finns marry other Finns, so they have a pure society. In America, we marry everybody.

BRIGGS: OK.

KILMEADE: So, we’ll marry Italians and Irish.

BRIGGS: So, this study does not apply?

KILMEADE: Does not apply to us.

BRIGGS: Huh. You are a scientist.

CARLSON: Amazing deduction, Kilmeade.

BRIGGS: Scientist.

KILMEADE: That’s a — those are –

BRIGGS: Dr. Kilmeade, it is.

KILMEADE: That’s how I feel.

BRIGGS: All right.

CARLSON: Thank you for filling us in on that –

BRIGGS: Let’s see how he feels –

CARLSON: — Italian-Irish man.

Kilmeade said, “… we keep marrying other species and other ethnics and other –”

WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

As that one crook said in the 1983 Dirty Harry movie Sudden Impact, “Who is we, sucka?”

The depth and breadth of Kilmeade’s stupidity (driven by an obsessive right-wing ideology) never ceases to amaze.

You know you’re screwing up when Gretchen Carlson is trying to stop you from looking and sounding like an idiot (or worse).

The look on Carlson’s face says it all and it’s hard to go too far to the right of her.

Check out the video at Media Matters:
http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/07/08/qotd/index.html?source=video&aim=/politics/war_room

Daily Kos:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/7/8/751373/-Fox-and-Friends-Host-Argues-for-Racially-Pure-Society

Salon:
http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/07/08/qotd/

Brian Kilmeade Blasts Sen. Al Franken, People Of Minnesota

This video is Brian Kilmeade and Andrew Napolitano (two more right wingers) on the radio flipping out with hate over Franken’s election.

KILMEADE: Explain to me this Minnesota. How you could do something that is such an embarrassment to America … to put this hateful character into the U.S. Senate, who is a clown of a person, who is maniacal by nature and ran as a comedian and … you don’t like Norm Coleman … that’s one thing, but for you to sit there and vote for Al Franken … I don’t get it.

This is more right-wing stuff from Kilmeade who holds a prominent position at Fox News.

KILMEADE: … He is an angry, evil person who wrote two hateful books. He is a bitter, partisan pundit without any depth to his character and the people of Minnesota have thrust him upon us.

This is laughable coming from someone who works for Fox News.

Still, what a vicious and aggressive attack by Brian Kilmeade who showed his partisanship and proved he has no credibility in terms of objectivity.

The video is here: http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200907010021

Tasteless Anti-Immigrant Joke From Neal Boortz

Rabidly-xenophobic and racist conservatives take frequent opportunities to attack illegal immigrants (generally, that means Mexicans since you rarely here people concerned about immigration from Canada).

Here is the latest, as documented by Media Matters for America:

BOORTZ: OK, the Terminator, the Governator, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says he is actually happy, ladies and gentlemen, that illegal aliens in California get state services and says they’re not to blame for the budget gap in California. He’s happy that illegal aliens get state services. By the way, how many illegal aliens can you get into a Ford Excursion? Apparently about 27. Looks like a Mexican clown car. And you can actually roll that Ford Excursion on a back road in Arizona and only kill 10 of them. And on Fox & Friends this morning, I actually heard Brian Kilmeade refer to them as undocumented immigrants.

What a classy guy.

Media Matters:
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200906080032

Jesse Ventura School Bus Stop 3: Fox And Friends

Jesse Ventura, a former Navy SEAL and the former governor of the state of Minnesota, continued his school bus route as he made a stop on the set of Fox and Friends. Pay particular attention to an early exchange that takes place between Ventura and one of the hosts, Brian Kilmeade. In two different ways, Ventura asks Kilmeade why we don’t torture/waterboard criminals in the United States of America (including Timothy McVeigh, who was a major part of the Oklahoma City federal building bombing)? Both times, Kilmeade ducks the question and changes the subject to try and make it seem as though Ventura is not as interested in keeping us safe. Jesse, however, was not buying Kilmeade’s right-wing garbage.

Here is a transcript from Crooks and Liars:

VENTURA: I have been waterboarded. It is torture. I can speak from experience. It was part of SERE training that I went through as a Navy SEAL.

KILMEADE: And are you OK now?

VENTURA: I’m fine.

KILMEADE: So is Khalid Sheik Mohammed. He’s about 60 pounds overweight, having a great time –

VENTURA: It doesn’t matter. If it was OK, then why don’t we do it to criminals? Like, if we’ve got gang members in L.A., OK? We know that their gangs are gonna do bad things. When we arrest them, why don’t we waterboard them so we can get information out of them? Because it’s against the law.

Hmm, that is a good question. How does the right-winger Kilmeade respond? He changes the subject.

KILMEADE: Do you want us not to be safe from attack?

Ventura was not impressed.

VENTURA: Don’t come after me with that nonsense.

VENTURA: OK, why didn’t we waterboard McVeigh and Nichols, then? There were more people that they thought involved at Oklahoma City. Why weren’t they waterboarded to get more information? Because it’s against the law.

Wait — and if we’re not going to be a country that goes by the rule of law when it’s convenient or not convenient, then what do we stand for?

More good points by Ventura. Kilmeade, of course, ignores the points and goes back to the politics of fear.

KILMEADE: But what about the difference — you bring up Timothy McVeigh and maybe gang members, and maybe those threats weren’t as imminent as the threats –

VENTURA: I don’t think these threats are imminent.

KILMEADE: You didn’t think after 9/11, that America felt threats were imminent, that more could be coming?

VENTURA: Maybe. But I think our behavior has caused us to be in more trouble. Now they won’t release these photos. Why? Because they know the Muslim world will go irate. They’re all after Nancy Pelosi — when did she know? When dah dah dah — Well, if we hadn’t of tortured, it would be a dead issue, wouldn’t it?

The Jesse Ventura School Bus Route … coming to school a conservative hypocrite near you.

For the video:
http://simmerdown3.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/jesse-ventura-school-bus-stop-3-fox-and-friends/

Crooks and Liars (I encourage you to read David Neiwert’s blog. It’s good stuff):
http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/jesse-ventura-piledrives-yellow-elep