Hank Williams Jr. Fiasco Is A Byproduct Of Fox News Bias

Hank Williams Jr.

You never invoke "Hitler" in an attack if (especially) you're on television and you're some kind of celebrity, and that includes you Hank Williams Jr.

Of course, I am sure that Williams more than realizes that now, even as he tries to make all of the usual excuses.

I can imagine the thinking in the Fox and Friends pre-production meeting (relative to the ill-fated decision to bring on Hank Williams Jr.) going a little something like this:

We can bring on Hank Williams Jr., we'll all have a few Republican laughs before Monday Night Football, we'll have him take a few right-wing shots at President Obama and live happily ever after on Fox and Friends and Fox News ... business as usual in the name of our leader, Rupert Murdoch.

Unfortunately, the goofballs at Fox and Friends were sorely misguided and, ironically, sort of threw Williams, who sort of behaved as if he might have struggled to pass a field sobriety test, under the bus in their effort to take shots at President Obama and other liberals.

Williams should be more mad at Fox News and the dummies in charge of Fox and Friends than at anyone else.

It was Fox and Friends that really threw him under the bus ... not ESPN (which cut his famous... or is it now infamous opening this week).

Williams has "apologized" as apologies go these days. I don't care for his politics, but I am willing to give this dope a second chance if he keeps his nose clean.

Frankly, Williams was a willing pawn in the blatant right-wing bias of Fox News. It almost cost him dearly (if it hasn't ... we'll see how ESPN handles it).

Who Is Bill Kristol Talking About?

On Fox News, far-right conservative commentator Bill Kristol referred to a person with the following adjectives: attractive, complicated, honest, plainspoken and thoughtful.

Was Kristol talking about:

A: Gretchen Carlson
B: Kim Kardashian
C: Rand Paul
D: Megyn Kelly
E: Greta Van Susteren

The answer is: C (Rand Paul)

Visit Crooks and Liars for the details: http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/bill-kristol-rand-paul-sophisticated-compl

Who Dealt Gretchen Carlson A Race Card?

Apparently, when white women lose beauty pageants to women of color something has to be wrong according to Fox News morning show commentator Gretchen Carlson, one of the hosts of the dreadful and right-wing Fox and Friends program.

This whole controversy started when Miss Michigan Rima Fakih was named Miss America. By now, her name alone probably tells you how a lot of conservative white people in the media are bound to react.

I found this little clip from Gretchen:

"A lot of people are going to parse this today and ask did she (Miss Oklahoma) Morgan Elizabeth Woolardlose - was she first runner-up - because she supported the Arizona immigration law, and did the Muslim-American win because of the whole PC society that we find ourselves in," said Carlson, who was Miss America in 1989.

Apparently, in Carlson's world, when white women win beauty pageants it's because they're pretty, well spoken and talented. But, when women of color win ...

Check out Steve Pendlebury's article and see all of the hatred coming out from the right toward this young woman from Michigan (from the likes of Michelle Malkin and Debbie Schlussel, a pair of right-wing media extremists).

Also, on Planet Gretchen, when women of color win it's because of the "whole PC society" thing.

By the way, here is what Pendlebury has about Schlussel's hateful attack:

The harshest attack on Fakih so far has come from conservative blogger and talk show host Debbie Schlussel. She claimed that Miss USA has "many relatives" who are terrorists and that a Hezbollah supporter helped bankroll her pageant run. In contrast, Schlussel described Woolard as "classy" and said she gave a "good and somewhat educated answer" about the Arizona law.

That is despicable (read the full version of what she said). It shows how disgusting a bigot like Debbie Schlussel truly is most of the time she opens her mouth or starts typing.

Fox News Hypocrisy Again Shows Through With Franklin Graham Situation

Fox News conservatives (I know ... kind of redundant) are crying like schoolchildren over anti-Muslim hater Franklin Graham having his invitation to speak at a Pentagon National Day of Prayer event revoked.

Fox News brought on a man by the name of whiner Peter Johnson Jr. to come on and cry about poor Franklin Graham being treated so poorly. Yes, if only we were all a little more sensitive to his anti-Muslim bigotry it would be a happier world ... for people like Franklin Graham.

Here is an excerpt of what Media Matters writes (with video of Johnson whining):

In a classic moment of cognitive dissonance, Johnson Jr. said:

No one is out to make any excuses for the statements that Franklin Graham made. And they were made nine years ago, in the wake of 9/11. In the wake of 3,000 deaths. He doesn't need excuses, he's made his viewpoint clear as an evangelical minister and as someone who wants to proselytize the world in the word of Jesus Christ.

Of course, in stressing that Graham's comments were "made nine years ago, in the wake of 9/11," Johnson Jr. is attempting to excuse Graham's comments a few seconds after claiming that "no one" is "out to make any excuses." As my colleague Simon Maloy pointed out, yesterday Johnson Jr. also spent several minutes offering excuses for Graham's anti-Muslim rhetoric, including invoking 9-11. And he's not the only one.

Graham himself has defended his rhetoric about Islam as recently as this past December on CNN, telling Campbell Brown that "True Islam cannot be practiced in this country. You can't beat your wife. You cannot murder your children if you think they've committed adultery or something like that, which they do practice in these other countries."

Last night, Sean Hannity repeatedly excused Graham's comments, specifying that they were aimed at "radical Islam." But the outrage over Graham's comments is that he has taken the actions of fringe lunatics and applied them to an entire faith, which he has classified as a "very evil and wicked religion."

Defense of Graham hasn't been limited to Fox News, as CNN's Erick Erickson wrote that: "The Council on Islamic-American Relations and other Islamic groups got upset with Franklin Graham pointing out the truth."

So, conservatives want Graham's comments to be put into context (it was after 9/11 and it was almost 10 years ago).

Now, imagine if the speaker was say ... randomly ... oh ... the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Would these same conservatives be scrambling to have Rev. Wright put into context? No. Would these same conservatives care that Rev. Wright's controversial comments (the ones played constantly) were made a little after 9/11? No way.

Johnson's comments are so ridiculous it's difficult to know where to begin. Johnson weakly and pathetically tries to bring politics into the issue to try and paint the left as religiously bigoted (oh, the irony of such thought).

Were we "America-lite" when Rev. Wright was being attacked?

Were we "America-lite" when Fr. Michael Pfleger was being attacked?

Watch this video and ask yourself ... Would Peter Johnson would make the same argument for Rev. Jeremiah Wright?

Gretchen Carlson comes on near the end of the clip and whines about us being a politically correct society, but did she feel that way when Rev. Wright and Fr. Pfleger were being attacked and demonized?

Will Bill O'Reilly attack or send one of his "producers" to attack Franklin Graham for his anti-Muslim comments the way he demonizes Minister Louis Farrakhan for (negative comments made toward Jews) and sends his one of his "producer(s)" to hound Fr. Pfleger for defending Farrakhan? No. Is Bill O'Reilly "defending hate" with regard to Graham? see the clip on Pfleger>

Hannity is quick to defend almost anyone (white or black) of any comments that are bigoted or racist against people of color (Rush Limbaugh, Duane "Dog the Bounty Hunter" Chapman, Don Imus, Jesse Lee Peterson, and Michael Richards).

Fox News once again proves to be hypocritical and unethical.

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

The Face Of Republican Extremism: Erich “Mancow” Muller On Fox And Friends

The far-right lunacy of Fox News was again on display as right-wing host Gretchen Carlson was hosting (among other people) nutty talk radio show host Erich “Mancow” Muller, who went off on a hysterical, hate-driven tirade regarding President Obama during a segment on the dreadful Fox & Friends program.

Media Matters for America has posted the video clip of this far-right moron (not that the fact that he is a far-right moron is news) spewing his stank-breath venom on Fox News.

Among other things, Muller referred to President Obama as a “race-baiting community organizer” and claimed (irrationally) that people didn’t want the president’s “communist health care.”

The more people like this become the face of the Republicans the better it is for this country that they continue to be exposed.

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.

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/

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