Tucker Carlson = Psychological Test Case

Fox News (including far-right commentator ... most are on Fox News ... Tucker Carlson) struggles to see the racism at Tea Party. I did an Internet search and found this in a few seconds.

Tucker Carlson, the bow-tie wearing right-wing flamethrower from Fox News infamy, took this recent shot at the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People).

Carlson, like many conservatives, have had a busy summer of hatred toward groups of people of color (SB 1070, hostility toward Hispanics and Latinos, being against the Muslim center in New York near Ground Zero, Tea Party bigotry, fanning the flames of the absurd claim President Obama of being a Muslim, as if there is something wrong with it, ... and on and on it goes).

Fox News, of course, continues to try and position the Tea Party as being targeted by mean black people.

This week, Carlson is taking the baton and continuing that fight by saying the NAACP is "totally discredited, some would say pathetic" as he continues the attack on black institutions:



Right wingers are using a scorched-earth policy of attacking people of color to strengthen their base with conservative whites.

Tucker Carlson calling anyone or any group discredited and pathetic is the height of psychological projection. Tucker, listen to Michael Jackson's old song and start with "The Man in the Mirror."

Media Matters for America:
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201009060005

Beck's "I Have A Scheme" Speech Excerpts

Glenn Beck could just as well have said to his supporters, "Me at last, me at last, thank God almighty ... it's me at last."

Glenn Beck, the far-right Fox News freak, held Beckstock this past weekend in Washington D.C. and delivered words that can best be characterized as "I Have A Scheme" for what it was worth when everything was said and done.

Here is how Beck might have closed his speech as he attempted to hijack the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. over the weekend for his own nefarious, self-promoting purposes:

When all of God's children...
White ones and gently tanned ones...
Filthy rich and very rich ...
Conservative and far-right extremist...
Will be able to join hands and sing unto me in the words of that old right-wing spiritual ...
Me at last...
Me at last...
Thank God Almighty ...
It's me at last!

Yes, I am being satirical ... slightly

CNN Shows Its Weakness With Erickson As A Contributor Going Against Dr. Dyson

I had a chance to watch CNN's Anderson Cooper host a segment on the topic of race with Georgetown University professor Dr. Michael Eric Dyson and CNN contributor/racial flamethrower Erick Erickson.

After watching that segment (talking about a number of recent racial topics ... including strong comments from Howard Dean calling out the racism with Fox News), one thing is for sure: At times, CNN clearly needs no help from Fox News or MSNBC to look bad.

Hiring Erickson as a contributor is a sign of how low CNN's standards have plummeted. Erickson is like a poor man's Rush Limbaugh.

And, to have someone like him on with an impressive speaker like Dr. Dyson, was pathetic. Were Pat Buchanan and Limbaugh already booked elsewhere?

Check out this interview and enjoy a real-life version of the basketball equivalent of the Los Angeles Lakers (Dr. Dyson) playing your local middle school eighth graders (Erickson).

Transcript via CNN below the fold.

COOPER: Well, the charges of racism have been, frankly, used on both sides of the political aisle over the last week. The question is, are they fair? Or have our conversations about race in this country become nothing more than partisan weapons?

Joining me now, RedState.com blogger and CNN contributor Erick Erickson and Georgetown University professor Michael Eric Dyson.

Professor Dyson, what do you make of this? I mean, is Howard Dean basically just using this just as the right has used this? Or is he -- is he correct?

MICHAEL ERIC DYSON, PROFESSOR, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: Well, clearly the history of racism in this country is not simply about individual bias. It's also about institutional power.

And I think, if there's any validity in what Mr. Dean said, it is to point to the institutional matrix in which this whole thing unfolded. The reality is, is that FOX News has not been friendly toward the interests of or perspectives about African-American people or Latinos or a whole range of other minorities.

And I think that when we begin to sling around the term racism, people get offended and think, well, the right says it. The left says it. Well, bias is one thing; racism is another. Racism is the ability to impose your viewpoints, biased as they are, as normative, and then have the power to reinforce them as necessary, and primarily exclusive.

So I think in that sense the institutional power that's wielded by a place like FOX News certainly has to be called into question, and the fringe, as he pointed out, of the Republican Party has to be taken to task for the racist elements that are there.

COOPER: Erick Erickson, what are your thoughts?

ERICK ERICKSON, REDSTATE.COM: Really? We're going to go there with a news channel that they're racists? You know, we can't have an honest conversation about race in this country because of things like this.

Everyone wants to hurl the racism charge, particular towards Republicans and towards conservatives, simply because they don't agree on policy. And we try to take policy disagreements and turn them into racial issues when they're not. I think it's time to grow up.

Honestly, I can't believe an week after the Andrew Breitbart story broke, we're still talking about Shirley Sherrod instead of the economy, jobs, you name it.

DYSON: Well, but here's the problem. When you say that racism is equally distributed on both sides, I have no doubt. And talk about liberal enlightened racism on the one hand and conservative racism on the other. I think that's an absolutely valid point. The problem is...

COOPER: Wait, do you see -- professor, are you saying there's some sort of difference in racism on the left versus racism on the right?

DYSON: No, absolutely not. I'm saying that racism is racism, period. I'm saying it's deeply embedded in the structure of American society and that people on the left and people on the right certainly have been racist and have promoted and promulgated racist ideas. But let's not pretend Mr. Erickson can't be that naive to say it's more than policy disagreement. Policies are rooted in the culture of racism. Jim Crow was a public policy perpetuated by the legal systems of American society. So don't pretend that the mere reference...

ERICKSON: Yes, but tax cuts and stimulus opposition and opposition to Barack Obama are not racist.

DYSON: The opposition to Barack Obama as a witch doctor? Tell me, sir, why -- why the reference to his ethnic particularity has anything to do with his policy? Be opposed to the public policy.

ERICKSON: That's what I'm wondering.

DYSON: What I'm saying is that the witch doctor motif has been perpetuated by the Tea Party. And on top of that, when we talk more specifically about FOX News....

ERICKSON: No, not perpetuated by the Tea Party, just by a few people who were crazy enough to hold up signs.

DYSON: You know what?

ERICKSON: We can't paint with that broad of a brush.

DYSON: I understand that. But, see, that -- that's the argument. You can't paint it with that broad of a brush. But the same people who never stood for civil rights, who never stood for the progressive realization of freedom for minority people, who never stood for the realization of the basic rights of these individuals, then all of a sudden appear on the scene, take the words that have been used by the progressives -- that is civil rights, liberty and justice -- and then use them in defense of right-wing policies that have no sensitivity toward African-American people.

ERICKSON: We've been talking about liberty since the founding of the country. You know...

DYSON: I'm talking about racial liberty, sir.

COOPER: Wait, wait.

DYSON: I'm talking about liberty rooted in...

COOPER: Let...

DYSON: ... the possibility that black people can be -- be respected. That's what I'm speaking of.

COOPER: Let -- let Erick respond.

ERICKSON: You know, to say that people who weren't there marching in the civil rights movements are all of a sudden marching in the streets, and that's proof of racism or something, no, it's not. It's proof of people being hacked off by the growth of government.

And certainly there's some people out there on both sides. I mean, saying the Tea Party is racist is like saying all Democrats support cop killers, because a few Mumia Abu Jamal people show up and have three hand posters. I mean, we're painting with too broad a brush here, and we should be having a serious conversation about race, but we can't because we're too busy with the stereotyping.

DYSON: Well -- no, no, the reason we can't have a serious conversation on race, because it's very difficult for white Americans to conceive the legitimacy of a viewpoint that says, listen, this is not an equal argument. You can't say that, well, it's racism on the left and racism on the right, which is certainly true.

But the problem is, you never acknowledge the vitriolic history of racial animus in this country. And as a result of that, when you say -- you make strong arguments like I'm against people who are out there marching, and because you didn't support the civil rights marches, that therefore, you're racist. That's not what I'm saying.

I'm saying you cooperated with and benefited from a society that was unequal and that permitted African-American people to suffer for a great deal. That's what I'm talking about, something concrete and empirically verifiable and specific.

ERICKSON: My family's from Sweden. How exactly did I benefit from that?

DYSON: Wait a minute. Are you are actually trying to tell me that, because your family is from Sweden, that white skin privilege does not extend to them because they are European and not Anglo-Saxon from America? That's ridiculous.

ERICKSON: See, this is why we really can't have this discussion.

DYSON: No, you don't want to have an honest discussion.

ERICKSON: If I want to have -- if I've got to have the sins of generations ago placed on me...

DYSON: No, not the sins.

ERICKSON: ... we can't move on.

DYSON: I'm not talking about the sins, the benefits.

ERICKSON: The benefits. But you're also talking about them as sins. And you know, I would love to be able to move on from this.

DYSON: No, I'm not talking about the sins, I'm talking about the benefits.

ERICKSON: But the benefits are derived from the sins. Therefore, the benefits are also part of the sins.

DYSON: No, no. I'm saying...

ERICKSON: I will admit, it was terrible. But you know, there were people like Charlton Heston, who marched with Martin Luther King, and if he were alive today he'd be out in the Tea Party movement, as well.

DYSON: All I'm telling you, sir.

ERICKSON: Are we going to say someone like that is racist?

DYSON: I'm telling you this. When you go to the Supreme Court, you make arguments predicated upon what? Legal precedent. Why is it that the right wing is capable of acknowledging the historical impact of precedents that were set 200 years ago but can't acknowledge the benefits that they've inherited as a result of the same system?

So all I'm suggesting to you is that the past does have an impact on the present. And when we deal even with, specifically with FOX News, read Media Matters. FOX News claims it did not report the story before Shirley Sherrod resigned, but FOXNews.com reported on the story before she even resigned. So I'm saying we can't get the facts right.

ERICKSON: No. If you're going to quote from Media Matters, then we just -- we can't have this conversation, because Media Matters is nothing but a left-wing hit job.

DYSON: Well, wait a minute. You play for the Los Angeles Lakers. I play for the Miami Heat, but we're both in the NBA. We still have rules that we have to observe on either side.

ERICKSON: Yes, but you know, we also have facts we have to observe on either side, and it seems like no one wants to talk about the objective facts. We'd rather talk about the spin.

DYSON: Well, no. Sir, that's redundant, objective facts. If it's objective, it's factual.

What I'm certainly suggesting to you is that the facts have been printed there. All we have to do is look at them, sir. And when we look at them, we see that FOXnews.com was involved in the story prior to the resignation of Shirley Sherrod. After...

(CROSSTALK)

ERICKSON: For some reason, you and I are looking at the same facts and coming to different conclusions. Which I guess is fair, but I just don't think we can deal legitimately with this conversation when we're having to go back 200 years to who had benefits and who didn't and what have you.

DYSON: No, I'm talking about benefits right now. Look, if you're a white person and you get stopped by the cops, and the cops don't assume that when you real reach for your wallet it's a gun, that's a form of privilege that has nothing to do with how much money you have or what country you're from.

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: Erick, I'll let you have the final thought, because we've got to go.

ERICKSON: Well, Anderson, I appreciate the time to do this, but I just think we're painting with too broad a brush. And we've just moved to the point where we can't have a civil conversation here.

DYSON: We're very civil. We just disagree.

ERICKSON: Just -- the brush that we're painting, calling people racist and racism. And is the Tea Party or not? We're talking about individuals, and we're painting with a brush that involves groups.

DYSON: We're talking about the collective enterprise -- we're talking about the collective enterprise of American society. Individuals belong to a United States of America. The United States of America benefit from privileges that were extended to certain groups and not to others. So that's empirically verifiable fact.

ERICKSON: There you go.

COOPER: We'll leave it there.

ERICKSON: Thanks, Anderson.

COOPER: Erick Erickson, Professor Michael Eric Dyson, appreciate both your perspectives. Thank you very much.

DYSON: Thank you.

I love this interview because Erickson clearly is overmatched intellectually and resorts to childish counters against Dr. Dyson.

Still, what is CNN doing with Erickson on the air (besides damaging its own reputation)? The man serves no useful purpose except to show that CNN has at least one extremist nutjob to balance hour after hour of far-right hacks on Fox News and Buchanan on MSNBC.

Robertson To Wife With Husbands Who Flirts: Don't Hassle Him

Pat Robertson, a former presidential candidate and all-time religious leader on the far right, had some interesting words for a woman concerned about her husbands flirtations with other women.

CO-HOST: Pat, this is from Anne who says, “My husband has always been a flirt and loves to talk with other women he finds attractive. He says he would never cheat on me but his actions are starting to get to me. What should I do?”

ROBERTSON: Anne, first thing is you need to make yourself as attractive as possible and don’t hassle him about it. And why is he doing this? Well, he’s doing it because he wants affirmation that he is still a man, that he is attractive — and he gets an affirmation of himself. That means he’s got an inferiority complex that’s coming out. And he’s not gonna cheat on you. He’s just playing.

But you need to not drive him away or start hassling and hounding on him, but make yourself as beautiful as you can, as fun as you can, and say let’s go out here, let’s go there, let’s go to the other thing.

"Don't hassle him about it," Robertson said during an airing of his long-time show The 700 Club.

Hmm. That doesn't exactly qualify as sound advice for a woman dealing with a husband of this kind. On the other hand, coming from Pat Robertson, this is not much of a surprise.

Gingrich Wants To Lead U.S. Down A Dark Path Of Divisiveness

The far right and disgraceful Newt Gingrich is using Fox News (he was interviewed by Greta Van Susteren, masquerading as a "Democrat") as a platform to continue to divide Americans ... essentially yelling fire in a crowded room.

This is dangerous talk as Crooks and Liars points out:

VAN SUSTEREN: Continuing with former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. He has a brand-new book, "To Save America: Stopping Obama's Secular Socialist Machine." Speaker Gingrich writes, in part, "The America in which we grew up is vastly different from the America the secular socialist left want to create, and that's why saving America is the fundamental challenge of our time. The secular socialist machine represents as great a threat to America as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union once did."

Speaker Gingrich is here with us. All right, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Go a little far on that one?

GINGRICH: No. Because I'm not talking about moral equivalence of the people, I'm talking about the end result. If the Nazis had defeated us, then America as we know it would have disappeared. If the Soviet Union had defeated us, the America as we know it would have disappeared. I argue in this book -- and I think it's a pretty reasoned and compelling argument -- that the fact is, the values of a secular socialist movement are antithetical -- and you hear from President Obama all the time.

You know, we're a country that says we're endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights. The secular socialist left doesn't want God anywhere in public life and doesn't want to acknowledge God anywhere in public life, to such a degree that the Democratic candidate for the Senate of Massachusetts said maybe if you're Catholic, you shouldn't work in an emergency room, OK? That's a fairly radical statement.

Similarly, we believed historically you get to go out and work as hard as you want. You get to dream as big as you want. And then you get to keep it. Now you have a president who says openly, you know, some people make too much money, and maybe he should decide. Now, I mean, his idea of redistribution is that politicians decide how much you ought to get to keep of what you earn.

Gingrich is irresponsible and speaks to a growing number of angry Americans who are attempting to take this country down a sinister and radical path.

When It Comes To Money Mike And The Republicans … They Are Who We Thought They Were

“They are who we thought they were,” is a quote made famous (maybe infamous) by former Arizona Cardinals head coach Dennis Green during an explosive press conference years back.

But, when you think of Michael “Money Mike” Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee, the quote sadly rings all too true. Regretfully, Steele has become a phony face of diversity for a party all too comfortably willing to engage in the most hateful brand of politics now that we have a black man, Barack Obama, as president of the United States.

From the New York Daily News:

A secret GOP fundraising document urges the party to fill its coffers by playing on donors’ “fear” of Barack Obama and a pledge to “save the country from trending towards socialism,” Politico.com reports, complete with an image depicting Barack Obama as the Joker.

The strategy was presented by the RNC’s Finance Director, Rob Bickhart, and Finance Chairman, Peter Terpelk, to fundraisers at a GOP retreat in Florida, the Web site reports.

Included in the Power Point presentation is a slide titled ‘The Evil Empire’ depicting Sen. Harry Reid as Scooby Doo and Nancy Pelosi as Cruella DeVille, along with the Joker caricature of Obama.

No amount of pathetic excuse making (saying the offensive images had been on the Web, throwing a staffer under the bus, saying it was just for a small group, it was supposed to be humorous, turning himself into the victim) on the part of Money Mike is going to erase the fact that the Republicans’ game plan is to use the politics of fear and division to achieve what they deem to be “success” in future campaigns.

Steele says they will not tolerate this, but only time will tell if he is being a windbag trying to perform damage control.

In the video, he starts whining and trying to shift the debate back to health care and then turning himself to the victim over and over again.

Steele looks pathetic and like a clown defending this garbage.

Instead of answers, all Steele had to offer were excuses, issue shifting and victimization.

Democrats don’t want to get caught not looking and blindsided by the trash people apparently affiliated with the RNC are putting out.

The last thing Democrats want is to feel like Dennis Green did in the video below:

Can’t let them off the hook.

The Latest WTF Moment: Republican Congressman Suggests Blacks Are Worse Off Now Than During Slavery

Add Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) to the list of far-right nuts making absurd claims about black people and the issue of race. From the realm of the extreme far right comes Franks, who is out of the mold of fellow hate-driven talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh. Franks, in one of the most absurd comments ever, suggests that blacks were better off in slavery than they are now under current policies in the U.S.

FRANK: In this country, we had slavery for God knows how long. And now we look back on it and we say “How brave were they? What was the matter with them? You know, I can’t believe, you know, four million slaves. This is incredible.” And we’re right, we’re right. We should look back on that with criticism. It is a crushing mark on America’s soul. And yet today, half of all black children are aborted. Half of all black children are aborted. Far more of the African-American community is being devastated by the policies of today than were being devastated by policies of slavery. And I think, What does it take to get us to wake up?

Come on, now. Where are these far-right morons coming from with this unbelievably divisive rhetoric? Is it any wonder why the Tea Party gatherings are so diversity challenged? Honestly, why would black people want to be a part of a movement so extreme, hateful and antagonistic in its rhetoric. But, this is about more than just Tea Party turkeys. This is also about the far right and its constant yearning to pick at the scabs of racism to create fresh wounds from old wounds.

Think Progress:
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/02/26/franks-slavery-abortion/

The Majority Of Blacks Lean Left, But That Doesn’t Stop Name Calling

I found this kind of interesting as I took one of my many daily travels through the blogosphere in search of interesting little nuggets. On the blog, Politics, Policy, Pathology and Hope WITHIN The Black Community, I found this finish to a blog entry:

There are two names that one will never be called in Black America (OK – 3 now that I think about it)

1. “You are a left-wing extremist”
2. “You are carrying the water for the Democrats”
3. “You have sold out to Barack Obama where you care more about his political fortunes than you do your own permanent interests”.

Here are a few thoughts I had off the top of my head:

1. First and foremost, this is pretty much assumed of many black people (in and out of the media). Secondly, does the name Van Jones ring a bell?
2. Pretty much any black person who goes on television, as a liberal, is presumed to be carrying the water for the Democrats (so it doesn’t necessarily need to be spelled out explicitly).
3. Oprah Winfrey was nailed with this charge during the campaign by conservatives who became angry that she did not give Sarah Palin, then the vice presidential candidate, a forum on Oprah’s popular syndicated talk show.

Those are just a few examples off the top of my head.

Now, for the most part, these are indeed labels a lot of blacks do not have to fear, but that is mostly because many people simply assume all blacks are in the corner of Democrats.

A FEW SIDE NOTES: I am not sure that everyone would agree with Sen. Evan Bayh about the Democrats moving too far to the left. Some would say (considering the Dems gave in on aspects of health care, sending more troops to war, etc., that President Obama has moved too far to the middle and has upset his base). That is just something to think about with this kind of discussion. Also, keep in mind, Sen. Bayh is trying to position himself as a centrist for political purposes.

More Anita Dunn Attacks From Right-Wing Nuts With Distortions

The right-wing nuts, led by Fox News has been on the attack against White House communications director Anita Dunn due to her strongly-worded criticism of the conservative network for its obvious right-wing bias (that includes both opinion and news content that leans heavily to the right). The righties have been working hard to falsely portray her as an admirer of former Chinese communist leader Mao Tse-tung and now the latest is a disgraceful and sloppy attempt (a “Hail Mary” to borrow a football analogy) by Fox News to grossly mischaracterize Dunn’s comments about the campaign strategy of Team Obama during the presidential election of 2008.

Media Matters has been leading the charge to correct Fox News misinformation on this issue:

DUNN: A huge part of our press strategy was focused on making the media cover what Obama was actually saying as opposed to, you know, why the campaign was saying it, what the tactic was, that we — we had a huge premium both on message discipline, on people in the campaign not leaking to reporters and people in the campaign not discussing our strategy, and also on making the press cover what we were saying.

So we, you know, one of the reasons we did so many of the David Plouffe videos was not just for our supporters, but also because it was a way for us to get our message out without having to actually talk to reporters; we just put that out there and make them write what Plouffe had said as opposed to Plouffe doing an interview with a reporter. So it was very much we controlled it, as opposed to the press controlled it.

That is what Dunn said, but here is how Fox News mischaracterized her comments to put them in the most negative light possible (remember that this is coming from a “legitimate news organization”) in an ongoing retaliation effort:

The Obama campaign’s press strategy leading up to his election last November focused on “making” the media cover what the campaign wanted and on exercising absolute “control” over coverage, White House Communications Director Anita Dunn told an overseas crowd early this year.

In a video of the event, Dunn is seen describing in detail the media strategy used by then-Sen. Barack Obama’s highly disciplined presidential campaign. The video is footage from a Jan. 12 forum hosted by the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development in the Dominican Republic.

“Very rarely did we communicate through the press anything that we didn’t absolutely control,” Dunn said, admitting that the strategy “did not always make us popular in the press.”

This is, of course, a gross and irresponsible mischaracterization of what Dunn said. Fox misleads readers into thinking that Dunn was saying that the Obama campaign controlled the media which is false and irresponsible on the part of people at Fox News.

Notice how Fox takes single words quotations and frames them based on their own right-wing bias (an effort that is even more powerful considering its ongoing vendetta against Anita Dunn).

Here is how Media Matters boiled it down:

WorldNetDaily, followed by the Drudge Report and Fox Nation, falsely claimed that during a January 12 speech, White House communications director Anita Dunn boasted about the White House’s “control” over the media. In fact, Dunn was discussing the Obama campaign’s strategy for controlling the campaign’s message, not the media; moreover, her comments were made before Obama had taken office and before she became communications director.

So, the campaign was not controlling the media, but making sure its own message was controlled and consistent. This distortion by Fox News is done purposely and, I believe, maliciously simply to attack Anita Dunn in retaliation for her strong comments about what she perceives as bias on the part of Fox News.

Fox News, of course, responds like an elementary-school child would … with attacks, lies, gossip and essentially name calling.

Check out the Media Matters research to see the depth and breadth of the lies coming from the far right in a desperate attempt to attack Anita Dunn.

Fox News Distorts Innocent Classroom Activity To Attack President Obama, Hint At Anti-Americanism

This is a reach by even the low Fox News standards for objectivity.

Fox News on-air personalities have been whining about President Obama not coming to them and kissing their butts when he made appearances on major television networks, but skipped Fox (which has skipped out on him during a few of his speeches and meetings when other networks covered them). Was that a case of putting financial gain before country? (If Fox can ask these kind of loaded questions then I guess others can, too). But, perhaps part of the reason the president has avoided Fox News is its ongoing campaign to demonize him and hint that he may somehow be anti-American or that supporters of him may be anti-American. The latest from Fox News is a video it has plastered all over its homepage of young school students from B. Bernice Young Elementary School in Burlington, N.J., singing songs about the messages they’ve heard from President Obama. But, instead of looking at it as students learning about the presidency and the messages of equality they were actually singing about, Fox News takes it and turns it into the most negative interpretation possible.

Here is the image it put on the Web and (below it) how Fox News described the video:

Here is how Fox News describes the video of those evil messages such as lending a hand, making the country strong, equal work means equal pay and being fair.

Video shows little kids at the B. Bernice Young Elementary School in Burlington, N.J., being taught to sing Obama’s praises — have they already learned the Star Spangled Banner, America the Beautiful and God Bless America?
• VIDEO: School Kids’ Song Praises Obama

The messages below the Fox headline don’t match. The kids, based on those lyrics were not singing the president’s praises, but rather singing about his messages that all good people should embrace. A large majority of the people who are angry are those who just can’t stand that a black man is in such a prominent position and can’t handle the historical significance of his presidency, with positive messages and that people are listening and being moved. None of these people cared about this kind of stuff when Bush was in office or even when President Clinton was in office.

Where were these conservatives when President Bush was going to schools hyping No Child Left Behind and drawing praise from school children?

Now, notice the part where Fox asks if the children have already learned the Star Spangled Banner, America the Beautiful and God Bless America? This is of course done to again raise the idea of the president and those who support him being anti-American or not having the best interest of the country first and foremost. This is yet another case of Fox News injecting its right-wing bias into what should have been a fair and balanced news story. But, as we know, Fox is neither fair nor balanced its news and is especially unfair and unbalanced when it is reporting on almost anything it feels can portray Barack Obama in a negative light.

I bet none of the right wingers at Fox cared about praise from school children toward President George W. Bush when he was in office or since he has been out of office. No, the bigotry of Fox News is on display only in matters related to President Obama.

Watch the video for yourself. The video is completely innocent. I did stuff like this when I was in elementary school where we talked about national leaders, historical figures and others.

This is just stupid, far-right political hate from conservatives , such as those we see from morning to evening on Fox News, who didn’t (and still don’t) care about praise school kids have given to previous presidents.

Angry right wingers, such as the people who run Fox News, are in full-blown attack mode as they go at President Obama and we still are not even a year removed from Election Day 2008.

This one is weak even by far-right standards (on the YouTube page some nut compares President Obama to Kim Jong il, Fidel Castro, Adolph Hitler and others). These right wingers are overflowing with hate. My goodness, well-known people who speak to elementary school students often are praised with songs or get handmade drawings, paintings or handwritten thank yous. This is weak.

A couple of things:

Oh yea, Fox News also had this bullet underneath the video as more evidence of fear and smear politics:
Is Obama’s ‘Safe Schools Czar’ Unsafe for Schools?

Bush visits George W. Bush Elementary (remember when conservatives had a fit when an elementary school was about to be named for President Obama?):
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2006/10/03/bush-visits-george-w-bush-elementary/

CNN’s Howard Kurtz Properly Points Out Dishonesty Of Glenn Beck, Hidden Agenda

ox News far-right talk show host Glenn Beck has been trashing a man named Van Jones. Media Matters for America has a clip of CNN’s Howard Kurtz posted on its Web site. In the clip, Kurtz points out, however, that Beck is being irresponsible and abusing his platform by not admitting his own hidden agenda in his attack of Jones. Beck has been targeted for boycott by a group (ColorOfChange) that Jones once was affiliated with as co-founder. Beck has been angry about the success of the ColorOfChange boycott and has used his anger to attack Van Jonesand attack President Obama (by attacking Jones and trying to portray him as a black radical). Not to demean Jones, but he serves in a position few people would have much interest in if not for the efforts of Beck who is attempting to again use racial politics to (1) save himself, (2) attack President Obama and (3) portray himself as being attacked by black radicals to appeal to his mostly conservative audience. Beck’s efforts are probably meeting with success since he knows what appeals to his audience at Fox News and on the radio.

Far-Right Bill O’Reilly Tries To Help Even More Far-Right Glenn Beck

Far-right Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly brought in one of the few people he would have to turn to the right and use binoculars to see, the nutty Glenn Beck.

This is an excerpt from The O’Reilly Sucks Blog:

Next up was Glenn Beck, Billy had Beck on to cry about the liberals who are attacking him. Beck said he dont care, and called them communists. O’Reilly mentioned Van Jones and the colorofchange group, but never once mentioned that 36 sponsors have pulled their ads from the Glenn Beck show. They just ignored it like it never happened, then claimed it was only liberals who are mad at Beck. Earth to Billy and crazy Glenn Beck, when 36 major Corporations pull their ads from your show, including wal-mart, Sprint, Farmers Insurance, and UPS, etc. it’s more than just liberals mad at you.

Andnot once has O’Reilly ever mentioned why those sponsors have pulled their ads from the Beck show, because Beck called Obama a racist who hates white people.So they ignore all the facts to claim that only liberals are mad at him. Hey guys, wal-mart is hardly a liberal company. O’Reilly even said the left is against freedom of speech, and they just want to shut him and Beck up. Which is just ridiculous, and total right-wing lies. The left supports free speech 100%, all we want from you right-wing stooges is for you to tell the truth, and stop putting out all the right-wing propaganda and lies. We dont want to shut you up, we just want you to tell the truth. So we report on your lies, and that is not violating your free speech rights in any way.

O’Reilly called Van Jones anti-American, then admitted he knows nothing about the man. Beck called him a communist, and repeated the same crap he reported about him on his Tuesday show. Beck even talked about the Obama FCC diversity czar, he claims the man is a radical who wants to limit how many kids you can have, and that he is going to shut down all the right-wing talk radio shows. Which is all lies, none of that is going to happen, but O’Reilly sat there and agreed with Beck like it was true. Finally beck said he feels sorry for the Kennedy family, but that he did not agree with Ted Kennedy on anything.

It shows how sad things are that these cable news commentary shows have hosts interviewing other hosts so they can promote each other and use a little help to advance their extremist agendas. O’Reilly seemed to have Beck on to do little more than to help the ridiculous talk show host try to rehabilitate his damaged image in the wake of his insanely-nutty and racial charges against President Obama that has caused sponsors to distance themselves.

The Politics Of Fear Are Spiraling Out Of Control For Conservatives

The politics of fear, divisiveness, ugliness, anger and hatred sadly were hallmarks of the failed presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain and former Alaska governor Sarah Palin.

The fear, divisiveness, anger and hatred McCain and Palin attempted to harness, to build a successful campaign toward the White House, failed and merely set the stage for a level of anger we’re seeing today that should put a chill down the spine of this country. Hateful extremist conservatives have ratcheted up the hatred to seemingly the highest political DEFCON-type levels and have directed their disproportionate and misguided anger at President Barack Obama. Many of these same far-right conservatives, who were in full attack mode against President Clinton, then fell back into a soft zone defense during the President Bush years are now running a fastbreak of hate, anger and division against President Obama.

Today, far-right conservatives are attacking with reckless abandon.

As a nation, we witnessed this dangerous emotion throughout last year’s presidential campaign during several rallies put together to support McCain and Palin.

To his credit, near the end of the presidential campaign, it seemed McCain recognized the hatred had begun to spiral beyond control into a dangerous territory.

But, on Tuesday in his home state of Arizona, McCain recently got another whiff of the hatred that was sparked during his campaign. McCain attempted to tell his people that the president respects the constitution, but that he and other Republicans simply had differences of opinion as to how to guide the country. Whether or not that is the simple basis for the anger is debatable, but what is hardly debatable is the angry response that popped McCain upside the head.

“Wait a minute. Wait a minute,” he told the crowd in Sun City, Airzona. “He is sincere in his beliefs, we just happen to disagree. And he is the president. And let’s be respectful.”

A questioner had asked whether Obama realized that the spending priorities his administration is pursuing are “against the Constitution.”

“Doesn’t he know that we still live under a Constitution?” the attendee asked.

“I’m sure that he does,” McCain responded. The crowd, thinking the response was a joke, laughed along.

“No, no. I am serious. I am sure that he does and I’m sure he respects the Constitution,” said McCain.

Shouts of “No” came from the crowd.

“I really do,” McCain pleaded. “I am absolutely convinced of it. I just believe, my friends, that there is a fundamental difference in philosophy and about the role of government. That is why we have competition for public office and competition amongst parties, and competition about different ideas and vision for the future of America. I’m convinced the president is absolutely sincere in his beliefs.”

Moderate conservatives have allowed (by not standing against it strongly enough) this hateful rhetoric (using code words like socialist, socialism, Nazi, Hitler and more) to sow the seeds of hate and hostility and portray the president (as we’ve seen with this ridiculous birther campaign pushed by far-right nuts) as “not one of us.”

This kind of talk is dangerous and is taking this country where it should not want to go.

Think Progress Writer Amanda Terkel Discusses The Right Wing’s Attempt To Smear Mark Lloyd

Think Progress writer has a compelling blog posted today about the attempts of those to the far right of the mainstream attempting to smear a man named Mark Lloyd, who is the FCC Chief Diversity Officer/Associate General Counsel. Since the far right is so dominate in the talk radio media, conservatives have been watchful and eager to attack anyone who they even remotely think could be in the way of right-wing talk radio continuing its dominance.

Here is an excerpt from Terkel’s blog at Think Progress:

Since the FCC appointed Mark Lloyd as the agency’s Chief Diversity Officer/Associate General Counsel on July 29, conservatives have made him their new target in the ongoing campaign to baselessly warn about the reemergence of the Fairness Doctrine. The most absurd attacks have come from pundits like right-wing radio host Michael Savage, who has called Lloyd a “neo-Nazi” and “piece of garbage” intent on closing down “conservatives in the media.” He said that Lloyd’s title — Chief Diversity Officer — is “code word for the KGB.”

Such hateful words from Michael Savage is nothing new as he is known to attack people (especially minorities) while standing in defense of pretty much anything white and conservative.

Terkel highlights an attack from Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who seems to be right in line with what Savage is thinking:

Simply put, I strongly disagree with Mr. Lloyd. I do not believe that more regulation, more taxes or fines, or increased government intervention in the commercial radio market will serve the public interest or further the goals of diversifying the marketplace. I am concerned that despite his statements that the Fairness Doctrine is unnecessary, Mr. Lloyd supports a backdoor method of furthering the goals of the Fairness Doctrine by other means.

Typical far-right talk from a far-right senator who is well outside the mainstream in a party that clearly is a diversity-challenged one.

Terkel works hard to put everything into context for her readers.

Check out her blog:
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/08/22/mark-lloyd/

Crooks And Liars Blog Mentions Far-Right Nut Who Went After Rep. Barney Frank

This is an excerpt from a blog entry on the site Crooks and Liars (referencing the political activist who invoked hateful rhetoric and hateful images of President Obama to make a pointless point).

Bill O’Reilly did an interesting thing last night when he reran that footage of Barney Frank castigating that woman carrying an Obama-as-Hitler sign at his town-hall meeting on health care: He completely omitted the fact that the woman who Frank was castigating was in fact a member of the far-right Lyndon Larouche cult.

All O’Reilly could muster was to mention that the woman was “a political activist.” But that’s like calling a Great White Shark a fish.

No, right-wingers like O’Reilly have been eagerly airbrushing out the existence of right-wing extremists from their worldviewfor some time now, embodied by their reaction to that DHS bulletin. But it’s getting harder and harder to do all the time now.

Because, as we’ve noted, the far-right extremists are bubbling up everywhere in supposedly mainstream conservative circles these days — particularly at the tea parties and their associated health-care protests.

Far-Right Nuts Try To Smear Sonia Sotomayor By Invoking Bill Ayers

These extremists on the far right of the political spectrum (so far away from the mainstream they would need to take a plane flight to get to the rest of us) are at it again with a nasty attack ad (from the Committee for Justice, a far-right organization) against Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama’s nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court. And, the far-right nuts bring back the name Bill Ayers and of course mix in President Obama to round out the dumb attack. It just shows the hatred coming from the far right and the fear that some try to spark in others.

Think Progress:
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/14/sotomayor-cfj/

Rupert Murdoch Still Stretching Believability About Fox News

Today, News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, the man who runs the conservative Fox News (among media outlets – almost all of which are ultra conservative) network continues to be dishonest about his baby, Fox News.

MURDOCH: If we weren’t fair and balanced, we wouldn’t have the number one network in news — by a very wide margin. People believe we’re fair and balanced, and they love us.

To the contrary, Fox News is popular because it IS NOT fair and balanced. The network strives to appeal to the far right in our society. These are the same people who push the largely-conservative talk radio industry so far to the extreme right. Fox News took a successful hardcore right-wing perspective from radio and used it in a different medium: television.

All the right-wing nuts know they can cluster around the television for hour after hour of far-right commentary on Fox News.

Think Progress:
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/06/08/murdoch-fair-fox/