Posts with the tag FOX News

Why Fox News Must Be Taken Off the Air, and How it Can Be Done (Part 1)

Johnny Strife — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:18:50 EST

WITH FOXES, WE MUST PLAY THE FOX

Why Fox News Must be Taken Off the Air, And How it Can Be Done

by Johnny Strife

Part One: The Problem

In the midst of America’s Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus to shut down newspapers that were fueling insurrection by printing what he considered to be seditious material. He stated his rationale for such seemingly draconian measures by asking, “Are all the laws, but one, to go unexecuted, and the government itself go to pieces, lest that one be violated?” Today, another President from Illinois (kind of), Barack Obama, is the Commander-in-Chief of a nation at war on two fronts, Iraq and Afghanistan. He might also, one might argue, be presiding over a nascent civil war at home. Granted, this civil war is now only a war of words, but in history, words have often been the genesis of real battles.

Although Obama had grand hopes of unifying a country so endemically fractured by its ideological, religious, racial and sexual differences once he took office, we are now arguably more divided than ever before. Loud, toxic voices are stirring up winds of anger, hatred and fear. The most overbearing of these voices is that of the media leviathan Fox News Channel. In America, a land where pride and greed are tacitly considered virtues, he who speaks with the loudest voice is often considered the most righteous, which might be why Fox News Channel (FNC) garners more viewers than any other news provider.

For eight long years, FNC played the cheerleader to President George W. Bush and his administration, lauding his every action as heroic and unconditionally omitting all of his mistakes and crimes. But after Fox-endorsed Senator John McCain lost the 2008 election, FNC turned 180-degrees and became a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week Obama-bashing marathon. Mere minutes after FNC aired the Presidential Inauguration on January 20, 2009, Glenn Beck, apocalyptic fear-monger and host of FNC’s Glenn Beck Program, came on the air and started to verbally tear the new President to shreds, invoking the name of the Christian God to do it. There was no grace period; the crucifixion began before the First Couple’s first dance, and it hasn’t stopped since.

From its humble beginnings in 1985 until now, FNC has promulgated a gospel of hatred and fear, degrading the level of mainstream American journalism to a nadir so abysmal and vile that it has made tabloid fluff like CNN look like a real news channel by comparison. You can usually spot a hardcore FNC viewer (and really, is there any other kind?) by their harried, distracted appearance and their almost palpable aura of barely suppressed hysteria. They have the demeanor of the doomed, as if America is on the brink of collapse. Out of nowhere, they’ll make bizarre statements with the conviction of a street preacher; stuff like: “Barack Obama said if he gets elected he’s going to throw out the Constitution.” (I actually heard that, more than twice.) Or, “Did you hear that Barack Obama promised all the black people that if they got him elected he’d give them $500 each?” And they usually have something bad to say about Oscar-winning actors and any musicians that don’t sing country or gospel.

This proposal isn’t for those people; they’re already lost. They wouldn’t read it anyway, even if they are semi-literate; they’d think it was a product of the “liberal media elite”. Fox Fans like their information disseminated with a fist and condensed to the simplest of sound bites; they don’t want to read something with a lot of big words in it. I used to have a modicum of pity for FNC viewers, akin to that which I hold for those simple folk who offed themselves back in 1938 because they believed Orson Welles’ “War of the Worlds” radio drama was an actual, live news broadcast. But now the hateful bile and deception spewed daily by their oracle into the national consciousness has reached a critical mass, and it’s time for those of us whose love for America isn’t limited to its straight, white, conservative, and evangelical citizens to start taking the future of our country a little more seriously. I know this is a case of preaching to the choir, but everyone else in the church seems to have fallen asleep.

FNC’s proponents vehemently deny that it is a conservative network, claiming their programming is “Fair and Balanced” (FNC’s trademark), that they show all sides of an issue, unlike all the other “media elite,” which have a hidden liberal agenda. But the fact is, FNC is the American version of Al Jazeera: a tool used by the conservative party to control the miniscule minds of the ignorant masses. The only substantive difference is that FNC isn’t motivated by religious fanaticism, but rather by greed: the more people it gets to watch its product, the more advertisers pay it to air their commercials. Rupert Murdoch, FNC’s owner, knows something about making money. He is a conservative Australian media tycoon with a Ronald Reagan infatuation and, apparently, a desire to own all media in the world. In 2004, he owned nine satellite television networks, 100 cable channels, 175 newspapers, 40 book imprints, 40 television stations, and a movie studio. His U.S. television network reached 180-million viewers, while his Asian satellite network reached 300-million. His cable channels reached 300-million homes. His magazines reached 28-milion readers. His total audience was 4.7 billion people, which is three-fourths of Earth’s population, and that was five years ago. He went on to buy MySpace in 2005.

Murdoch gave birth to Fox News when he bought Washington D.C.’s Metromedia News Channel WTTG in 1985. The man he chose to be FNC’s President, Roger Ailes, was a Republican media strategist employed by Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. His game plan for Bush Sr.’s campaign featured a preincarnation of the smear tactics of Karl Rove: he used the image of William Horton, a black convict serving a life sentence in Massachusetts for murder. While released from prison on a weekend furlough program – which Bush’s opponent, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, had supported – Horton raped a woman, pistol-whipped, stabbed and tied up her fiancé, and stole their car. Ailes used this tragic incident as the centerpiece of Bush’s campaign, painting Dukakis as a bleeding heart liberator of black rapist murderers. He said of his own strategy, “The only question is whether we depict Willie Horton with a knife in his hand or without it.”

John Moody, FNC Senior Vice President, is a stout conservative with a long career in journalism. Moody is the actual ideological force behind FNC; all of its shows and reports are basically a mouthpiece for his arch-conservative views. He controls the daily talking points that every FNC host, anchor, commentator and reporter will follow by disseminating daily memos. These memos are usually taken directly from the daily press releases of the Republican National Committee. These talking points are echoed, often verbatim, through every show in the course of a news day, beginning with the morning show, Fox Friends, and continuing through the news, punditry and business segments. There is a unity of purpose and message at FNC that exists nowhere else in American journalism, and it is a message that parallels, without the slightest deviance, that of the Republican Party. Like the Biblical demon that Jesus exorcised in The Gospel of Mark, one can almost imagine Moody intoning, “My name is Legion… for we are many.”

Tony Snow, who died of colon cancer in 2005, was the host of Fox News Sunday. Before that, he was a speechwriter for the first Bush administration. He actually left FNC to replace Scott McClellan as the Press Secretary for the second Bush administration. Brit Hume, Fox’s managing editor and anchor of Special Report, used to contribute to the conservative magazines American Spectator and the The Weekly Standard. Catherine Crier, anchor of Crier Report, used to be a Republican judge.

As the years passed, FNC gradually become more flagrant in their partisanship. In 2000, for instance, Carl Cameron was FNC’s Senior Political Correspondent, covering the presidential election. Meanwhile, his wife Pauline was working for then-Texas Governor Bush’s presidential campaign. FNC didn’t even blanch at this blatant conflict of interest, though even CNN had the journalistic integrity to pull one of its top reporters from the campaign trail when it was discovered her husband was one of Al Gore’s lawyers. In a videotaped interview he conducted on June 19, 2000, Cameron blushed like a ten-year-old girl with a backstage pass to a Hannah Montana concert as he told Bush that his wife was “hanging out” with Bush’s sister, and overcoming her fear of talking before crowds. “She’s a good soul,” said Bush, nodding sagely. “She’s a really good soul.”

As if that wasn’t bad enough, it got even worse five months later. In a diabolically cynical, blatantly political move that permanently obliterated any arguments FNC might ever raise about being a non-partisan news channel, the man FNC put in charge of its Election Analysis Division, stationed in Florida, on election night, was George W. Bush’s cousin, John Ellis. It was him who made the call to FNC headquarters reporting that Bush was the next President of the United States, even though the data from the exit polls hadn’t yet been crunched. (As is now public record, when the exit polls were finally counted, Al Gore had won, but who cares now, right?) Mere minutes after FNC joyfully and “officially” announced that their man had won, ABC, CBS and NBC, not wanting to appear sluggish at getting the news out, followed suit and echoed the same faulty information. The falsehood became fact in the public’s perception, and the Democrats, as is their wont, went down without a real fight. To put into perspective just how inconceivable this farce was: in 2000, there were roughly 281-million people living in America. Is it numerically possible that out of all those souls, the man who made the call that essentially elevated Bush to the office of the most powerful man on the planet was his cousin, and the governor of the state that helped him do it was his brother? If former Vice President Al Gore, Bush’s opponent, had pulled those kind of shenanigans, FNC would have torn him a new asshole. (Actually, FNC’s goons do, still, mostly because he believes in global warming, but perhaps also because they’re jealous of him: nobody at FNC will ever, ever win a Nobel Peace Prize.)

Since that victory, FNC’s reporting has gotten exponentially more partisan and divorced from reality. Its Vice President of News, Bill Sammon, said the 2005 Hurricane Katrina debacle wasn’t the Bush administration’s fault; rather, that it was the fault of local governments for not being able to take care of their constituents.

Scrutinizing this sampling of FNC’s leaders and “news” correspondents, one can see that there is not one liberal, or even a moderate, among them. In my next segment, some examples of FNC’s “commentary” people will be presented.

FOX IS NEWS

pissedoff — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 02:46:02 EDT

My distaste for Fox News knows no bounds....but.... whoever you are (including you Mr. President) are wrong in not including Fox any debate, etc..

Yes, Fox has a right wing point of view, to put it mildly, but there are networks (going unnamed right now) that are unabashedly left. So what, I say.

Let's get in the ring together and bash it out. Let no one be excluded; if they are; we go the way of the Soviet Union. And, I, for one, would not want the South to succeed again; I'd likely be sentenced to death by Country Music.

AHHHH!

RAMMING SPEED

GUN DEALER — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:05:50 EDT

The title says all you need to know about this "prez'dint's" commitment to "bipartisanship".But bipartisanship doesn't matter anyway…the Democrats have the votes to ram this crap through without a single Republican committing political suici, "joining them"…The only reason obama or the Democrats want Republican participation in the upcoming disaster is so that they'll have someone to blame when the American people turn on them!!!

BY Chisco on 09/09/2009 at 12:03

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/57859-boehner-gop-leaders-havent-met-obama-for-health-talks-since-april

OBAMA REFUSES TO TALK TO REPUBLICANS

GUN DEALER — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:01:25 EDT

Boehner: GOP leaders haven't met Obama for health talks since AprilBy Molly K. Hooper - 09/09/09 11:09 AM ET

The ball is in President Obama's court to reach out to Republicans if he wants a bipartisan bill on healthcare reform, House GOP Leader John Boehner (Ohio) said Monday morning.

Boehner told reporters that the president has not invited House GOP leaders to the White House for meetings on healthcare reform since the end of April.

Earlier this year, GOP leaders sent a letter to the president in May stating that they would like to work with the administration to find "common ground" on healthcare reform.

But the administration responded with a tersely worded letter indicating that they had healthcare reform under control.

Obama/Biden’s SUCCESS IS THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN TO THE REPUBLICAN PARTY…

Frank Esposito — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:12:48 EDT

Update 9-5-09
Obama/Biden Administration is showing WEAKNESS and the right-wing predators have NOTICED!

Obama/Biden accepts the resignation from Van Jones? Are you kidding me? WHAT… are we putting down people who happen to have the COURAGE (balls) to be honest and speak their minds? The Republicans ARE assholes! (but most people are AFRAID to say it)

So Van Jones made comments and statements that the Conservatives don’t like… well boo #*~/’n hoo. I can’t think of a Bush/Cheney Administration official or appointee that DIDN’T say things that made me want to put my boot into a TV screen. How come they never had to walk on eggshells or resign?

I’ve been to protest rallies/marches all over the nation and at every one of them I've met a communist or socialist somewhere in the crowd. DOES THAT MAKE ME A bad guy?

I got copies of The Militant, People’s Weekly World, The Grassroots Press and the War Crimes Times in my files. (I think history has shown quite clearly that those who use the uncomplimentary communist label to destroy others are the worst kind of CONTROL by AUTHORITY FASCISTS)

Speaking of War Crimes, WHO on the Left hasn’t thought or considered that 9/11 wasn’t an inside job? (Anyone’s who watched the movie “Zeitgeist”) Look into George W. Bush‘s eyes as he was sitting in that class room on 9/11. COME ON! One has GOT TO ADMIT something stinks. Especially with guys like Cheney and Rumsfeld in power and all that super secret, black op, highly paid military contractor, Neo-Con bullshit going on…

Anyway, the point I’m trying to make is that if Van Jones was a highly knowledgeable, right man for the job… WHY THE #*~/ SHOULD WE CARE WHAT THE MEDIA OR THE RIGHT-WING THINKS? Is this what Obama/Biden are all about… IMAGE rather than accomplishment?

If Obama/Biden needs help with controlling BULLIES then I’m still open to an offer $… On the other hand maybe I should quit politics because I’m starting to dislike Democrats almost as much as the Republicans. if you don't have the ciones to fight... YOU SHOULD NOT BE IN POWER! (At the very least hire someone who does)

I’m going to give ONE more FREE example how hiring Conscious Man Consultants will solve the Conservative/Republican problem. We can put a specialized, personalized plan of action in motion that will keep the right-wing occupied attacking US instead of Obama/Biden Administration officials… (just in case you people actually want to do all those things Obama has been speaking about since 2007)

PREMISE:
Conservatives seemed to have LOST THEIR MINDS! From the local level to national spokespersons, even in the Halls of Congress, it’s nothing but FEAR and SMEAR. No new ideas, nothing good to say, nothing good to do. Only rabid hate and criticism of Obama/Biden, Democrats, Progressives and Liberals. Like a mad dog ready to attack anything that gets in it’s way.

NOTE: This whole mad, hoo-hah paranoia Conservatives are making about Obama’s speech to elementary kids is the straw that broke the camels back. These people are f*~/'n INSANE!

People in the age group have told me that when they were in school classes were stopped for the OJ trial verdict, aggghhhhhhagggg! AND YOU STUPID MOTHERFUCKERS ARE upset about President Obama addressing the children in the beginning of their school year, ENCOURAGING the youth to make the best of their education?

Many of these Conservative nutcases are on the verge of violent acts against all us COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS IN THE TRENCHES doing all the organizing legwork for Obama/Biden and the Democrats. WE NEED YOUR PROTECTION AND LOVE! (or at least let us defend ourselves WITHOUT law enforcement interference and criminal prosecution)

The Obama Justice Department needs to (GROW A PAIR) draw the line and INVESTIGATE! Barack Obama getting elected President was NOTHING SHORT OF A REVOLUTION and the Obama people BETTER START TO REALIZE IT! CHANGE is not just a word in a speech to us, IT’S OUR LIVES! If YOU Democrats can't provide IT, then there's going to be a for real revolution... AND IT WON'T BE PRETTY!

I warned you #*!~/s a year ago what would happen how you should come out of the starting gate STRONG… (READ MY OLD POSTS)

You should of held Bush/Cheney ACCOUNTABLE for their incompetent/criminal foreign, domestic and reckless economic polices from the start. BUT Noooooo… you pussies had to play NICE, all that bullshit about compromise and working with the Republicans. BAIL THEM OUT!

Now look at the pitiful, mindless bullshit we have to deal with everyday. The very people who’s legacies Obama and the Democrats saved by voting for the Bush/Paulson Bailout are now using some of that money to work AGAINST the Obama administration. GETTING IN THE WAY OF OUR HOPES, OUR DREAMS, OUR CHANGE! motherfuckers! You cowards AVOIDED the FIGHT that would have made Obama/Biden GREAT!

I can’t take this vile nonsense anymore. While Barack and Michele Obama are looking good for the media AND Ivory Tower crowd.. out here in the REAL WORLD the bullshit is almost unbearable and the economy REALLY SUCKS. It’s comes at me from all sides…

EXAMPLE:
I was doing some consulting work for a friend recently. While completing the job at the house of our customers, I noticed the dart board out on their back patio with a picture of Nancy Pelosi attached over the bulls eye. I asked the couple about it and they started on a rant about how much they despised Rep. Pelosi.

Mind you this is NOT in California, so the couple knew only what the Conservative propagandists told them. No facts, no statistics, no legislative content, no legitimate cases or concrete examples… they just hated Nancy Pelosi and that was all there was to it. The lady of the house told me she just hates that stupid look on Nancy Pelosi’s face every time she talks to the media. (yea, stupid look) I was looking into the lady's smiling blank eyes… (it reminded me of Sarah Palin)

Now these people are not some ignorant, southern state rubes. He was an engineer and she a retired teacher. They lived in a million dollar home on a hilltop with a priceless view and 5 expensive vehicles in the driveway… So I couldn’t UNDERSTAND their thought processes. When the woman said “Glenn Beck is god in this house”, it took my #*~/'n breath away.

While we completed the final details of the job I was talking business but in the back of my mind I was screaming at the couple:
“Why should I take ANYTHING you people say seriously? Glenn Beck is god? ARE YOU #*~/’n CRAZY? Beck/Limbaugh/Hannity/etc… are your way to justify the SHAMELESS HYPOCRISY and unrelenting guilt.
(Or what the intelligence community calls “psychological warfare”)
You morons voted for Bush/Cheney NOT ONCE but 2 TIMES… YEA, I’ll listen to what you suckers have to say when one, JUST ONE of your Republican leaders stands up and takes RESPONSIBILITY for 8 years of Bush/Cheney waste, fraud, abuse, incompetence, scandal, corruption, reckless economics, war profiteering, constitutional violations…”

The man told me how the NEW and improved Republican Party had nothing to do with Bush/Cheney, whom he thought strayed from Conservative principles… (I didn't know they had any...)

If it wasn’t that my friend had a lot of money riding on this deal, I would have grabbed the man of the house and tried to slap some sense into him.

You can’t just separate yourselves from the elected officials YOU VOTED into power. Especially since your Republican Party isn’t offering ANYTHING different from the past mistakes and collusions. You brainwashed motherfuckers need to STOP, take a step BACK and re-think your situation. YOU CAN’T WIN! Right-wing assholes can shoot and blow up every Democrat/Liberal/Progressive you pious peons come across and WE’LL STILL BE THE MAJORITY! NO matter WHAT that asshole Glenn Beck tells you…

“all politics is local politics” Tip O’Neil
No one can save the Republican Party from itself… NOT the 20% of idiots that STILL support them, NOT the bought off media/news, NOT Radio Free Conservative or FOX News, NOT the police state, NOT the skinheads, NOT all the wealth YOUR LEADERS LET SLIP AWAY!

Maybe Conservatives should just stick to local politics for now (get rid of your mayor or something small time like that. Remember what Frankie Sinatra said: “if you can make it there you make it anywhere”, lol) and stay the f*~/ out of national picture until the LEFT-WING (once again) FIXES THE MESS REPUBLICANS IRRESPONSIBLY LEFT FOR THEM!

as posted on blog: Comedy for Organizers, boatrockers....

jinnbad.blogspot.com

HAVE YOU FINALLY "HAD IT" WITH ALL OF THE LIES?

Steve Sulkin — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 16:48:48 EDT

Have you finally had it with all of the absolutely unbelievable political maneuverings by the fringe right, the lies, the distortions, the twisting of facts, the outright hatred towards our President simply because a minority (yes it's a minority, remember they lost) of our society are unhappy he is our President?

If so, it's time to do something about it.

Remember, when we were "all one" working hard for the would-be-President, to get him elected because we felt for once we had an intelligent person who was running? Well, we were right. He was the best person running. He is the best President we've had in a long time and we're lucky such an honest, caring individual with vision for our future is in office. Given our world situation, we need him now more than ever. Our future depends on him.

But we are no longer supporting him with the fervor as we did, nor are the same numbers of people supporting him.

Can you believe, his poll numbers are dropping? Yes I understand, post the honeymoon period numbers drop. But to this degree and while he's saving our country, maybe our world? The man that inherited the worst our country has ever seen in terms of war, finance, enviornment and more, who is helping us drag ourselves out of this recession and fight two wars he didn't even want - his poll numbers are dropping? The man who has accomplished more in months than others before him accomplished in lifetimes, his poll numbers are dropping? It's ludicrous. It's like Lincoln's or Roosevelt's poll numbers dropping as they were saving our country. But I must remember, we live in a world where Lincoln was assassinated.

I wear my Obama hat and my wife at times tells me to "take it off Steve, you might anger people" Wow, what a world. I might anger people that I support our President. That is the times of our current times, little by little, it's less acceptable to support our President because the fringe right has made it seem so.

As we fall off in numbers, the extreme fringe right takes advantage by spreading hatred and lies. And there seems to be no limit to how crazy of a story that can be spewed and believed by those who want to believe it and spew it. If I wrote such stories in a screenplay, I'd be told to modify my words because it would be unrealistic that the public would believe such nonsense. But apparently, the public's benchmark for naivety knows no bounds when fueled by hatred.

For instance (one tiny example) think about the outrage (yes outrage) regarding President Obama speaking to school children this Tuesday (as though that's a new idea).

President Obama is the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. He is the mentor of our country the image of our country to the world. He is doing what millions have done before him, speaking to school children. He was elected to lead our country. Get over it fringe right, he gets to lead. You lost.

The cynicism and hatred that drives those who dislike President Obama so much, so as to try to make speaking to school children seem as anything more than what it is, an attempt to inspire and lead our children, is beyond my understanding.

People say, is President Obama's speech to children "political?" Well, he is a politician, he is the President of the United States and yes he will weigh the pros and cons of his every action (as will the world), so I guess he'll weigh the politics of his actions, but that doesn't mean that everything he does, because it's weighed, is a sham or diabolical as some are actually seriously suggesting.

The fringe right who are the strategic architects of the nonsense we hear every day on so called "news" have lost all credibility to argue against anything. Even if they had a legitimate complaint, it's lost in the shuffle of their ludicrous positions and lies.

So, let's start writing, talking, doing - not taking this anymore.

And by the way, I hate to say, "I told you so", but my video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4srDYEPoqo

"Yes We Can (Change our Destiny), which I produced for the inaugural, was written because I feared that we'd lose the spirit of optimism, that phenomenon of involvement that occurred during the election. To some degree, we have. So be re-inspired. Pass the link on

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4srDYEPoqo

and get others re-inspired.

Don't take this anymore, because as the famous phrase says,

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing”

Healthcare as seen by a Right-Wing Terrorist

GUN DEALER — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 15:47:16 EDT

Well since I have been labeled a right wing terrorist, I just want to see what all the hype was about.

Healthcare reform? Laughable at best, until you control the high cost of prescription drugs by the Manufacturers, you will never get any type of reform. Also, the tier system for insurance companies is absolutly a farce. And my favorite stupid idea is to cut the payments to the physicians...and instead give money to new students to become general practice physicians. Why would they want to be general practice when speciality is such huge pay difference?

No, I don't like being labeled a terrorist anymore than the left wing wants to be called HITLER.

Yet, this site has called me a terrorist...and mixed it in with Patriot Day (9/11). Just what are you people thinking?

I do not like the idea of healthcare ran by the government, especially with it trying to be pushed out at record pace. Mr. Obama took over 6 months to pick a dog for his family, yet I am supposed to be happy with a "imperfect bill" on healthcare that was ram-rodded through? HELL NO!!

And why did you pick Sebelius to be over healthcare...she could hardly run the state of Kansas when she was Gov., now we are suppose to trust her based on what qualifications? ABSURD!!

The coastal cities need to ask the central United States what we want... yes, us in the middle of the U.S.. Doing so, you will find the majority in no way shape or form wants your idea of healthcare reform. While I agree we need to reform healthcare, the Democratic plan is not the correct way to go. Mr. Obama... just BUTT OUT.

Afterall, you staffers have already called republicans assholes... We get the point, you are surrounding yourself with racist people...so where the hell is MY BEER... isn't that what we do for a man that refuses to obey a uniformed officers orders... cover it up, never apologize for your comment and buy them all a beer?

Waiting til the next election...~Darrin Green

Stephen Views the News April 21, 2009

Stephen from Elkins Park, PA — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 07:04:01 EDT

Stephen Views the News April 21, 2009

http://stephenviewsthenews.blogspot.com/

Tea and Torture on a Spring Day

* The prestidigitation of the political right – There was much ado about very little with last week’s tax day Tea-Bagging protests about taxes and an assortment of sometimes hate-filled accusations. Although it was billed as a populist movement of significant proportions it was neither populist nor populous.

The event was repeatedly promoted by FOX News. While some consider FOX News a news station what it has demonstrated over the last 10 years is that it is the public relations arm of the Republican Party. FOX silence was telling on the subject of federal spending during the years that Bush and Republicans blew through the Clinton budget surplus and proceeded to build huge deficits. Who were the other movers and shakers behind Tea-Bagging?

Americans for Prosperity – a right wing think tank funded by billionaire David Koch. Koch Industries was fined $35 million dollars in 2000 for oil spills resulting from eroded and broken pipelines. “During the 1990s, the firm's faulty pipelines were responsible for more than 300 oil spills in five states, prompting a penalty of $35 million. In 1996, a flawed pipeline caused an explosion outside of Dallas in which two teenagers were killed. In a lawsuit related to the deaths, a trial court returned a judgment of $376.69 million against the company. Now there is a populist face to put on your tea bag tag.

The Independence Institute – This very conservative think tank is funded by the Coors Foundation’s Castle Rock Foundation both of whom advocate for the wealthy interests and their privileged needs. Just because they supply beer to the masses does not mean they are interested in the masses beyond the purchase of the next six-pack.

FreedomWorks – An organization that supports and promotes the interests of lobbyist Dick Armey. Those interests include Bristol-Myers Squibb, the insurance industry, and oil interests. Armey opposes health reform that would cut into the profits of branded drugs, works for deregulated life insurance reform and supports the status quo reliance on fossil fuels. Not to go unnoticed, none of these issues are in the interests of the American people.

The funders of the Tea-Bagging movement are to populism what the Republican Party was to the religious right. It is the illusion of representing the interests of a broad segment of the citizenry while in fact representing the interests of a select few. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs had the appropriate response to the Tea-Bagging magical mystery tour. “The president, he stressed, had just recently passed a ‘tax cut that covers the most people in the history of this country’…The president promised significant tax relief for working families of this country, and in the first month of the administration delivered that to the American people.”

What are the facts concerning U.S. tax policy? A report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: “Federal Tax Burdens for Most Near Their Lowest Levels in Decades” concludes: Overall Federal Tax Burdens Are Low by Historical Standards; Federal Individual Income Tax Burdens Have Fallen Significantly; and Tax Burdens Have Dropped Most Sharply for the Highest-Income Households. I would suggest that this is what the Tea-Bagging rallies were about. It involved the wealthiest of society protecting their privileged tax concessions which they manipulated through congress in recent decades. And the sly shysters at FOX carried their water. What is being touted as a grassroots movement is little more than an assroots movement ensconced in deception and illusion.

John Perr at Crooks and Liars compiled a list of 10 Republican Tax Day Lies. They are listed below and the link provides fuller explanations:

1. President Obama will raise taxes on small businesses.

2. The estate tax devastates small businesses and family farms.

3. 40% of Americans pay no taxes.

4. Tax cuts always increase revenue.

5. The GOP is the party of fiscal discipline.

6. Ronald Reagan was the greatest tax cutter of all time.

7. FDR caused the Great Depression, or at least made it worse.

8. Obama's cap-and-trade plan will cost each American family $3,100 a year.

9. Obama's tax proposals will undermine charitable giving.

10. The rich pay too much in taxes already.

* The Torture Memos –Obama’s release of Bush’s Justice Department torture memos showed courage and at the same time focused attention once again on some of the moral and legal issues these memos engender. It required courage to go against the national security community, some of his advisors and the bulk of the political right. These memos broke laws and their release exposes the shrewd but amoral reasoning used by the Bush appointees who concocted these “justifications.” And make no mistake! U.S. laws and international laws were broken, as pointed out by constitutional lawyer Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com. How many times in the last two decades have we heard conservatives lecture about the rule of law, at least until the law is an inconvenient truth? Our laws, including international treaties, exist apart from political party or political perspective. They exist regardless of issue or circumstance.

My ambiguity about the CIA interrogators empowered by these memos uncomfortably surfaced when Obama said that CIA operatives would not be prosecuted for committing torture. This is a difficult subject to embrace from either side. From one standpoint if one thought that they were following the law they should be free of prosecution. And yet, the Nuremburg trials concluded that this was not a satisfactory defense. This is not an attempt to equate the widespread inhuman acts of the Nazi regime against innocent and defenseless people to what occurred at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and secret prison sites. It is a question of where one draws the line. It is my strong feeling that the line must not be subject to situational ethics. It is also a matter that these operatives were burdened with directives that stemmed from the Bush administration’s strained attempts to circumvent the law. It is interesting that when Obama said that CIA personnel involved in these interrogations would not be prosecuted there was no mention of a pass for the people that designed and authorized these programs. Perhaps there will be consequences but in either case we are at least addressing this difficult and challenging subject. Democracy and morality are not always easy and the fact that we question our actions in an open forum only adds gravitas to the proud claims we proclaim as a nation.

* Quotes of the Week:

~ Richard Armitage, second in command at the State Department under George W. Bush, said in an interview (about the torture of detainees), "I hope, had I known about it at the time I was serving, I would've had the courage to resign,"

~ “The image of the United States of America throughout the world (committing torture) is a recruiting tool for Islamic extremists.” John McCain 4/20/09

* “The healthy man does not torture others - generally it is the tortured who turn into torturers”Carl Gustav Jung (1875 – 1961) Swiss psychiatrist

It's the Constitution, STUPID!!!!

Don't from Henrico, VA — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 00:24:41 EDT

Real Change comes from the ground up. We need to get the Government out of our lives, to immediatelly repeal The Patriot Act, Military Commissions Act, FISA. We also need to start leaving Iraq NOW, and to close down ALL 58 bases there. We don't just need to get the combat troops out, we need ALL out, and do it responsibly. The longer we stay there, even if its' 50,000 like Obama says he wants to leave there for "non-combat" missions. Does anybody actually believe that these "non-combat" troops will be half soldiers or hold no weapons??? Of course not!!! The numbers would not matter if our country was occupied by 150,000 or 50,000 or even 10,000 foreign troops. We would be pissed off as hell and well should be!!! To create a better economy, we have to STOP THE SPENDING. What we are doing now by spending all this money and "creating jobs" is KILLING our economy. Think about this people, imagine if you get into debt, do you really think that you would get out of debt by buying a brand new house, car, or TV???? It's absolutely INSANE. So people have to wake up, read the Constitution, and start lobbying their local govt to follow the sacred document.

Secretary of State

BlueDotInRedState — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 13:10:50 EST

Beginning with the Democratic Primaries I assigned myself this task: stay abreast of the conservative and right-leaning media's take on this presidential election. This endeavor was more enlightening and uplifting than I could ever have imagined, with the word "onerous" applying only to Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.

One night close to the end of the ongoing Barack-Hillary battle I was watching a panel of Fox Cable News pundits weigh in (read "whine") about the probability of an Obama candidacy. You remember when the prevailing thought was that a Republican could more easily defeat Hillary. I'll never forget hyperconservative Bill Cristol's comment: "If Obama gets it and if he's elected, he needs to pick Hillary for Secretary of State. She's TOUGH."

I agree whole-heartedly with Cristol, for whom I developed much comparative respect during my sojurns into FCN and (shudder) talk radio programs. Plus, you get a bonus, if you need one, with Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State:

the rest of the world LOVES Bill. She doesn't NEED him, but what an asset he can be.

Although we know whomever Barack chooses will be outstanding, my suggestion is Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State.

Fox News’ Ailes: ‘I defend the United States, Israel and the Constitution.’»

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 02:33:19 EST

Fox News’ Ailes: ‘I defend the United States, Israel and the Constitution.’»

Fox News chairman Roger Ailes describes his mission in life:

“I stand up for what I believe. I don’t back off. I’ve been that way for 40 years. That’s the secret to my success. I have thick skin. I don’t care what people say about me,” he said.
“I defend the United States, Israel and the Constitution.”

No word on whether Ailes listed those in order of priority.

Moments to Cherish ...

Scott A. Giordano — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:14:02 EST

Powerful Network Coverage from the Moment We Made History ...

World Welcomes Obama

Gaurav Singh — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:46:20 EST

America has chosen Barack Obama but most of the world has readily welcomed him with open arms. He brings hope!

It's been only a day and the history made here has rippled across the world in a very positive way. There were worlwide celebrations on his victory including Israel, India, Italy, France, Iraq, Iran, China, and especially in Kenya, where Obama's father was born, and Indonesia, where Obama went to school in his early childhood.

The New York Times released an article describing Obama as a "promise" to rest of the world. Fox News even published a story "Obama: President of the World?" wherein there are numerous mentions of joyous celebrations around the planet. The article is accompanied by a picture gallery reflecting the happiness of the inhabitants of the world. The words like "world community" or "international citizen" seems not that hypothetical anymore -- at least not for our president-elect Obama.

June 12, 2008 - The Pew Global Project Attitudes [Complete Report ]

[Source: New York Times, Fox News, Foreign Policy]

Former (London) Times Editor Harold Evans Smears the US Media in an Article in the UK Guardian

mathpol — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 22:22:33 EST

“Mad about The One. The US media have been captivated by Obama, at the expense of their curiosity and scepticism.”

This is the title of an article by Harold Evans in The Guardian on November 1, 2008. He resorts to the bias he decries in his one-sided column. I have reproduced it below in its entirety, along with my annotations {…} . Phrases that I comment upon are in boldface.

It's fitting that the cynicism "vote early and vote often" is commonly attributed to Chicago's Democratic boss, mayor Richard Daley, who famously voted the graveyards in 1960 to help put John Kennedy in the White House. In this 2008 race, it's the American media that have voted very early and often. They long ago elected the star graduate of Chicago's Democratic machine, Barack Obama. {Obama is a hardly a “graduate“ of the machine. What about Harvard Law, Columbia, etc.?}

I am not talking of editorials in newspapers, though Obama has the preponderance of the endorsements over John McCain. Obama certainly deserves the credit for recruiting impressive advisers and running a more efficient campaign machine than any one in the US's political history.

What's troubling to anyone old-fashioned enough to care about standards in journalism is the news coverage in mainstream media. Forget the old notions of objectivity, fairness, thoroughness, and so on. The nastiest rumours on both sides haven't been published, but the coverage has been slavishly on the side of "the one". {“Slavish”? Evans’s description.}

Bring me the head of Bill Gates

EminemsRevenge — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 11:04:06 EDT

i was writing a post about this little boy on the subway who when asked What do you want to be when you grow up? he answered I'm gonna be president like Obama...

CNN Refusing to Air Obama's Message

John DesMarteau, MD — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 19:58:35 EDT

I was listening to CNN this afternoon (Wednesday, Oct 29, 2008) when the anchor gave a reason for not accepting Sen. Obama's 30-minute message. The claim was that since they are a news organization it wasn't fair to agree to air the message. Then an ad came on for Larry King Live right after this claim. The ad stated that Sen. McCain would be on at 9:00 PM to give his take on Sen. Obama's message.

So on the one hand they wouldn't let the Obama campaign buy a 30-minute time slot, and on the other CNN will provide Sen. McCain with free time to discuss the message they wouldn't carry. Some impartial news organization! Gee I think I'll watch Fox News.

Taking On the Right-Wing Echo Chamber

Craig Buckser — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 03:18:57 EDT

In this election cycle, there has been a remarkable synergy between The Drudge Report, conservative talk radio, Fox News, and the McCain Campaign. The subject of the outrage of the day shifts in tandem inside the right-wing noise machine. Whether it’s Bill Ayers, ACORN, the progressive-income-tax-is-socialist meme, Ashley Todd’s allegations, or today’s distorted interpretation of Barack Obama’s conservative views of the role of the judiciary in effecting social change, the daily talking points are quite similar in all corners of the echo chamber.

Barack has been critical of Fox News’s slanted reporting several times during this campaign. In last week's New York Times magazine, Matt Bai quoted him:

“I am convinced that if there were no Fox News, I might be two or three points higher in the polls,” Obama told me. “If I were watching Fox News, I wouldn’t vote for me, right? Because the way I’m portrayed 24/7 is as a freak! I am the latte-sipping, New York Times-reading, Volvo-driving, no-gun-owning, effete, politically correct, arrogant liberal. Who wants somebody like that?"

Today, campaign spokesman Bill Burton, who has been following the advice Billy Joel dispenses at the end of his concerts, took it one step further. His press release is below the fold:

What Is Sarah Palin Auditioning For?

Robin Z — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 23:46:24 EDT

We know Sarah Palin is completely out of her league as McCain's vice presidential candidate. Yet she's out there in front of the cameras every day, her poll numbers waaaaay down in the dumps, happy, smiling, jabbing Barack and Joe, and showing up on SNL to preen around in front of the cameras.

There's Trooper-gate, and the concerns she's charged the State of Alaska for spending nights in her own home, as well as for unauthorized travel for her children. There's the nepotism in hiring her friends, the censorship of library books, and the fact that the builder of that huge sports arena in Wasilla also built the Palin family home. Nothing seems to faze this woman while in the national limelight. Nothing at all.

What is Sarah Palin auditioning for? Is it politics or something else entirely? Someone close to me insists she simply wants to be president, and it's really an early run for 2012. I don't buy it. She'll never develop enough education or worldliness to undo the impression she's made on America. Maybe she doesn't realize that. Or maybe she's got her eye on Hollywood or maybe it's Fox News.

Thoughts, anyone?

Could Fox News Start Another Holocaust?

Nancy Cronk — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 08:48:39 EDT

Dear Friends/family/acquaintances,

I wrote this with many of you in mind, and I am sharing it with as many other people as I can find. I am not mentioning any names here. Those of you who watch Fox national "news" will recognize I am talking to you, and those of you who don't, will recognize my public warning to all.

I am so worried about this country, I don't know what else to do.

I know that the vast majority of my friends, and millions of people like me, would never take Fox national "news" seriously (I am not talking about the local stations here, but the national one on cable). We know that it is entertainment, and we know that the Fairness in Media act does not apply to it because it is cable. With the deregulation of the airwaves and media these last eight years, anything goes. We know that Fox "news" is deliberately extremely biassed to the right, and that its content is designed to get people to support the interests of big business and to to be brainwashed against their own self-interests. We know that they deliberately slander anyone who advocates for the "little guy", because that undercuts the profits of the corporations who pay them to throw their mud. We know no intelligent person would ever think it is "fair and balanced". How could they possibly???????

But they do. Millions and millions of millions of Americans, who still have not gotten the memo that it is merely "entertainment" rather than real news. Millions and millions and millions of people who actually think that because they say the words, "fair and balanced", they actually aspire to be so. I am concerned that if the large corporate interests that give the world Fox news ever wanted to commit a Holocaust, or witch trials, or massive public lynchings, or something as evil as these things, they could seriously get away with it.

I sometimes make myself watch Fox "news", although I know that I will get upset watching it after a very short time. I make myself watch it because I firmly believe I should "keep my friends close, and my enemies closer". So, I force myself to watch it, and I imagine myself getting all of my "News" from this station. If I did, I would probably become very paranoid. I would think liberals and unions were nuts, and minority members were evil. Every "news" story is presented, edited, and exaggerated from that angle. Every story, twenty-four hours a day (I know that because I have watched it all night at times.) The same corporate lies are presented all night long, just like they are during the day.

Lately, I have been sickened by the whole ACORN story, for example, because it is so heavily sensationalized. The lies are fantastic. There were 8 or 9 "news" stories about this, or mentions of it, every hour on Fox "news". Never mind that every credible, sane, unbiassed agency has said that this story is not accurate, and that the lies have been hugely distorted. Fox "news" says it is true, so millions of Americans think it is true.

I recently shared my concerns with an intelligent male friend of our family. This man is a college graduate, has a job with a great deal of responsibillity, and has a great family with several children. He is a mildly religious person, pays his taxes, and is a good all-around citizen. Even though this man in intelligent, I was the first person who told him Fox "news" is not real news. Two weeks later, he said to me, "I have to admit, I did start to notice after awhile that what you are saying is true. Fox is the only "news" station that perpetuates the "stories" they report. All of the other stations are very different. I did not realize that until you pointed it out to me.

What do we do? Imagine if Hitler owned a tv station on cable, and used "news" anchors that were always emotionally charged like the ones on Fox "news". Psychological research shows that when information is presented in ways that evoke emotion, it is remembered more easily, and people are more inclined to act on that information. Fox "news" does this in every segment. If Hitler wanted to motivate people to kill others, he would certainly have started using Fox "news" had it been available to him. Their method of delivering lies and distortions would have made the job easy and effiicient.

"People are too smart for that", some of my friends tell me. These are the same friends who say they do not understand where all of the irrational sentiment is coming from about Barack Obama, or why people bring monkey dolls to McCain/Palin rallies. They don't understand why people are falsely being accused of being "terrorists", and why violent racist acts are increasing all over this country.

But I do understand it, because I have many dear friends and relatives who watch Fox "news", and watch it regularly. They cannot be the only fifteen or twenty people who do. They are religious and secular people alike, peopje who have jobs and families, pay their bills, and are otherwise good citizens, and great people. Not only do they watch it, they believe it, and they don't even question what they are watching. They truly believe that watch they are watching is "news".

I am very worried about this country. I am worried that millions of Americans are psychologically addicted to a "news" source that constantly plays on their emotions, brainwashes them, and feeds them lies about the world. I am worried that if Fox news had any other agenda than their current one of getting people to vote against their own economic best interests, they have enough believers, and they could do pretty much anything they wanted to do, and a sizeable minority of the population would simply follow their suggestion. This is how Hitler attempted to take over the world. Who is the next Hitler? Does he watch Sean Hannity?

There is a saying, "If we don't know history, we are destined to repeat it". One of the most significant events that led up to the Holocaust was the German economy collapsing. Germans needed a scapegoat for their fear.

You may laugh at this suggestion, however, let me remind you of two recent news stories. In one, a man who regularly watched Fox news (books written by some of their frequent guests and anchors were in his home in prominent places), walked into a Unitarian church during a children's pagaent, and murdered a number of people, wounding many more. He said he did it because he hated liberals, gays and black people. This man left a letter saying he had just lost his job and needed a scapegoat.

A month later, a similar story happened when an unemployed man shot the leader of the Democrats in Arkansas.

Even more concerning than just the occasional crazy people who are pushed into acting on their impulses, I am worried about the complacency of the majority. Most of the people who read other newspapers and who know how insanely biassed Fox "news" is, don't recognize the danger in ignoring them. They are not remembering the lessons of the Holocaust. They do not do anything about the daily brainwashing by Fox "news", except to shrug it off and say with a smile, "Come on, people are smarter than that".

Smart people killed millions of Jews, gypsies, academics, homosexuals, developmentally disabled people and others in the Holocaust, too, and not that long ago. Other smart, decent people saw it coming and did nothing.

Pass this on if you care about this country. Or don't. The choice is yours. I hope we don't regret our complacency later.

~ Nancy Cronk

First they came for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up,
    because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up,
    because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak up,
    because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time there was no one
    left to speak up for me.

by Rev. Martin Niemoller, 1945

The originator of the "Obama is Muslim" smear is a rabid Anti-Semite

Tal from NPR/Trinity — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 21:16:46 EDT

So now we know the genesis of the false Obama-is-a-Muslim rumor. According to the New York Times, Patient Zero in this particular epidemic which has virally spread around the nation thanks to the Internet is a fellow named Andy Martin, known for filing copious lawsuits that on occasion have contained very anti-Semitic language. After reading the NYT story that places Martin at the starting point of the unfounded rumor (Obama is a Christian) you come away with the very strong impression that Martin is a man with some serious issues, to say the least. As the NYT reports: Until this month, the man who is widely credited with starting the cyberwhisper campaign that still dogs Mr. Obama was a secondary character in news reports, with deep explorations of his background largely confined to liberal blogs. But an appearance in a documentary-style program on the Fox News Channel watched by three million people last week thrust the man, Andy Martin, and his past into the foreground. The program allowed Mr. Martin to assert falsely and without challenge that Mr. Obama had once trained to overthrow the government. An examination of legal documents and election filings, along with interviews with his acquaintances, revealed Mr. Martin, 62, to be a man with a history of scintillating if not always factual claims. He has left a trail of animosity -- some of it provoked by anti-Jewish comments -- among political leaders, lawyers and judges in three states over more than 30 years. He is a law school graduate, but his admission to the Illinois bar was blocked in the 1970s after a psychiatric finding of "moderately severe character defect manifested by well-documented ideation with a paranoid flavor and a grandiose character." There's more: He prepared to run as a Democrat for Congress in Connecticut, where paperwork for one of his campaign committees listed as one purpose "to exterminate Jew power." He ran as a Republican for the Florida State Senate and the United States Senate in Illinois. When running for president in 1999, he aired a television advertisement in New Hampshire that accused George W. Bush of using cocaine. In the 1990s, Mr. Martin was jailed in a case in Florida involving a physical altercation. Then there's this passage which gets to when Martin started the rumor: Theories about Mr. Obama's background have taken on a life of their own. But independent analysts seeking the origins of the cyberspace attacks wind up at Mr. Martin's first press release, posted on the Free Republic Web site in August 2004. Its general outlines have turned up in a host of works that have expounded falsely on Mr. Obama's heritage or supposed attempts to conceal it, including "Obama Nation," the widely discredited best seller about Mr. Obama by Jerome R. Corsi. Mr. Corsi opens the book with a quote from Mr. Martin. "What he's generating gets picked up in other places," said Danielle Allen, a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University who has investigated the e-mail campaign's circulation and origins, "and it's an example of how the Internet has given power to sources we would have never taken seriously at another point in time." Here's more on Martin and anti-Semitism: Yet in various court papers, Mr. Martin had impugned Jews. A motion he filed in a 1983 bankruptcy case called the judge "a crooked, slimy Jew who has a history of lying and thieving common to members of his race." In another motion, filed in 1983, Mr. Martin wrote, "I am able to understand how the Holocaust took place, and with every passing day feel less and less sorry that it did." In an interview, Mr. Martin denied some statements against Jews attributed to him in court papers, blaming malicious judges for inserting them. It's remarkable that the originator of the rumor that has hounded Obama throughout the presidential campaign has been narrowed down to onc person. The falsity seemed like one of those items that could have had dozens of authors. As many of you already know, Sean Hannity gave Martin and his colorful fabrications major exposure last week when he had him on his show as part of a "documentary" on Obama's Chicago years. Robert Gibbs, Obama's communications director, administered a memorable beatdown of Hannity for having Martin, who many people would consider a crackpot and with much justification, on his program. It's must-see TV if you haven't watched it already. Here's a 2006 Chicago Tribune story on Martin with a few more details: Perennial candidate back for another race The self-styled consumer advocate has run unsuccessfully for office for more than 3 decades Date: Friday, February 10, 2006 By John Chase and Rick Pearson, Tribune staff reporters Dressed in a green sport coat, khakis and a beat-up pair of New Balance running shoes, Andy Martin stood on a downtown Chicago sidewalk recently for one of his numerous news conferences to deliver a message to the voters of Illinois. "The bottom line is, the momentum has shifted," the 60-year-old Republican candidate for governor told a lone reporter. "There's an awareness statewide now that I'm a fully fledged player in this race."That's a view Martin has often espoused in more than three decades of unsuccessfully running for offices ranging from county clerk and mayor to legislator on to Congress and the presidency--sometimes as a Republican, other times as a Democrat--in Illinois, Florida and Connecticut. Though his ads featuring "Stars and Stripes Forever" have aired on Chicago radio stations, political organizations, debate planners and the media usually shun Martin. More than just a perennial candidate, he bills himself as a self-styled consumer advocate willing to take on Microsoft, housing developers and other firms with legal action. "I have 40 years of exceptional public service. Successful public service," Martin said in a recent letter addressed to the Tribune. "And true integrity fighting public corruption." Yet the Illinois Supreme Court denied him a law license, saying he lacked the fitness to be an attorney. Federal courts have repeatedly sanctioned him for what judges have said is his filing of hundreds of largely meritless legal actions. He's had several stints in jail. He has repeatedly refused to answer questions from the Tribune and has in the past unsuccessfully sued the newspaper for libel. On Thursday, during a telephone news conference, he threatened to sue the Tribune over a recent poll on candidates for governor that showed he had support from fewer than 1 percent of likely Republican voters. Martin also has expressed anti-Semitic attitudes in the past. When he ran for Congress in Connecticut in 1986, the name of his congressional campaign committee included the phrase "to exterminate Jew power in America," Federal Election Commission records show. In a 1983 personal bankruptcy case, he referred to a federal bankruptcy judge as a "crooked, slimy Jew, who has a history of lying and thieving common to members of his race." In a related court filing in the case, he also expressed sympathy to the perpetrators of the Holocaust. "I am able to understand how the Holocaust took place, and with every passing day feel less and less sorry that it did, when Jew survivors are operating as a wolf pack to steal my property," Martin wrote in an April 21, 1983, personal bankruptcy proceeding. In 1973, the Illinois Supreme Court refused to allow Martin admission to the bar. The court's decision noted that Martin, a University of Illinois law school graduate who was previously known by the name Anthony R. Martin-Trigona, had a Selective Service record that showed he had a "moderately-severe character defect manifested by well documented ideation with a paranoid flavor and a grandiose character." Still, the court noted that "issues raised as to [Martin's] mental stability" did not need to be considered in light of other matters it cited in deciding that Martin lacked the qualities of "responsibility, candor, fairness, self-restraint, objectivity and respect for the judicial system" required for the administration of justice. Among issues the high court cited in denying his law license were Martin's criticism of members of a bar review panel as "emotionally ill" and "scum," his filing of a petition asking that a parking violation be lifted because it was "entered by an insane judge" and his description of an attorney as "shaking and tottering and drooling like an idiot," according to court records. A decade later, the federal court system began issuing sanctions against Martin for his filing of what one federal judge, Edward Weinfeld of New York, termed as "a substantial number of lawsuits of a vexatious, frivolous and scandalous nature." The courts eventually required him to obtain prior approval to file any legal action at any federal court. The restrictions require that judges, who are not identified to Martin, decide whether the filings have merit and should proceed. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals noted Martin's litigious conduct appeared to be an attempt to "harass persons who have unluckily crossed his path." The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago noted Martin's tendency "to exaggerate, to believe himself the victim of conspiracies where none exist, and to suspect without any reasonable basis that others are persecuting him." Martin often touts his background as an assistant to the late U.S. Sen. Paul Douglas (D-Ill.). Martin told a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in 1975 that his service was as a summer intern for Douglas in 1966 and that he received $152 in pay. Martin is currently registered to vote in two locations, one in Chicago and another in Florida, according to an election official in Florida and records in Chicago. But those same sources show Martin has not cast a vote in Chicago since he registered in 2003 or in Florida since 1996. Still, Martin has run or attempted to run for public offices in Illinois and Florida numerous times since 1996, including for the U.S. Senate in Florida in 1998 and 2004, the presidency in 2000 and Florida governor in 2002. In 1998, Martin was on the ballot in Florida and received 184,739 votes, or 33.6 percent, in the GOP primary for U.S. Senate. In 1996, he was the Republican nominee in Florida for a seat in the state Senate. He received 31,919 votes, or 27.4 percent of the vote. In his current campaign, Martin has quoted from a 1978 Tribune editorial that called him "an absolutely brilliant campaigner" when he was running as a Democrat for U.S. Senate. But the rest of the editorial, which Martin does not quote, added that he "has no more business in the U.S. Senate than an elk has in a phone booth." Martin has also had run-ins with the law. In 1980, he was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison after being convicted of mail fraud. The conviction was later overturned. Federal Bureau of Prisons records show Martin has spent several stints in several federal prisons on issues related to contempt of court. Back in Florida, Palm Beach County Court officials say an arrest warrant for him remains active. Officials with the Palm Beach clerk's office said the warrant is still outstanding for Martin for violation of probation, stemming from a 1996 criminal mischief case in which he damaged a video camera belonging to a local TV station covering his campaign for state Senate. A judge ordered Martin to spend several months in jail but a paperwork glitch resulted in Martin's release after only about one month. They say he still has several months left to serve.

Just Because You Say It.. Truth in Political Commercials & FOX News Advertising

Brian M Ross — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 15:02:05 EDT

There is a rule well known by preschoolers that does not seem to apply to politicians or major media outlets:

Just because you say it, it doesn't make it true.

Our truth in advertising laws on the books need enforcement. Government agencies can warn and fine companies when they make false and misleading claims about everything from beer to tooth paste, but somehow we don't feel compelled to regulate political ads, or the claims that news organizations make in an advertising/promotional form?

Negative ads that are based on unfounded charges go away if they aren't legal. If we apply the same proof standards that we use for Viagra to vitriol, then at least the Lee Attwater/Karl Rove school of smear first, fact-check later is not what the public is being delivered.

To have an informed population, they have to be getting information. Too often, as with the Ayers smear, or...

Fired Up, Ready to Go!!

Paula Glessner — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 15:08:18 EDT

Regarding the swiftboat type documentary about Barack Obama that Hannity and Colmes of FOX news is going to air this Sunday, October 12th, I think that It's pure unadulterated bull pucky, let alone reckless and dangerous. Getting people all worked up to hate a man who many find to be refreshing and genuine person, is wrong on so many levels. Resorting to this level of attack on this man of character absolutely repulses me. I guess the lesson that Sarah Palin and John McCain learned from stirring up hatred amoung the crowds didn't register with Hannity and Colmes. It appears they wish to keep stiring up hatred and fright amoung the people just to get votes for McCain. Well, hate material won't work with me and a lot of other people ... Senator Obama is a very good man, husband and father and a true American. Their continual portraying of Senator Obama tells me they have lost touch with reality.

I cannot believe I actually heard this on national television

Ian — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 00:42:19 EDT

Obama Nation, I just walked out of my living room, literally disgusted beyond the ability to verbalize my thoughts after maybe two minutes of watching Fox News.

Barack Obama's tax plan cuts taxes for 95% of people making under $250,000 per year. I'd say that coveres most of us; I know it covers me. Here is the quote I just finished hearing that just left me speechless:

"Those people that Obama plans to give tax breaks to; they don't pay taxes. He's giving them a welfare check."

So, I feel compelled to ask, do you pay taxes? Do you see one quarter of your paycheck taken out of your hands before you even had a chance to think about that money?

That is the attitude the Republican Party has toward anyone that doesn't make a significant amount of money throughout the year. You're clearly an inferoir being incapable of subsisting on anything but the crumbs of the wealthy. No, you contribute nothing to this country. You are not its backbone, you are not its heart, you are not its soul. The only people that matter are the millionaires, the yacht club, the CEOs.

Well, this November, we're going to have a chance to tell the powers that be just what we mean to this country. This is our nation every bit as much as it is theirs, and we don't have to take that kind of disrespect any longer. A vote for Barack Obama is a vote for you. It's a vote to remind Washington that we live here to, and we're doing everything we can to do our part. But the irresponsibilitiy and greed of the wealthy has forced a gigantic bailout package to be heaped on the backs of every American, even those that always pay their mortgages on time, those that spend their weekends working in their communities, those that understand the American ideals of hard work and responsibility.

But no, the economy doesn't affect you. We, the aristocracy, owe you nothing. You are not the ones that buy our products. You are not the ones that laid the groundwork, the infrastructure that has allowed this nation to rise so far. You are worthless. This country does not need you , it does not want you, and damn it, we are going to make sure it will never work for you.

On November 5th, America, it no longer has to be this way. Tell John McCain and his crooked lobbyist campaign managers that we need a change. This race is about you and me.

Come on, America. Yes, we can!

FOX (Fixed) News Does It Again - This Is Funny And Sad

Candace N. - V.O.B — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 21:17:01 EDT

I was watching Countdown With Keith Olbermann and he showed a video that Fox (Fixed) news ran of one of their repoters in a restaurant in Pennsylvania asking the customers to raise their hands if they are going to vote for McCain, no one raised thier hands. Then the reporter asked the customers to raise their hands if they are going to vote for Obama, everyone raised their hands. Then the reporter had the audacity to say that the count was split but leaning towards Obama, yet in the video one could clearly see that none of the customers raised their hands for McCain. I can't believe the reporter said the count was split. It is amazing. LOL. If you want to view it you can watch the rebroadcast of Countdown tonight @ 10pm eastern.

Quit Your Incessant Whining! - A Reflection of a Double Standard.

actionsauce — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 12:08:05 EDT

I just wanted to get this out in the open:

This perception of the "Liberal" media by McCain supporters is ridiculous.
The media plays what they percieve to be the opinion of the majority, while some outlets are playing satire to reality, to expose bitter truths in a light hearted manner, so as to allow their proper digestion. Ratings drive this business, and ultimately money. The public's desire for the facts and the gossip are what the media is appealing to. I am sick and tired of McCainites whining about how unfair it is that their candidate is being portrayed in such a way by a few certain outlets. They try to bundle the entire media up in a generalization. Citing a lists of instances where opinion's are made that contradict their guarded little world, and applying it to the broad spectrum that is free speech. While their own outlets (fox news comes to mind) bend reality to their own beliefs and tendencies, which they do not contest. They attempt to paint MSM as propagandist. As if the liberals are taking over the country with their radical and subversive propaganda. When popular opinion has indicated their so called "fair and balanced" news coverage is the actual propaganda being force fed to the people. They lack a sense of humor and sense of fair play. Basically, they can dish it out, but cant take it when it is directed towards them. How very immature and hypocritical. The "liberal" media has their own way of debunking lies, and retalliating. It is called telling the truth! I am so sorry that you can't handle the truth McCainites. It looks like you need to go back to school and learn how to play well with others!
Grow up boys and girls! Stop your wailing and whining, and take your punches like the rest of us!!!

YouTube Video On Sarah Palin

Gerry — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 13:44:17 EDT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPEmfVeqKtM&NR=1

What do you think?

link to my blog

ic1foru — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:04:28 EDT

economic shake-up = wake-up

http://ecoshakenwake.blogspot.com/

I keep this up daily please pass along ... news .. from a persons perspective ....

sample:

Monday, October 13, 2008 Unite Not Fight It is time to unite not fight. McCain / Palin want to fight for you...fight this fight that...fight fight fight....allot to be said about fighters. Angry by nature, combative in actions. I am convinced by what I see from their campaign rhetoric, actions, speeches. They want to fight....that's one good reason enough for me to support the Obama / Biden ticket. It is an easy read to listen to Obama / Biden talking about uniting, a responsibility to maintain civility through unity. After all this is the United States of America..I am sure you wont see this talked about much in the news.

One Campaign wants to Fight .... and One Campaign wants to Unite makes the choice allot easier for me ... Unite is just Right .....

fight: McCain / Palin =

fight·ing, fights
v.intr.
1.
a. To attempt to harm or gain power over an adversary by blows or with weapons.

2. To engage in a quarrel; argue: They are always fighting about money.
3. To strive vigorously and resolutely: fought against graft; fighting for her rights.
b. To wage or carry on (a battle).
c. To contend for, by or as if by combat:
. To contend with or struggle against: fight cancer; fight temptation.
5. To try to prevent the development or success of.
6. To make (one's way) by struggle or striving: fought my way to the top.
n.
1. A confrontation between opposing groups in which each attempts to harm or gain power over the other, as with bodily force or weapons.
2. A quarrel or conflict.
3. A struggle to achieve an objective. See Synonyms at conflict.
5. The power or inclination to fight; pugnacity:

Unite: Obama/ Biden =

v. u·nit·ed, u·nit·ing, u·nites
v.tr.
1. To bring together so as to form a whole.
2. To combine (people) in interest, attitude, or action: "the love that unites humanity" Germaine Greer.
3. To join (a couple) in marriage.
4. To cause to adhere.
5. To have or demonstrate in combination: She unites common sense with vision.
v.intr.
1. To become or seem to become joined, formed, or combined into a unit.
2. To join and act together common purpose or endeavor. See Synonyms at join.
3. To be or become bound together by adhesion.

More on the CNN Tune-Out

Brian M Ross — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 07:18:37 EDT

OPINION - If you haven't noticed, the "Best Poltical Team on Television" at CNN has been playing a kind of epic spin game to keep the campaign close. While CBS, NBC, ABC and MSNBC have been done what they always do, hunt down stories on Sarah Palin to tell us more about her, identify inconsistencies, fibs and outright lies in her stump speeches, and document the immense waffling of John McCain on every politically sensitive issue on the economy this week, CNN covers it very lightly, and is always careful not to step on the McCain camp's toes, even when they have to follow the press pack into a story.

While dozens of media outlets were lambasting McCain for saying that he would fire the SEC chairman one day, and then do a 180 on the next, news cycle or come up with a "Plan" for the bailout even though everyone knows that the Fed and the Treasury Secretary will have a "plan" long before McCain can do anything about the financial crisis, CNN reported the facts of the event, and kept its talking heads away from calling McCain on any of it.

Rural Worries

David — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 10:31:14 EDT

In my first blog entry, I want to reflect a bit on what I've been seeing in the last few days. An on the ground, front line report if you will. About 10 days ago, I moved from Indiana to Los Angeles. Still unpacked in Westwood, I had to get my luggage ready to travel to New Mexico for my mom's wedding. So, for these reasons, I have traveled across the country in one week and then visited my small rural hometown the next week. I have seen a lot of diners, truck stops, and the living rooms of a handful of friends' and family members' houses. In each stop, I have changed from being quietly confident to not so quietly concerned about this election. In Indiana, I lived in a college town (Bloomington) where the Obama support was visible across the city. In Los Angeles, I moved next to UCLA (Go Bruins!), where I also have seen my fair share of Obama signs. My fear is that due to this support, I've been thinking this race was safely in Obama's pocket. And although I read my share of news blogs, I have not been convinced the polls are a reason to worry in the least. What worries me, at least slightly, is what I've seen with my own eyes: People across the nation are plugged into Fox News. Faux News is playing in every truck stop and hotel lobby: literally every single one I visited. I am not joking here: if they had a tv, it was on Faux News. I have seen family members run to the TV to see anything playing about Palin. They literally see her as someone just like them: blessed enough to be picked for the second highest office in the country. In fact, they see her more of that American dream (you can even be president), than Obama because she does have family struggles; she didn't go to Columbia; her family does hunt; and she is religious.

Coincidentally, I was on a plane from LA to Phoenix two days ago and the guy in front of me while boarding told another he was working for the Obama campaign, something having to do with the media and which messages are getting out there and how. I was so tempted to ask him for a moment of his time. Because, being raised from a small town, I can tell you exactly how to reach these people I call my "folk," regardless of whether I share their beliefs or activities. (And to be clear, I consider them my folk because I respect and empathize with their beliefs and activities). They will unconsciously be wary of the "angry black man" on the attack or the self-righteous black woman with a VIP list on the View. They will listen to a short, simple (not simplistic) explanation about the issues that concern them if the commercial features Toby Keith or Dale Earnhardt more than Will I. Am. or Matt Damon. Attacking Palin makes her seem disrespected. These people around me here in this small town rightfully respect their friends and family in the uniform: police, emergency and military among others.

Of course I'm not saying anything new to people who study media and politics. I'm simply saying that in my on the ground experience in the last few weeks, I'm not even seeing the Obama team try to interrupt and redirect the conversation on Faux News or on the Fox Channels that play Faux news. McCain's slimy ads are literally running every commercial break (including on 9/11/08). I see an Obama ad about once or twice to every seven or eight McCain ad.

But there are good things to report as well. In Albuquerque, I was at a family member's house and middle age male relative (who is devoutly Catholic) was sitting and watching the news (CNN). I know him to be anti-abortion and fairly socially conservative. He is Mexican American and he works across the region with what we could safely call the working class. This was the day after Palin's announcement and I was just assuming he'd say something positive about her or the McCain campain and I'd be forced to decide to engage him in the conversation about why he likes her and why the McCain ticket won't serve the working people of America. But after the news clip about Palin, he looked at me and said that he will now definitely vote for Obama. I was silently surprised and listened for more. He said that he isn't just voting for a person, but for two people and all things considered Obama and Biden are simply better as a ticket than McCain and Palin. And from his comments that followed I gathered that although he might on religious views agree with Palin and McCain, he knew that for military, economic and educational reasons, his vote for Obama and Biden better serves him and his family.

One more small bit of joy: at a Spanish speaking restaurant in New Mexico, I went to pay the bill at the register and the counter had a plethora of saint's cards and prayers under the glass. There was a "Prayer for Our Soldiers" and a number of other Catholic sayings. Then I saw something titled, "Ten Reasons." It was, after closer inspection, a list of ten ways the Bush Administration is ruining this country. Each reason was focused on goals that were stated straightforwardly and yet generally to appeal to a wide range of people with varying world views. And I learned in this moment a bit about political language in small towns. Why talk about abortion when you can talk about family's needing more support? Why talk about the war in Iraq when you can talk about giving the military more support? Why talk about gay marriage when you can talk about respecting diversity? Why talk about earmarking and lobbying when you can talk about giving our schools and teachers more support?

When i get back to my new home in California, I will see how I might become more active in the Obama campaign. I volunteered in Indiana before the IN primary but since then figured that the election was going to be a landslide and so I could perhaps just send money from here on out. Now, after touring the country for my move and this wedding, I realize that more can and needs to be done. Perhaps I can draw from my personal interests and connections: reaching out to Latino voters or religious voters; or writing my home town newspaper. Perhaps I'll print photos of McCain and Bush sharing birthday cake on the day Katrina hit. Or perhaps I'll make large signs asking "what about the Keating Five?" and take them to republican events. No matter how it looks, it is time to get more active.

My thanks to those of you who have stayed active, both paid workers and volunteers on the campaign. You really have made this a viable possibility that Obama will be our next President. I am truly appreciative of all your labor.

Mr. Obama, time for Change, but also time to change your dialog

Richard in Toronto - Still American After All These Years — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 13:37:10 EDT

Dear Senator Obama,

We have been so impressed and inspired by your wonderful vision, which is merely the reflection of our own. You repeatedly demonstrate the ability to take the high road even when attacked and provoked. But as I'm sure you noticed you need to be much more effective than you were on Bill O'Reilly... he had one valid point, and that is that most Republicans have neither the vocabulary nor the attention span to understand the issues, let alone make rational decisions based upon them. All of us regardless of party lines have now been subjected to decades of "put-down humor" on sitcoms and elsewhere; we respond to sarcasm and jabs.

"90% 90% 90%" ...it's getting as redundant as "drill drill drill"

Acknowledging Mr. McCain's heroism can no longer be spoken without reminding voters he sang "Bomb Bomb Iran" to the tune of the Beach Boys, and viciously attacked teenage Chelsea with a joke the Washington Post said was "too vicious to print." Whenever reporters say the name McCain our response should be to ask "Which McCain? The brave hero of the 60s or the unprincipled senator who will say anything to get elected, make light of dropping WMDs on Iran and attacked Hillary's teenage daughter?" Mr. Biden and We The People can without a shred of hyperbole proclaim that Barack Obama knows his opponents' children are off limits and is not just a better choice for president than John McCain, he is a Better Man.

Whenever the name Palin is mentioned our response must henceforth include the phrase "unfit to be vice president;" not "unqualified," not "unprepared," but "unfit." When that particular choice of words is questioned there are many examples, but a few I've thought of and find particularly to the point are "Americans don't censor books and close libraries" and "a woman who says 'pray for a pipeline because it's God's will 'does not adequately understand the separation of church and state as defined in our Constitution," and that "while no one here is questioning the faith of another American, invoking the Christian God does not reflect a true understanding of the diverse nature of America."

When either opponent is heard to suggest you may be European or someone suggests that America doesn't need to care what the World thinks of us it should be asked immediately whether the questioner would be more receptive to an outstretched hand or to a hunting rifle aimed in their face.

Senator Obama, our nation's image in the world and our very future depend on your being elected this November. It is the tragic legacy of these Republicans that there is no high road to the White House. That in itself is the very first improvement to our infrastructure that your election will provide.

Richard Fouchaux
Citizen of the United States
Resident of Planet Earth

Oh my god, my sandwhich is liberally biased!

Tp, — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 21:23:08 EDT

I think we can all agree most if not all media has a bias. I hear this Republican chant "All media is liberal." I watch a mix of CNN and FOX. When I watch CNN I typically get bored, and flip through to something else, but when I watch FOX I get fired up. After watching FOX news for a good hour it makes everything seem liberal. I thought for a moment my grilled cheese sandwhich was liberally biased.

Out of sheer bordeom I spent a good 30 minutes googling where Fox coined the term Fair & Balanced. Where they get Fair & Balanced from is beyond my intellectual capability. Like most media I am sure that they ad lib their news reports. What I think they do is they gather some facts, and then search some synonyms for the word experience, insert opinions, and spin it to all hell. BAM, just like Emeril in the kitchen, they have their story.

They have their "All-Star" panel. Which I am confused to how that is fair and balanced. Dick Morris? Mr. double standard himself. It was ok to lay the smackdown on Hillary back in the primaries, and take it like a man, but it's not ok for Palin? Bill Kristol. Well, almost anyone who has watched FOX would know if Senator Obama obtained World Peace, Cured Cancer, Stopped Aids, and ridded the world of poverty, he would pop on his smerk smile and ridicule him for something.

I try not to be so negative, but somethings are just irritating. They never give him props for anything. they try and nail him for voting against the troop surge. I am glad he did not vote for it. We the people were lead into a war, and lied to non-stop for years about it. So, when W steps up to the podium and says in his suttle southern accent "We need more troops." Why the hell would you take his word, and/or judgement seriously? His has misguided us for 8 years. Obama made a great choice based off of what was happening in Iraq, and what needed to happen. What would have happened if he voted yes on the troop surge? Fox News would have called him a flip flop. They would've have burned it into the heads of everyone who flips through and lands on their network.

tom-speed

O'Reilly - Not well informed ...

Obamanizer — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 20:05:33 EDT

... when he claimed not to know what Senator Obama meant talking about Senator McCain not following Bin Laden to the cave he's living in.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,414385,00.html

I must say that when Senator Obama did this remark during his acceptance speech, I was thinking that there might be a lot of people that don't know about the controversy earlier this year when Senator Obama was critizised from all sides when he stated he would go after Bin Laden even in Pakistan without the government's approval (and just a week later, the Pentagon bombed target in Pakistan).

Too bad that O'Reilly wasn't able to remember just this story ... right?

Why I Wonder How FAUX News Manages to Exist in the Same Universe as I do Without Creating a Black Hole.

Noetical — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 18:37:48 EDT

I've been watching the coverage of the convention on MSNBC, then going to CNN and FAUX Newss to check out their post-speech coverage on the major speeches. MSNBC lavished effusive praise on the speeches by Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton. CNN was more moderate, but obviously watched the same speeches. FAUX News commentators apparently had seen different speeches. Their signal must have been distorted as it passed into their parallel universe.

John McCain's Secret Line of Attack

Darrick — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 21:47:50 EDT

John McCain is going to select Sen. Joe Lieberman (I) CT as his Vice-Presidential running mate. There are two reason for this selection. It display's McCain's bi-partisanship muscle. The second reason requires some set up. First, John McCain's been dropping Judeo-Christian like it's hot lately. He's planning to paint Sen. Obama as a Muslim v. the Christian and the Jew. Secondly, Mike Huckabee is dispatched to Israel to rally the troops. That is the master plan and it must be defeated now.

American Girl Trapped In S Ossetia Skewers Fox During Interview

Charley James — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 07:04:12 EDT

WHOOPS!

Yesterday, Fox Noise interviewed an Ossetian-American 12-year old girl who was caught in the disputed region at the start of Georgia's war. She and her aunt, who was also caught, thanks Russian troops for saving her from Georgian aggression.

The squirming Fox anchor was not happy the way the interview went because the child didn’t follow the McCain-Bush talking points about who is the aggressor. Clearly, the girl forgot the master narrative being spewed by the McCain-Bush military-information complex.

The video is at www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8XI2Chc6uQ

The Most biased Name in News

Stefan — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 22:53:26 EDT

A lot of the false accusation that are circling about Barack Obama find their origin at Fox News. What most people don't realize that Fox News is one of the most biased news channels not only in the United States but in the entire Western hemisphere. Fox News does not only appear more biased than any other news station, the channel also broadcasts untrue statements which they might revoke sometime late at night when nobody is watching. One example is the origin of the statement that Barack Obama attended a Madrassa (radical Muslim school) in his teenager years, which has been aired on Fox News and by now is clearly shown to be false, but is still stuck in the minds of thousands of potential voters.

Research the candidates, get as much information on both of them as you can, but disregard Fox News. Forward this link: http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1067 ( a .org website) to anyone that you think might trust this news station.

Propaganda vs. News: A note for the FCC

Robert from Wauconda, IL — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 11:24:23 EDT

Like many, I am offended by the propaganda pushed out by Fox News on a regular basis. We've all seen the evidence over the years, including memos coming down from bosses there telling the show's personalities what issues to discuss. However, like a traffic jam passing an accident scene, I still find myself ocassionally watching with disbelief the misrepresentation of facts, spin and propaganda coming out of Fox News every day - on almost every show.

Because watching a show on cable automatically adds to their ratings, I try hard not to watch it. Instead I visit www.newshounds.us, a website dedicated to documenting Fox truth-distortions and propaganda spewed from Fox "so I don't have to". These folks are great and support most of their posts with video or screenshots.

So here's the issue: With all of this documented spin, how does this network get away with it? I'm in favor of free speech, but why does the FCC and others allow for the truth to be spun and this information to be passed as news? Is anyone allowed to do this? Shouldn't there be some disclaimer that reminds all that this is an opinion network and not a news/journalistic network?

I googled and found this to be interesting:

CMW REPORT, Spring 2003
Title: “Court Ruled That Media Can Legally Lie”
Author: Liane Casten

"...In a stunningly narrow interpretation of FCC rules, the Florida Appeals court claimed that the FCC policy against falsification of the news does not rise to the level of a "law, rule, or regulation," it was simply a "policy." Therefore, it is up to the station whether or not it wants to report honestly."

yes, there's more:

"...FOX asserted that there are no written rules against distorting news in the media. They argued that, under the First Amendment, broadcasters have the right to lie or deliberately distort news reports on public airwaves."

So without something protecting the public from falsification of the news, how can we trust anything delivered over our airwaves? Are we left to double-check everything with the mulittude of sources available? I thought checking sources was a standard requirement of the news entity in an effort to back up their assertions? If they lie or distort, then obviously they are not checking sources. If they are not checking sources, then can we assume the next step will be to "make up the news"?

I've heard many folks say "to stop Fox you have to stop watching it". But as a lifelong Cubs fan I;ve heard this over and over. Stop going to the games and they'll have incentive to field a better team. I can testify it doesn't work. Too many small parts to properly coordinate the effort. Bsides, with big corporate sponsors (and influence), Fox won't feel a financial pinch for a long time.

Folks, I appeal to you:

What can we do?

Publicists Aren't the Only Spin Doctors

PR Addict — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 00:37:19 EDT

I try to steer clear of politics unless I can pull a clear correlation to PR. As a publicist, who has represented rappers in the past, I'm amazed at how some media outlets are spinning Ludacris' song about Obama. It's as if Ludacris was commissioned to make a theme song for the Barack Obama campaign. From my vantage point, I see Ludacris' song as more of a tribute song intended to motivate the hip hop community to take action and realize what's at stake in November. I recognize the strategy behind those that support McCain and I can't fault them on the strategy because they need something right now to work with. If you examine this situation just on strategy points it would make sense for them to blow it out of proportion, as timing is everything.

Obama has just returned from over seas where he received nothing but a warm reception. McCain's ads that highlighted a canceled visit to a veteran's hospital back fired in the public's opinion.
Media scrutiny is not foreign to Ludacris and we all know how “beloved” he is at Fox news.

The pattern that I'm seeing appears to be that whenever Obama opposers want to infuriate McCain supporters they have to make Obama supporters the center of the “spin” instead of Obama, himself. This is strategy, plain and simple. When making a comparison between the two candidates the elephant in the room is often either race or religion, two areas that McCain's camp has to tread lightly around. Since these two topics can't be addressed in a roundtable or town hall discussion, their best bet is to wait for key figures that represent those two areas to come forth. And once they do, all the strategy that has been planned behind closed doors is unleashed. Please recognize that the wording and emotion that they are trying to provoke has been well rehearsed without the star or leading roles. As soon as someone steps out that has the character description of the starring roles, the lights go up, the curtain opens, a new star is cast and Obama is cast as a supporting character. I was sent the clip where Fox News' Hannity discussed Ludacris' song. The clip I saw was on YouTube and when I went to Fox News' site I couldn't find it. Ironically, their home page says “We report, you decide” and O'Reilly's tag line is “Enter the No Spin Zone.” From how they addressed this song situation more fitting slogans might be “We decide what to report” or “Enter for a Spin.” Artists, especially musicians have been making political statements since the beginning of time. I admire these symbols for using their influence for something other than promoting themselves. While their motives may be controversial, they recognize that they are thought leaders and want to do more with their positioning. We all have a voice but not everyone has a stage, a microphone and a draw. For those with the draw, they hire savvy and seasoned publicists to create a thorough spin. For those without a draw, please stay out of our lane. End scene, lights down, curtain closed!

To view the Hannity clip, you'll need to search YouTube. Jonnice Slaughter is a Public Relations, Marketing and Advertising Consultant and Principal at ChatterBox Publicity, LLC, the first and fastest growing minority-owned PR boutique to specialize in social media public relations for small businesses and entrepreneurs. Her clients represent entertainment, fashion, night life, restaurant, fitness, technology, sports, music, faith-based, media, financial and event planning industries. In addition to writing for P.R.I.M.P: PR Is My Passion, she is a regular contributor to the blog, FlackMe.com (produced by the Talent Zoo). Follow her on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/chatterboxpr.

Liz Trotta's death wish for Obama, FCC response

Patrick Frank — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:25:45 EDT

You may recall Liz Trotta's statement during the primaries, that she would like it if "Osama and Obama" were both "bumped off." I filed a complaint with the FCC, which is charged with ensuring that broadcast in the public interest. After all this time, I finally received a reply, promising that they would review my complaint.

Her statement is just an example of the kind of vicious attacks that have been launched against Barack by extreme right wingers and some in the broadcast media, especially in the arena of cable news and talk radio, and most particularly (but not exclusively) by Fox News.

Though she apologized, her statement was basically swept under the rug by mainstream media. It is time for all fairminded Americans to stand up against the kind of hate-mongering.

Patrick Frank

Grassroots Obama volunteer

(843) 372-8851

patrickgfrank@yahoo.com

Fight against Fox Network

FloridaObamasupporter — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:40:12 EDT

Today, the Fox network in Manhattan was served with a petition with over 600,000 names and delivered by the hip hop rapper and Obama supporter NAS. In the petition, a request to denounce and reject (media term) their abuse of racism and stereotypes against the Obama campaign and Michelle Obama. We must stop hate and bigotry in it's tracks and fight with everything we have but peacefully to stand tall and refuse to fall.

Get the news out

Chris "Moose" Forbes — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:45:59 EDT

When your family or friends get their news from the mainstream media (BAPFM), send them to the real news. Places like TPM, DKos, HuffPo; so they can know the truth, not the fawning spin of the BAPFM. Bought And Paid For.

Let's stop the spin cycle of media attacks on Obama

Nichelle — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 16:13:43 EDT

Please look at these important videos from Robert Greenwald showing how FOX News Channel is smearing Barack Obama, Black Americans, the environment, and even pushing for another war... with Iran!

http://foxattacks.com/

Sign the petition here:

https://pol.moveon.org/donate/foxsmears.html?rc=homepage

Email fox news here and let them know their attacks and reporting are un-american in every way:

americasnewsroom@foxnews.com

Please pass this on...

Nichelle

The New Yorker Magazine Cover of Senator Obama

Lynette — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 13:34:23 EDT

On Monday, The New Yorker magazine tried dipping its toe into broad satire involving Senator Obama with a cover image depicting the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and his wife, Michelle, as fist-bumping, flag-burning, bin Laden-loving terrorists in the Oval Office.

The New Yorker cover isn't funny. The Obama camp has created a website to fight rumors...check it out and refer a friend or foe:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/fightthesmearshome/

Also, I think the majority of us know that Fox news is not "fair and balanced." Get involved! Please watch the new Fox attacks video and sign the petition to the media today:

Just click here: http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3495&id=12319-1165144-_Omdzl&t=147

When Fox News Attacks

♫Parodee♫ — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 13:29:10 EDT

Who says we are ignorant?

SITALCES — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 22:07:04 EDT

Friends, there are many uncle Toms around and you can find them all in Rupert Mardock's Fox News network. I find nothing intelligent in the comments of African American Fox News chronies who happen to disagree or dismiss Barack Obama as inexperienced (but articulate) and opportunistic. If they cannot understand that they are used to convince us that Mr. Obama must not become president, I do not see how their opinion matters. Either they are stupid to even be on the tube, or they are paid to play the role of Judas against the interests of their own people. In either case I find them offensive and I am forced to conclude that Mr. Mardock thinks that Americans are naive to fall victims to this old trick of sheer propaganda. Regarding the intelligence of the American people our "friend" Shon Hannity was offended this week by Barack's remarks regarding our ability of American travelers to communicate with the Europeans. Mr. Obama observed that when Americans go to Europe they expect to be understood in their own language. He also observed that Europeans visiting the United States make an effort to communicate in English. Somehow this comment was interpreted by Mr. Hannity as elitist and an insult to our intelligence. He remarked that Americans do not like to be called ignorant. It seems to me that Mr. Hannity talks with both sides of his mouth. On one hand, he objects when someone call us linguistically ignorant and on the other, he is trying to fool us with the opinion of African Americans he picks on the sidewalks and present them to us as political analysts. It is about time that we send Mr. Mardock back to Australia where he can play this kind of games with his own people.

Fox Sports: Fair and Balanced

Jake Bell — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:41:09 EDT

Fox Sports' Mark Kriegel has a column up about Brett Favre's possible un-retirement. One line struck me as odd.

It was easy to understand why he had fans from every red and blue state.

Really? Do other quarterbacks find their popularity split along political lines? Does Trent Green find himself cheered by Christian fundamentalists, but the subject of MoveOn.org attack ads? Do Wyomingites hate Tom Brady because he plays in Taxachusetts?

When Philip Rivers gets booed at Arrowhead Stadium, I don't think it's because red state Missourians and Kansans are upset that California allows gay marriage. It seems more likely that it has to do with his playing for the Chargers. Eli Manning plays in blue state New York (well, technically New Jersey), but I doubt you'll find many of his fans in blue state Massachusetts this season.

What is the point of this political divisiveness in a sports column other than for Fox News to keep reminding its readers that red and blue staters can't ever get along, because if we did, we wouldn't need Fox News.

Run, Jesse, Run?

Tay — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:26:57 EDT

Under normal circumstances, if I were posting a blog ranting about someone named Jesse it would've been Jesse Helms, hands down, no questions asked. I find myself in a peculiar postion having to render an indictment on the behavior of Civil Rights activist and political legend (some might say) Jesse Jackson. What in the HELL is the world coming to?

Balack Obama and his Babymama -A Fox News Horror Story

Jimmy from Fort Lauderdale, FL — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 10:44:10 EDT

It's a very scary thought the day when…………
Balack Obama might become president. This menacing figure does a terrorist fist bump with his wife and calls for unholy optimism and hope. Be very afraid of this scary frightening Obama and his Babymama cause they are ………………………….
Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!!!!!!!!
Which of course means they are angry and they hate America. They never wear flag pins or break into a country song that sings about how America is the country where freedom gives you the right to hate your fellow American who disagrees with you. No, they are filling the public's mind with peace love and understanding. And as you know that is the communist tactic to take the money away from the helpless rich and give it to the undeserving poor. They want to stop global warming. (as if there was such a thing)A lot of people don't know that Obama is a secret muslim too. Did you know that the Christian church he used to attend had a lot of black people? How can he say he is who he is and go to a church that is predominantly black? What a racist!
If Balack Obama becomes president MTV will be selling sex and violence to children, people will be voting thousands of times for who looks better on American Idol and not who is more talented. Less importantly( but something more to fear) is the state of the economy under a black president. There would be the highest gas prices ever, people concerned about their jobs, an endless war in Iraq, lying to the American public and who knows what else. And it won't be Clinton's fault this time.(The effect of a Clinton presidency only happens for 8 years after they leave office)
Insane in the McCain's advisors say that the only hope for America is another terrorist attack but I say just watch Fox News and listen to them because they are the true American network. Watch Bill O'Rightwing,Insanity in Homes, Rush Lo Limbaugh so they can tell you how UnAmerican you are and make you understand you are Unyourself.
And there are some of you who may question the patriotism of Insanity and why he would consider his own America -a separate America- Insanity's America . Or the fact that Mr. Obama is most likely going to be our next president- (you know the title we are told to respect no matter what that person does) And to smear Obama the way they do does not seem right. To which I respond as all my other more patriotic, more intelligent friends than you do -and that is to shake my head and say, "You just don't understand." You just don't understand the scary world that is out there. We need Hate TV and Hate radio because there is a true threat out there. You may call it the Darkside but we who are more intelligent than you call it reality.
www.jimmyjubes.com

Fox News Media Bias

Charlie — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 12:20:23 EDT

MoveOn.org's latest post about the anti-Obama biasof Fox News, including references to his race and his 'moslem' name, are an outrage. (See below if you missed it)

I don't watch Fox News, but it would be really useful if we could compile a list of advertisers who support this outrage. They should be 'swarmed' with negative emails, until they threaten to pull their ads.

Money is the language that Fox must understand. We can send petitions to Fox until the cows come hme, but to get action we have to hit them in the Wallet!

QUOTE
FOX has really gone over the line this past month--using racism, prejudice, and fear to smear Barack Obama. Each time they apologize--then they do it again.

First, a paid FOX commentator accidentally confused "Obama" with "Osama" and then joked on the air about killing Obama. Next, a FOX anchor said a playful fist pound by Barack and Michelle Obama could be a "terrorist fist jab." And then, FOX called Michelle Obama "Obama's baby mama"--slang used to describe the unmarried mother of a man's child.

FOX won't stop until it becomes too painful to continue--until the public calls them out and advertisers start getting worried. Nearly 100,000 Americans have already expressed their outrage. Can you express yours by adding your name to his message?
UNQUOTE

Food For Thought !!!

BrotherJR — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 03:19:30 EDT

1. After listening to Focus On The Family Founder James Dobson go off on sen. Obama about a speech on religion and faith from 2006, a few thing comes to my mind. Mr. Dobson is not a preacher, minister, or real theologian. So A) What or who does think he his to believe that he has the authority to claim what is right or wrong in regards to religion B) Why is automatically held up a influential Christian/Evangelical leader and C) Given the fact that he says that he's not a preacher, minister, or theologian why do we necessarily care or pay so much attention about his views.

2. Sean Hannity is one of the bigger hypocrites on cable news. How can "That Little Ball of Hate" (as CNN contributor and radio talk show host Roland Martin often refers to him by) sit there an call out senator and Mrs. Obama for so called divisive, inflammatory, and racial remarks on one segment, then in the next segment, chum it up with the likes of divisive and questionable figures like Pat Buchanan, Jesse Lee Peterson, and Ann Coulter. That's hypocricy run amuck. Mr. Hannity blasts Mrs. Obama about her college thesis when she expressed some frustrations about being black in an IVY League university and calling for black unity (and nothing is wrong with that). However, when Clarence Thomas expressed those similar uncomfortable feelings about his time at Yale in his recent book as well as in an interview with Steve Croft on 60 minutes earlier this year, and in an one on one interview with Mr. Hannity, Sean praises him for being honest, forthcoming, and open. You can't blast somebody on the left for questionable comments and at the same time give Ann Coulter a pass when she on your telivision show refers to sen. Obama "a two bit Adolf Hitler" and claims that "America needs to be wary of Obama in the same way that the jews were wary of Hitler" or say nothing to Pat Buchanan about his racist March 21 column "A Brief For Whitey" that he wrote in response to sen. Obama's speech on race. But I guess that kind of double standard is O.K. with Faux (Fox) News.

3. What in the heck is wrong with Ralph Nader. sen. Obama in not trying to play to white guilt. He's trying to bring a coalition of americans together irregardless of race, sex, religion. Sadly, Mr. Nader has completely lost his way.

Tired of Fox News

Steven Bayman — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:42:03 EDT

I've been keeping up with this paticular election more than I have ever done in the past. I've noticed one thing that makes me sick...FOX NEWS is seriously biased. They take every chance they get to attack the Obama campaign. Even when they have a democrat to interview they never give that person a chance to really talk but instead attack Obama. So, if you want the real news I recommend CNN over Fox. Granted all news is biased in some form , but Fox is just completely on the bash Obama campaign.

Blame It On Fox News

Dr. Mark Elrod — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 22:03:57 EDT

A Tennessee Democrat has apologized for making comments in a Nashville newspaper connecting Barack Obama with terrorism.

His excuse: He watches Fox News.

In his letter of apology to the state Democratic Party Executive Committee, committee member Fred Hobbs wrote:

I was not as well prepared as I should have been when speaking with reporters, and I should have taken more time to research Senator Obama’s positions. My comments did reflect questions I had after what I had seen reported on Fox News, but I should have taken some time to check the accuracy of what I saw on television before speaking publicly. My statement that Senator Obama “may be terrorist-connected” was incorrect, and I apologize for making it.

I've got to remember that one -- it may come in handy some day.

Fox News Fist Bump Coverage

♫Parodee♫ — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 08:55:33 EDT

Tim Russert and Future Journalism

Doug Robinson — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 17:17:33 EDT

It can only be hoped that collective grief combined with general recognition of Tim Russert’s great contribution to television journalism will serve to elevate the general standard at least for a while. The climate giving rise to the overall success of polarized reporting so often shown in FOX News broadcasts is systemic in our political culture. It may not change until a new administration takes office, gradually renewing American faith that progressive rather than reactionary ideas can in fact bring beneficial results for all elements of our society.

I've Made My First Contribution

Wendy H — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 09:59:53 EDT

My first candidate of choice was John Edwards. I sent him S$25, big money when you're talking about my checkbook. I supported Edwards because he spoke to the class issues that are destroying our nation. When he dropped out, it wasn't too much of a leap to move to Obama and, after reading about him and hearing him speak, I was glad to support him wholeheartedly.

But the money is tight, very tight. In many ways, my life experience is a perfect example of the situation of the average working American today. I'll write more about that later. For now, just know that $25 is a big deal, and I haven't had it to donate.

Things are a little better right now, so I planned send my contribution this month. Before work this morning, I caught a moment of "Morning Joe," and heard about some of the really vile rumors going around about Obama. They mentioned the factcheck website. Then I read Salon and heard about the appalling Fox reference to Michelle Obama as Barack's "baby mama."

This has to stop. We just can't allow the jerks to do to Obama what they did to John Kerry. (And all indications are that the Kerry smears will look like a valentine, compared to what they've got in store for Obama.) I am THRILLED to see that the Obama campaign is attacking this issue head-on. Somehow, we've got to do whatever we can to reclaim our political process.

So I sent my $25 in today, as a gesture of support not just for the Obama campaign, but for the anti-smear campaign as well.

Fox News Calls Michelle "Obama's Baby Mama"

oshun — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 09:42:27 EDT

FOX NEWS must be stopped. Their coverage of everything is so biased as to be ridiculous. Here's the latest idiocy:

As if implicating her as one half of a "terrorist fist jab" wasn't enough, Fox News has gone on to label Michelle Obama "Obama's baby mama."

Salon's Alex Koppelman writes:

An alert reader wrote in just a little while ago to let us know about something he'd spotted on Fox News Wednesday afternoon. During a segment discussing conservative attacks against Michelle Obama, the wife of presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama, the network described the former as "Obama's baby mama."

Entire article on Huffington Post

Liz Trotta/FOX NEWS plants "assasinate Obama seed" -SIGN PETITION

Kristine — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 09:38:54 EDT

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/fox-news-has-to-sack-liz-trotta

Please view the above clip of FOX NEWS LIZ TROTTA. They buried this and we all need to sign the petition to end this condoning of assasinating our future leader.

"If your not outraged, your not paying attention"....She should be in JAIL!

Thanks in advance. I also emailed FOX NEWS which is a BUSH station.

THE TIME IS NOW....OBAMA 08'.....Kristine from Connecticut

Neo-Cons and the New McCarthyism - Terrorist Fist Jabbing and Hate Couture

Brittany Shenanigans — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 08:23:50 EDT

Part 1: Michelle Malkin's Hate Couture

Thanks to Michelle Malkin's incredibly ignorant blog post about Rachael Ray's Dunkin Donuts ad, I've gone and bought a cheap keffiyah in black and white. This checkered scarf, traditionally worn by Palestianians, was identified by Malkin as such:

The keffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad. Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant (and not so ignorant) fashion designers, celebrities and left-wing icons.

Michelle Malkin's Blog Post

In truth, Malkin, who feels so clever for coming up with the phrase hate couture, is the one who is clueless and ignorant. In the Arab world, the keffiyah is as common as a baseball cap.

A better explanation of the meaning of the Keffiyah to the Palestinians

Here in the UK there is a big problem with youth crime, and a large proportion of young boys who are responsible for minor but costly street crime wear Yankee hats. Does this mean that everyone who wears a Yankee hat is a criminal? Even though I'm an Orioles fan, I'm not going to let my bias against the Yankees encourage me to view a yankee hat as a sign of contempt for the law.

So, this weekend, I bought a black and white keffiyahs so that I can make a statement of my own. I want to show the world that I support the Palestinian state's right to exist. Not for the right of people to kill innocent civillians, but for the right of everyday Palestinians to enjoy the same privileges as their Israeli neighbours and to not be restricted by apartheid.

It's not hate couture, but love couture! And if I can make Michelle Malkin angry by wearing it, then that in itself is a good excuse!

If I can get one person to open their mind to the idea that not all Palestinians are terrorists, then I'll be very pleased with myself. If that means taking it to Rehoboth Beach in Delaware when I go back over the pond for my family's annual beach week, then so be it! I'm going to wear it as a cover-up and use it as a source for dialogue because there isn't any on this subject in the US.

Part 2: Terrorist Fist-Jabbing and the New McCarthyism

I came across the story about E.D. Hill's description of the Michelle-Barack fist-jab as a 'terrroist' gesture and was writing to her email address to express my disgust when I learned that her show had been cancelled by Fox News.

If you are unaware of the story, E.D. Hill appears to be a Fox News Bush Bimbo who, in a flash of brilliant understanding of modern popular culture normally reserved to people over 50, basically stated on her show, and I paraphrase, that the fist jab may have been a secret handshake for members of a terrorist organization.

I'm glad that Fox finally did something responsible in cancelling her show, although this is only because they have decided to take a subtle approach to their mission to discredit Obama. After all, it's not like they fired her. She'll probably get the show back after the election is over.

This really does demonstrate how ridiculously ignorant and stupid Fox News reporters can be. The BBC would never hire someone like that, because they hire people according to their professional ability and not their political beliefs.

Dan Sweeney wrote a great blog entry in the Huffington Post regarding these two events as part of a wider effort by Fox News and the Neo-Con movement to identify anything that is ideologically opposed to their view of foreign policy is a terrorist.

Here are some of Sweeney's 'You might be a terrorist IF' jokes:

2) If you plan on voting for fist-pounding terrorist sympathizer Barack Obama, you might be a terrorist.

3) If you live in San Francisco, you might be a terrorist.

4) If you think that even Michelle Malkin could find better things to do with her time than examine the fashion choices of Rachael Ray, you might be a terrorist.

5) If you think that Fox News' reporting of a fist pound as a terrorist fist jab makes them look shockingly, eye-poppingly, searingly stupid as opposed to making Barack Obama look like a terrorist, you might be a terrorist.

6) If you went out and bought one of those scarves the minute Dunkin Donuts pulled the ad, you might be a terrorist.

I'm not the first person to note the similarities between the political exploitation of the public's fear of terrorist attacks and the McCarthy movement in the 1950s. After all, the Republicans exploited McCarthy and the public's fear of the unknown 'other' (in this case, the communists) in the same way that they are now exploiting the public's fear of another 9/11. All of McCarthy's information about communist sympathizers came from high-ranking FBI officials who wanted the Republicans to win the next presidential election. As soon as the Republicans won the election, the party didn't need McCarthy anymore and allowed him to be swept away into disgrace when the public tired of him and he became more dramatic and paranoid in his speeches.

But I think that there is a difference here, and an important one. I think that the Republicans are going to play this card on national security for a long time, at least until the war on terror is over, which is something that I don't forsee happening for a very long time. That is to say, if it ever does happen.

Will Fox "news" add these "terrorist fist jabbers" to their list of enemies?

Mikeystyle — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:51:57 EDT

E.D. Hill on Fox "news" referred to the Obama fist bump as "a terrorist fist jab." HUH?

Soon to follow on the E.D. Hill list of enemies list: The elder President Bush and Anna Kournikova. Known terrorist supporters, according to Fox "news."

Seriously, why do they make it so easy?

For more on the evils of fist bumps:
See the above picture and many more users of the “terrorist fist jab”
http://www.imperfectunion.com/?p=177

See the video of this Fox “news” hack being a moron
http://mediamatters.org/items/200806060007

FOX NEWS AND MCCAIN

Vivian — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 23:53:33 EDT

See what FOX NEWS said about McCain's speech. You think you were bored?

"That's not what change is..." Ah!!!!! I had nightmares!

Fox News will elect Obama president

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 11:00:38 EDT

Fox News will elect Obama president

By Bradley Burston

In the end, leave it to Fox News Channel to elect Barack Obama president.

They have the resources. They have the clout. And, most importantly, they have the critical lack of vision required to prompt a backlash and elect the candidate they truly dislike.......

ENTIRE ARTICLE- http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/989784.html

WELCOME, ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE.....

C42D — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 15:46:32 EDT

Well, here I am, smack-dab in the worst year of my life... Over $50,000 in debt, an ex-drug addict, and exactly $1.53 in my bank account. Today, one of only two remaining credit lines I have was closed due to a king-hell f*ckaround at the bank involving all kinds of fun things like the fact the VISA transactions take priority over electronic funds transfers, even if that transfer is for $220.00 and its the only thing standing between you and another credit card being closed. But hey, there are some things money can't buy, like me throwing my phone through the wall when I found out about this. For everything else, there's VISA. And Big Money. And crap like the bullsh*t Bush has laid on us for the past seven years while we laid around in a post 9-11 coma... Listen I was ON A PLANE THAT MORNING... to BOSTON. My ex-girlfriend (who broke up with me when I got addicted to drugs after the attacks) was literally STAMPEDED by a mob in downtown Manhattan when the towers fell. I know depression, and I know 9-11. I live in Queens. And no one knows better than me that I was gung-ho to support ol' Bush right after the attacks. But something happened. I came to my senses, and watched as the good-will of the planet collapsed into a mess of orange jumpsuits and Abu Gihrab torture manuals, slimy and dripping with oil. Something is wrong here.

So yeah, another Morning in America: Wake up, no money, another credit card closed, gas at $4.85 a gallon for hi-test, but it doesn't matter because in 15 days the car insurance will be cancelled, borrowing $20 from my girlfriend to eat, recovering from a shattering addiction, and wondering- how the fu*k can I do something to ensure this freaking Republican Party never gets another president elected? That's when, just out of instinct, I stumbled upon barackobama.com. And then I realized something else — not only to these fiends have a kick-ass web site that shoud have McCain shaking in his boots, they allow ALL OF US TO TAKE PART... and do what we want. Hmmmm so here I am: Another lone, ex-coked-out-American who wants Change, and wants it badly. Not just for myself but for my Country...

Listen up, Barack: You talk a lot, and we like your talk, and you better deliver. I am sick of being sold down the river. I saw our current President flush an entire planet's good will and intentions down the toilet and I will be dammed if I believe in another round of bullsh*t about "change-this" and "you-are-the customer-" that. YOU BETTER DELIVER. I read today that you said the Democratic National Comittee would no longer accept money from federal lobbyists or political action committees. Well, holy sh*t!! Isn't that about time! I LOVE YOU man, Because that is exactly what 99% of us want. Because... well, 99% of us get screwed when the DNC DOES accept those donations... but if you back down on that, BO, you are a chickensh*t and you will lose all the momentum you are buliding, just like Bush did. So be strong, man. I believe in you, you beautiful son of a.... and this is a man who hasn't EVER believed in ANY president since...well... EVER. I never knew what it felt like to believe until today. Cherish those words as proof that its working BO, and its working WELL.

Heck, I haven't even seen you speak. I never even read your campaign platform. It doesn't matter. I believe in the idea of you and if that doesn't get your fire burning, I don't know what will. This washed-up, broke, ex-drug-addict is writing a full page of single-spaced words and joining your team based on the idea of BARACK OBAMA. Now that is some power you have there, BO, Downright JFK-like and you better use it wisely... Our country needs you!

So yeah, you got me BO, for now... just don't do any of that good-ol' flip-floppin' that FOX News loves to report on. You seem like a good guy. And God knows we need a African-American President already. Hillary as VP? I dunno, man that's your call. You know how Billy rocked that oval office. But I think a female VP and a Commander-in-chief with a little bit of soul will do this country some good. And screw anyone who says that's a racist comment because its not. I am white, I can't boogie, and I sure as heck can't pay my bills on time— but I can write like no other.

I encourage everyone with an affinity for passionate debate, motorcycles, football, overdue credit card bills, web design, and the Money-Grubbing Elite that are strangling our country, to post something in this Blog.

You have found your home. Now go to it, my sons and daughters...

Yrs,

C42D

Flushing, NYC

Who Ya Gonna Trust?

ZapDuff — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 18:45:11 EDT

My wife was out of town for a series of business meetings this past week. Although we only got a few minutes to talk a couple times a day, she accurately sensed I was getting pretty distraught over how various media stars were trying to steer public opinion, instead of delivering the news.

Until about a decade or two ago, working journalists honored a creed to never show personal bias, for fear of it tainting the facts they delivered. Credibility depended on it. Back then, there was a fear - without credibility a journalist would be unemployable. My, how times have changed! Credibility no longer seems important, as facts and reality have lost their relevance when so laden with personal opinions.

So where can we turn when we want the real story? Who ya gonna trust?

Bill O'Reilly and Dick Morris Worried About Losing Their Jobs

Inspired in Florida - a Recovering Republican — Thu, 29 May 2008 06:33:56 EDT

From Newshounds - They watch so we don't have to.

Bill O'Reilly and Dick Morris Worried About Losing Their Jobs

After Bill O'Reilly dismissed Scott McClellan's book as no big thing, he, of course, blamed the "left wing media" for embracing it. When Dick Morris appeared, he immediately tapped into BOR's paranoid fixation, talking ominously about an "activated left wing media" growing since 1996 and now "ready to control." 5/28/08 O'Reilly greeted Morris with the observation about McClellan's book, " Something is in the air." That was the only cue Morris needed to go off on one of his theory babbles. Noting there was a "big difference", Morris said an "activated left wing media is sharply putting out a message that the MSM is picking up". He claimed it started in 1996 when Moveon.org was formed during the Clinton impeachment and has been growing and now it is about " to debut" and "ready to control". Morris, sounding like he was pitching a horror film, continued with his important theory. In the past, he noted, it was just random liberal reporters shading their stories but now it's the "entire industry". O'Reilly, yearning for the good old days, commented that up until 2004 the right had talk radio and the left had TV and print but now talk radio won't "rally" behind John McCain.( In other words the echo chamber is ineffective) He worried that "Independents would be overwhelmed by the pro-Obama message". Morris claimed " liberals will use their victory to destroy conservative media". BOR agreed that they were after him and would go after FOX and talk radio. Morris warned BOR, they will be "closing you down."

FOX NEWS/Liz Trotta laughs about Obama assassination!

Candy Barr 4 Obama! — Sun, 25 May 2008 19:30:49 EDT

I find the words so difficult to come out right now---I'm in shock, I want to cry, I want to scream and most importantly I want to shout to the mountain tops that WE as Obama supporters will not stand for this sort of vulgar news being reported from FOX news or their employees.

I am spending all night and all day for however long it takes---to get this video out to every state in the union. It's enough that Hillary gives a lame excuse for her latest gaffe (I don't buy it!!) and hopefully by Monday the MSM will be all over it like flies on poop!

Well this latest one from FOX NEWS and their news correspondent Liz Trotta has got to be the 'icing on the cake.'

Please help me to get the video out to the entire world. Let them know what type of "unfair" and "unbalanced" program FOX NEWS really is. Liz Trotta is now branded as a piranha and should be dealt with in a severe manner that shows the entire country that WE will NOT tolerate this sort of behavior.

This is a "Fierce Urgency of NOW!!" Thank you!!

You can find the story located in the link below:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/5/25/15389/8576/115/522617

Liz Trotta Arrest Pending by Citizen Duffey

ZapDuff — Sun, 25 May 2008 18:57:29 EDT

I don't know how much luck I will have, but I'm going to go to DC and/or NYC (which ever city Liz Trotta works in most often.) I am going to the state prosecutors in at least one of those cities and file a criminal complaint against this woman for a Hate Crime, and Complicated Assault with intention to harm. She has gotten a free ride as a journalist since Vietnam... but that ticket must end NOW.

NO ONE DESERVES NATIONAL EXPOSURE WHO LAUGHS AFTER SUGGESTING THE MURDER OF BARACK OBAMA IS A GOOD THING!

Fox News Guest Jokes About Assassinaiton.

Chris Comninel — Sun, 25 May 2008 16:34:36 EDT

I was browsing the Daily Kos and a found this diary which shows a video of A guest on Fox News joking about the assassination and death of Barack Obama. This is an utter disgrace to the news business and we cannot have lunatics like this on TV. Please spread this video around and I urge you to boycott this disgusting type of language and speak which is openly accepted on Fox News.

Why Still Canvassing for Obama in North Carolina?

Franklin Katunda — Sun, 25 May 2008 10:56:01 EDT

Why Still Canvassing for Obama in North Carolina?

Charlotte, North Carolina May 2nd 2008 – Even after a double-digit loss for Obama in Pennsylvanian primaries, I decided still to head back on the road to work for his campaign and to get out the vote in the remaining contests. I flew in from Washington DC to Charlotte NC, on weekends of April 28th and May 3rd for a final push; this was about 3 days before the crucial North Carolina and Indiana May 6th primaries.

Canvassing for Obama, listening to FOX NEWS radio...

During the first week, I worked under enormous pressure as I canvassed in the streets of the city of Charlotte; in places like Albermarle Rd, Central Ave and Sharon Amity Areas. I remember listening to Fox News (very popular radio on the Carolinians’ waves) while it run tirelessly its daily “breaking news” at every other top of the hour: “The Rev. Jeremiah Wright appearance at the DC’s National Press Club”. Wow… I had to hear that unpleasant propaganda and still be encouraged in my rental car around. I definitely was embedded with hope that I can convince and to talk to voters about Senator Barack Obama in spite of what I know they might have heard before I got to their door steps.

How in the world a press organization can go that low, making a non-political figure’s speech a campaign trail’s headline and even more a daily “every top of the hour” breaking news for the entire day. Fox News gave that Wright’s appearance in DC the same amount of attention they gave with a media frenzy to Paris Hilton Arrest’s episode or the Anna Nicole Court’s Case … Even more, Fox wanted us to believe that the Rev. Wright’s conference was all they had to cover for the day.

Well, Senator Barack Obama and the campaign made it clear, thank God, that moving forward, that although him being his former pastor at the Trinity Church of Christ, Jeremiah. Wright’s relationship to the candidate won’t be the same and that he does not speak for our campaign nor does he represent the Senator’s views. That weekend’s trip in Charlotte NC was my biggest challenge in my entire canvassing experience for Barack Obama. Keep in mind here that I have been in the cold streets of Candia, Manchester, Nashua, NH; I organized and called volunteers and voters in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhoods; I planted yard signs along streets in Virginia and helped register thousands on the Virginia Primary Baloot for Obama; I took a high attitude and poised look while talking, at their door steps, to resilient Texans, even those who say to me they will never vote for a black man. Driving around the streets of Charlotte for a door-to-door visit to voters seemed hard because I personally had to hear the whole Jeremiah Wright’s live-speech and a bogus post-speech news commentator’s analysis that went on for the day.

What do North Carolinians know about this 2008 election?

Yet, North Carolinians seem, from my talks with many, to be more thoughtful than the right-wing media pundits suggest and were more leaning towards Senator Obama than the Clintons have calculated. In every household, there is this belief that it’s time for North Carolinians to exercise their judgment in voting after many early contests took place (41 already). They are concerned about the Economy (particularly the gas price and the unemployment); they are looking for a government that John Edwards promised some of them to fight for. Can Obama carry the fight on poverty they so much believed the Senator from Chapel Hill with? In any case it seems to be just an Obama’s fight now. Many voters I talked to are doubtful about the Clintons’ message regarding fighting for the working men and women…for fighting poverty in America; also most voters lost trust in them given their deceiving showing for the last 2 months (Bill and Hillary) on the campaign trail.

There is that lack of discipline among the Clintons’ surrogates that seem to bother most voters here in NC; their choices to use negative ads against their party’s fellows to bait voters on TV, their SNL show’s characterization and their many evening TV appearances before the primaries were not well welcomed by southern voters here, although seen as a fair game by the media.

The long fight between Democrats has become a disservice to the American People. Voters are also very critical of the lies they heard (the Hillary landing in Bosnia under sniper attacks) and promises made in order to pander to voters (gas tax from summer to labor day) in order to win an election. In deed, Hillary Clinton has poorly sold that ineffective idea to the voters while the Washington Post was reporting last week that “this gas tax would save to an average American household only 18$ of their pocket money, according to a study made by an independent organization on the proposal. Republican John McCain who inspired Clinton on his first vocal economic idea of the 2008 decision, cannot at this time be counted as that so-called “Maverick” people got used to see from the 2000 elections; he has given many voters many reasons to believe he cannot deliver on those economic solutions given the stakes.

He and Hillary have launched the proposal to continue gaining terrain after they unfairly attacked Obama about his former pastor’s comments (not his) and mischaracterized what he said about voters who are frustrated with their government’s business dealings. So, calling the straight talk bus rider a maverick in 2008 is like comparing the so-aligned with the distrust that the American people have towards their government to a fresh face senator who can still pull in a 35 thousands people’s rally in Philadelphia on a night while trailing in the polls, and it is like ignoring what the libertarian and registered-republican candidate Ron Paul has to offer as far as patriotism, suppression of big government and his anti-war sentiments as to compare them to a John McCain’s line of speech on Iraq and his so-out of touch views of our economy.

This is what's at stake…in this election

I have made these costly trips to Charlotte NC, knowing and still believing that we will prevail, even if the status quo will continue to resist. I still see as many other Obama canvassers I met there from SC, Georgia and Texas and the wonderful staff at the Elizabeth Ave/ Hawthorne Office: Santiago or Molly… that we can deliver a victory all the way to the democratic nomination. From my past experience with the Obama Camp, I would challenge those supporters who feel like giving up on this journey. I have got one thing to say: I have canvassed for a half-year in the cold and icy streets of New Hampshire and I’ve organized voters in high-crime quarters and corners of Metro stations in Boston Massachusetts; I have planted lawn signs along local streets and have supported in Virginia and collected petition’s signatures for Obama. 30 thousands signatures were needed for to put the canditate’s name on the Virginia ballot; I also canvassed in Arlington and Fort-Worth, Texas.

During all these episodes, I have always in mind that if we can win a state primary or a state caucus, it is not just because of the candidate’s message but because of the hard work we can as campaign staffers and volunteers put forth at the grassroots level. That civic engagement alone has been effective and powerful in convincing the undecided voters. So, I say to these fellow supporters, hold your head up, suit your gear back up and run; continue the fight!

We are in fact the backbone of this campaign; a movement that enlists Americans who are determined to see change in the ways our politics affects our citizenry. We are citizens who want to challenge the status quo in place in Washington DC and in our home states leadership. By the status-quo I also mean: people (voters) who will always wait until the last minute hoping to be helped (the old school way) in their choice for a candidate: The old school way suggests that a campaign was properly laid out on the issues, voters ought to be fed with some last minute negative ad; people who do not vote based on sound judgment, facts and candidate’s profile, but by name recognition, who are proud to be fanatics or who vote for a contender based on age group, racial or gender preferences…. The only way to win against the political establishment represented by Hillary Clinton and John McCain is to go after them with a coalition of voters (all racial backgrounds) like we have been doing since the beginning in Iowa and New Hampshire. The reason why people campaign and vote for Obama is not because somehow America now wants a black candidate as a symbol of change…

Our Movement is not about color or gender, It's the American Deal for Generations

The reason I met a bunch of Irish-Americans in New England, campaigning with me for Obama, the reason why 85% of the staff and volunteers at the Manchester NH Office were Whites; the reason why we won states with working class citizens like Wisconsin, Virginia, Maryland, Washington State by big margins; the reason why we conquered many other majority-white states like Utah, Nebraska, Idaho, North Dakota versus states with whites-blacks demographic splits like Mississippi, South Carolina, Alabama or New Orleans… The reason why we won states with urban, suburban and rural working class population like Illinois, Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware is because Americans want a new face in the oval office to set the country in a new direction. The reason why we delivered states with large percentages of anti-war activists like Vermont, Minnesota, Maine… and Virginia is because the American people have decided to turn the page for a new chapter in the American foreign policy and diplomacy..

Now Americans abroad (Europe, Africa, Asia etc.) are all for Barack Obama results indicate; He won in off-the continental USA…In Alaska, Hawaii and in the US territories of Virgin Islands and in Guam. I would like to thank my friends from Charlotte and Raleigh who made my trip easier and pleasant. Thanks to the Lubamba family for their hospitality… And with a little bit more of these moments of challenge like the North Carolina’s episode, we won’t just win an election but will transform this country.

I’m Franklin Katunda, An Obama Surrogate.

Reporting in Charlotte, North Carolina, on May 2nd 2008

Clinton Backers Organize To Protest Sexism

Candy Barr 4 Obama! — Fri, 16 May 2008 02:09:38 EDT

Democrat Hillary Clinton’s supporters in Ohio and three other crucial swing states in the presidential election - Pennsylvania, Florida and Michigan - have organized to protest what they consider to be her unfair treatment, particularly from the Democratic Party.

The group, “Clinton Supporters Count Too”, held a press conference on Thursday, May 15, in downtown Columbus.

“We are a grassroots group of mostly women, all races, all demographics, that have reached the boiling point and have decided we cannot stand by and watch the huge amount of sexism and misogyny go unremarked,” Cynthia Ruccia of Bexley, a Columbus suburb, who’s part of the group in Ohio, said before the press conference.

The group has no connection to the Clinton campaign, said Ruccia.

At the press conference, the group will announce plans to campaign through the four swing states against the Democratic candidate for president if it’s not Clinton, a press release said.

Cynthia Ruccia has been involved in numerous controversial issues throughtout her career.

In Columbus, Ohio for almost 14 years it had passed without comment that the local Congressman, John Kasich, the powerful chairman of the House Budget Committee, stretches his paycheck by sharing a Virginia townhouse for the two or three nights a week that Congress was in session.

His housemate? His male chief of staff. Cynthia Ruccia, Kasich's Democratic challenger at one time, called for a Justice Department investigation of what she said was "a serious appearance of impropriety" because Kasich, who is divorced, lived with someone whose government salary he controls.

That was the official question. What it unofficially implied was that the two men might be otherwise involved. Kasich's office inevitably found itself having to deny that either man is gay.

"It was the worst sort of gutter politics and gay baiting," says Bob Fitrakis, Kasich's 1992 Democratic opponent.

Ruccia and a 'friend' appeared on O'Reilly's factor tonight screaming "FOUL." FOX NEWS must have been the only media outlet to grant them airtime to voice their empty rhetoric. As a female I'm embarrassed and ashamed of these women. They talk of boycotting NBC because of the "biased" reporting against Senator Clinton. How ironic that they would mention NBC on the O'Reilly Factor since it's well known they aren't the 'best' of friends.

Cynthia Ruccia has threatened to switch party affiliation and vote for McCain. More power to her! Senator McCain will need the TWO votes so it's not a complete blowout by Senator Obama.

Larry Colmes - Thu, 2008-May-15, George W Bush Speaks Before the Israeli Knesset

Donald — Fri, 16 May 2008 00:59:36 EDT

This e-mail was sent to various correspondents on Fox News and CNN in response to the Thursday, 2008-May-15 Hannity & Colmes show interviewing Newt Gingrich about George W Bush's comments before the Israeli Knesset.

If Hillary said...."YES, YES, YES!!"............

Candy Barr 4 Obama! — Sun, 11 May 2008 00:38:05 EDT

To a question posed to her by her boy Stephanopolos if Senator Obama could beat Sen. McCain in the general election, then why is she now saying..."no, no, no?" Did she do her usual 'pandering' in front of millions of television viewers by saying YES when she actually meant NO? Hillary Clinton is intent on being more devisive in the days ahead. She and her political pundits continue to recite that Senator Obama cannot win the presidency because he can't attain the "white vote", "working class", "non-college graduates", "college graduates", "post graduates" and "hispanic vote"....etc. So tell me oh great political geniuses-----how do you suppose Senator Obama has won MORE than double the states than Senator Clinton if he didn't have a good portion of these voters? How and why do you suppose he is leading in total delegates, total pledged delegates, total SUPER delegates, and the total popular vote? I don't buy this crap about Senator Obama not winning the "white working class" voters. What makes YOU the superior race anyway? According to you Senator Clinton, you don't pay much attention to polls yet lately you've been taking them as gospel. Polls are meaningless when only a scant few are polled. Prime example is FOX NEWS. On all of their nightly shows they conduct a poll that can be found on their website. Now tell me, aren't the only ones who take your polls your viewers and the rightwing loonies?? How can you get a "fair and balanced" poll from that?

Because of the Clinton's thirst for power, chronic bout of narcissism and inability to handle losing, Hillary Clinton will do more damage to the democratic party and especially the human races that make up this country than in the time it took them to come into the entire political scene some 30 plus years ago.

Unlike the Clinton's, the american people....ie.....black, white, asian, hispanic etc. don't have to commit fraud or lie to their fellow man to get ahead in the world. We are ALL working-class americans who want so much to believe that we can start anew instead of the politics of old. We desparately need a new beginning and I believe in my heart of hearts that Senator Obama will lead us there. He's the only one who has shown true honesty in this campaign. Remember that!

Enter barackobama.com via google, ask, yahoo, msn, etc.

shakalover — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 17:02:55 EDT

I don't have a Barack's web site saved on this (my work) computer, so whenever I want to visit the site, I type in the name in search and go via the link.

A half hour ago, I went to 'Obama' search on ask.com, and the first (non-sponsored) link that popped up was an unfavorable Fox News article. Now, maybe it's the conspiracy theorist in me, or maybe it's the fact that I work w/ a lot of viral marketing campaigns, but it looked a little fishy to me. One thing that can happen is an anti-Obama person/group/other can say, "Hey, we want this story to be the first thing that comes up when people search for Barack Obama. Let's continually click on this story so that it raises higher on the rankings." So click, click, click go these anti-Obama entities until the article or website is the first result for Obama searches.

The best way to counter this (or even better, prevent it to begin with) is to search for Barack's site via search engines. What I plan to do, for instance, is bookmark "Obama" (and separately) "Barack" in the search section of Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask.com. That way, each day, I'll do my itty-bitty part to ensure that Obama's legit site is the first thing that pops up in searches.

This might sound a little confusing (I think I somewhat confused myself!), but if you have any questions, please feel free to ask me.

The Fox Hunt

Khaidji — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:37:34 EDT

Fox had been asking Barack Obama there for an interview for sometime. In fact according to Chris Wallace, who made a count of it, it was now 772 days. Left to me I would have warned Obama against going to Fox where the people claim to be fair and balance and yet their bias is so loud, it is deafening. I dislike the constant attacks on Barack and his Reverend. Since the day they introduced the story no effort was made by fox to dig into the character of Rev. Jeremiah Wright to see if there was any credence to what Barack had been saying all along. And they never once give any other part of the video , which I now understand is available on DVD.

The Fox Hunt

Today 772 days in coming Chris got his man

Had Barack Obama to interview all he can

Exclusive to Fox and on National TV

Fox broadcast it for all to see

Once Barack was seated he was quite the part

Xtremely poised, relax, Presidential and sincere at heart

His demeanor may have shocked Christ to a respectful manner

Unhinged by this we saw him courteous to Obama

Now it’s done, Fox can say Barack was there

Those like O’Reilly and Hannity may now beware

See other Acrostic Poetry here on Barack Obama
By Khaidji

Barack's Choice: Yes To Fox News; No To Hillary Clinton

Steve Brant — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 00:34:24 EDT

Watching Barack Obama on Fox News Sunday, I was struck by something that hadn't occurred to me before: Maybe Fox News thinks they might have to deal with Barack being president and -- unlike Bill Clinton -- they see no immediate reason to try and destroy his presidency from day one.

How else to explain the civil tone of Chris Wallace's questions?... and the strikingly moderate analysis by the Fox pundits that took place afterwards?

I am no great lover of Fox News. And prior to watching the interview, I had been as prepared as a lot of people probably were to see a combative Barack Obama shining the light of truth on Fox New's real agenda. But when I saw the actual tone that Barack was using, I immediately realized that he was not there to accuse them of doing something negative towards him unless they did so in that moment.

This is called diplomacy... a largely forgotten skill... and the special quality that attracted me to Barack's campaign in the first place. Barack demonstrated that the foundation of his candidacy -- that the time for people from the left and right to talk to each other and seek common ground has come -- is still alive and well.

So, I applaud Barack for going on Fox News Sunday and giving Chris Wallace the benefit of the doubt... allowing for the diplomatic possibility that the interview could go well... which I think it did.

Senator Obama, you made a wise choice.

Comparing this to Barack's response to the reality-twisting, "do anything to win" behavior of Hillary Clinton, Bill "They played the race card against me!" Clinton, and the rest of Hillary's team... and I believe Barack has correctly decided that a "diplomatic discussion" -- (aka a debate on "the issues" that Hillary is demanding Barack have with her) -- is not going to happen. I think he realizes that any interaction with the Clinton campaign is going to be filled with "more of the same"... in other words, more of the politics of the past that his candidacy seeks to change.

We all know how every year Lucy promises Charlie Brown that she'll hold the football while he runs up to kick it. And we know that every year Lucy breaks her promise and pulls the ball away from Charlie Brown at the last moment, and he winds up flat on his back. It's called "The Leopard cannot change its spots."

So, in denying Hillary the debate she wants, he has made another wise choice.

I wouldn't be surprised if Barack is sad about having to choose to -- essentially -- let Hillary Clinton go. Because I believe that, in his heart, he really does want all of us -- including the Clinton's -- to work cooperatively for a better America... for a safer and healthier world.

But he has had to make a difficult choice. He has had to realize that -- until he is president -- he cannot attempt to work cooperatively with those who in actuality want to destroy the new politics he wants to bring to America. People for whom the politics of collaboration is either completely unknown or a psychological threat -- as the Clinton's have demonstrated is the case for them -- must be kept on the sideline at this point in time.

With Barack Obama's candidacy, this new politics is being given its best chance ever to reach the maturity necessary to become the mainstream way for politics to function in America. By appearing on Fox News Sunday, Barack showed us that this new politics can still happen...and that, at least in the case of Chris Wallace and the pundits who appeared with him, Fox News can potentially be part of the process of building this new political world. Barack showed us that you have to give "the better angels" in people a chance to show up. (And yes, I know that one Sunday morning interview show does not make for a completely transformed Fox News. But, as Chris Wallace said at the end of the interview, "Don't be a stranger." And I think Barack said "I won't be." I think Barack will be back on Fox News a number of times in the future.)

As for Hillary and Bill's "better angels"? Well, I'm sure they are in there somewhere. But given the campaign mindset the Clinton's have shown they will use for the rest of the nomination contest, I believe Barack is correct in assuming that the Clinton's will not let those angels speak until after the Democratic contest is over... if they let them speak at all.

In the movie "Sophie's Choice," Meryl Streep's character is forced by her Nazi tormentors to choose between saving one of her children and letting the other be killed or letting them both be killed. The sight of her letting her little girl be taken was one of the most painful moments I've ever seen portrayed on film.

As I've already said, I'm sure it's been painful for Barack to choose to let Hillary go. Perhaps he'll be able to throw a "spiritual lifeline" to her later. But his first priority is to make sure that the politics of the future survives this challenging time.

I suspected he knew he needed to do this when, in his speech after losing the Pennsylvania primary, he said:

I also know that real change has never been easy, and it won't be easy this time either. The status quo in Washington will fight harder than they ever have to divide us and distract us with ads and attacks from now until November.

With his appearance on Fox News and his rejection of Hillary's call for a debate, I'm now sure he does.

Keep doing what you're doing, Senator Obama. You have made a wise choice.

Did you see Obama on Fox News?

Carole@www.Americans-Away-From-Home.com — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 23:03:51 EDT

Sen. Barack Obama was on Fox News Sunday. Have you seen it?

If you didn't, or perhaps if you did, you might enjoy reading the NY Times report on the interview. Obama held his own, and even got compliments. From Fox!

Oddly, there is no video of the Obama interview on the Fox News website. Fox was so eager to interview Obama that Chris Wallace had a running clock counting the days since Obama promised to appear on his show. The Fox website even had a big news story saying Obama would appear.

So where's the video?

You'd expect Fox News to have a video of their own TV show. They definitely have a lot of other videos on the Fox News website, but I wasn't able to find the video of the Obama interview there.

If you find a video of the Obama interview on the Fox News website, would you please send me the URL? Please send your name, too, so I can credit you for finding it. Meanwhile, I finally did find it on YouTube.

(NY Times story here) (Interview Transcript here) (YouTube video here)

Carole

April 24: Chris Wallace

Chesco Bill — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 15:55:56 EDT

Coming Up on 'FOX News Sunday': Barack Obama

Thursday , April 24, 2008
By Chris Wallace

---> 6:00 PM Fox Network News
Our exclusive guest this week:
• Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., Democratic presidential candidate
The "Obama Watch" will finally stop this weekend when Senator Barack Obama sits down with us for an exclusive "FOX News Sunday" interview.

Obama, Fox News, and the Common Good

Craig — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 13:46:57 EDT

This morning, Sen. Obama appeared on Fox News in an interview with Chris Wallace. Wallace has been clamoring for Obama to make an appearance on his show for years, even starting an Obama clock that calculated the time it took before he agreed to an interview. At first, I wasn't a fan of his appearance. Why should he give in to such a right-wing network that has tearing our party and ideology apart as one of its main goals?

But I read this diary by eugene today on Daily Kos. eugene skillfully explained why this was an okay thing for Obama. He/she didn't like it, I don't have to like it, but in the political dialogue that Obama seeks to create in this country, these kind of appearances are needed.

Obama on Fox News Sunday

Benjamin Vos, Nashville — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 09:43:26 EDT

Chris Wallace is asking questions about whether race is a factor or not in the election.

Obama says, all the pundits saw what happened in Pennsylvania and Ohio, but they forgot about Wisconsin, Virginia, etc.

8:09 AM Now talking about Clyburn - how angry blacks are about Clinton and his approach to race baiting. Obama denies that Bill Clinton has tried to make race an issue. "I don't think he means it in a racial way. He's just supporting his wife."

"I'm confident that once this primary is over, Democrats will come together."

8:10 AM - Chris Wallace talking about Bill Moyers' interview with Jeremiah Wright. Obama says, "I think some people were genuinely offended by his remarks. It is also true that to run a snippet of 30-second soundbites out of a 30-year career ... was done in a deliberate way. And that is unfortunate. I have strongly denounced those comments... but ... he built that ministry, and I think that people need to take a look at the whole church and the whole man in making these assessments."

8:13 AM - "Only cataloguing the bad about America and not talking about the good." Obama says this is the biggest concern he has with Wright's comments about America. Obama trying to make the point in Philadelphia that Wright had to go through the era of Civil Rights protests. Part of it is generational. If you grew up under Jim Crow, you saw a lot of violence, etc., Obama has a much more hopeful vision than people like that. Obama notes that some of the most controversial language Wright has used was to talk about the responsibility of black fathers to parent their children - says that Wright has used "street vernacular from the pulpit" which could be seen as controversial.

8:15 AM - How do voters draw conclusions about my values? Look at work as community organizer? That's a reflection of values. Do they look at how I raised my children? That's a reflection of my values. Jeremiah Wright's soundbite comments are not a reflection of my values nor of the church nor of Wright himself. Flag pin issue is "a distraction" and "not reflective of me or the love I have for this country".

8:16 AM - William Ayers brought up. "Do you really see a moral equivalency between what Ayers said and what Coburn said?" Obama says no. Working with someone does not mean that you agree with everything they believe. OBama notes that there was only a tangential relationship with Ayers, while Obama works much more closely with Tom Coburn and considers him a close friend. Obama notes, "I don't understand why people are focusing on this one relationship" and points out the fact that he gets along with people on the religious right. Obama also points to the fact that Obama deplores the acts of Ayers 30-40 years ago, but that was a long time ago. Notes that Mayor Daley prosecuted Bernadette Dohrn (Ayers' wife and co-conspirator with Weather Underground) but now has worked alongside Ayers to help with education reform.

8:22 AM - Uniter? Or liberal paint-by-numbers? Wallace asks, "Can you point to an issue where you'd be willing to break with the Democrats?" Obama points to regulation of industry ... Republicans do better than Democrats on that issue since the 1980s. Let business figure out how they're going to reduce pollution, etc. Give targets, enforce the big picture, not the small details. Obama also points to use of charter schools, different ways of compensating teachers, etc., and says that the Republicans might have a better idea. Obama gets down to this - I want to find what works for people of America. Gives example of working with Dick Lugar, getting healthcare in Illinois, etc.

Designing issue to polarize ... partial birth abortion bans, for example. Obama said that partial-birth abortion ban didn't include provisions in case of mother's health. He voted against partial-birth abortion ban.

8:28 AM - Taxes and spending ... attacks from Republicans on taxes and spending issues. John McCain is going to go after you as a "tax and spend liberal". Obama says, "I'll go right back after John McCain." "I don't remember the rich people complaining about being oppressed" back in the 1990s and he'd move taxes back to that level for the wealthiest Americans. Capital gains would not be higher than they were under Reagan. Promising tax cuts for corporations is objectionable unless you have some way to pay for things. Obama notes that Bush tax cuts "offended the conscience" of McCain in 2001 but now McCain has changed his tune.

8:35 AM - Obama will approve Petraeus as chief of CENTCOM. Obama thinks it unfortunate that Bush Admin didn't listen more to Fallon about CENTCOM - singular focus on Iraq was a problem. Petraeus led troop surge. Obama says, It would be stupid of me to ignore what he has to say. But it will be my job as Commander in Chief to set the agenda. Military has no strategic reserve right now. We don't have the troops right now to deal with problems that might come up. Obama making strategic assessment that we must set a timetable for Iraq withdrawal. He'll listen to tactical considerations. But he will not let Iraqi gov't off the hook on making decisions about how they'll cooperate with each other.

8:38 AM - Obama's not ducking debate w/ Hillary. He proposed it earlier and Clinton refused. No debates between now and Indiana.

8:38 AM - Not going to answer question on Clinton as running mate until after he's the nominee.

8:39 AM - Democrats need to unite to defeat John McCain and lead the country.

8:40 AM - Obama will run first privately financed campaign since Watergate. Obama proud of running campaign w/ grassroots. Mobilizing people to finance campaign. Obama wants to limit 3rd party privately financed expenditures from McCain. Obama will pursue public financing if McCain agrees to limit outside 3rd party groups like Swift Boat Vets for Truth.

8:41 AM - I have the right temperament for presidency. I don't get too high or too low. Obama is learning from mistakes all the time ... usually has to do with me talking too much instead of listening. He also misses his family, his wife and kids. Biggest hardship of campaign has been missing the kids and wife.

Fox News gets PWNED by Father Pfleger

Lenny Sharlet — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 05:51:32 EDT

God bless you Father, and God bless America

YouTube video

FOX NEWS ready to pounce Sen. Obama---with Hillary's help!

Candy Barr 4 Obama! — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 04:57:07 EDT

So you think FOX NEWS will be "fair and balanced" this Sunday to Sen. Obama? Here's a link to enlighten you!
http://www.newshounds.us/

Feeling Betrayed by Sen. Obama

Candy Barr 4 Obama! — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 21:47:14 EDT

I feel like a woman who has been betrayed by someone she respected, admired and had a kind of love you get from a lifelong friendship. I have a feeling of being crushed like a recycling machine coming down on a bunch of aluminum. The reason I am feeling this way is because I just heard on the news that Sen. Barack Obama will be giving an interview on FOX NEWS this Sunday with Chris Wallace. My gosh, haven't we all felt the pain from the recent attacks from the last ABC debate? What is this interview going to prove besides to echo the sentiments of the MSM that Obama is unelectable and a person who hasn't been forthright on issues such as Wrightgate, bittergate, Michelegate, lapelpingate and who knows what else they'll come up with. Did you already forget how much the FOX NEWS pundits despise you?? Bill O'Reilly admitted he is going to keep the Pastor Wright story alive all the way until November and on numerous occasions spends almost his entire show attacking you. Then there's the typical bully, Sean Hannity. He's out to literally destroy you! It's almost an obsession he has. Neil Cavuto, Brit Hume, Karl Rove, New Gingrich and Geraldo Rivera wouldn't pull you out of a burning building! In my opinion, doing this interview will be the end of your lead to the White House. It's like showing up to your own death sentence by a firing squad and handing them the weapons. Sorry if this sounds harsh but the fact is I am BITTER about this. I know I will not be watching it.....my blood pressure can't handle them destroy you in front of millions. Why don't you fight for US instead of fighting the Clinton machine?

It's the Movement, Not the Man.

Paul from Miami, FL — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:28:36 EDT

I have, as most of the worl has, watched with interest and aniticipation the Democratic Primaries. As a citizen of Jamaica, it may be fiar to ask: Why do i care?

I'll tell you. As a 25 year old, there has never been a time in my life where I've been more inspired than I am now. This inspiration oddly, comes not from Barack Obama the man but from Barack Obama the movement. I have watched and listend to young people, af all races and social backgrounds united around a comon cause.

Jamaica is classified as a third world country. Despite its beautiful beaches, wonderful people , the creative and intellectual spirit that has produced the likes of Bob Marley and Marcus Garvey, Jamaica is in a crisis.

This crisis is not so much an economic one as it is a mental one. The youth are under increasing pressure to conform to what they think the status quo is, and in the process they forget who they really are. Jamaica has the 3rd highest murder rate in the world, over 1600 people were murdered last year in a population of 2.7 million people. Most of the victims of these crimes are males between 17 and 28. We have a culture of dependency, class inequality and pretty much all the issues which affect our world today. This crisis of which I write, is a crisis of confidence.

This is why I firmly beleive that the Barack Obama movement is important to people, particularly those of colour, the world over. Not in a very long time have we seen or heard a public figure that articlates the dreams and the hopes of our generation. The movement has ignited once again, that flame of confidence, of consciousness and of courage.

Should fate have it that Barack Obama is not elected President in November, I wish to state my wish to see this movement continue. Not once has Mr Obama spoken down to us, not once has he belittled us or made us feel that he has all the answers, instead he has convinced us that we have the answers, and we are the change we have been looking for.I have done my research, read both his books, examined his positions on the various issues, watched all his speeches and what I am drawn to is his consistency.

I implore all Americans to pretend that they were on an island like mine, take an objective view of America and see if you draw the same conclusion as I have, that the Barack Obama movement presents the greatest opportunity for us to come together and solve the real problems, not only of America, but of countries like mine.

I wish to extend a personal invitation to Mr. Obama and his family to visit Jamaica, I hope he reads this and takes me up on the offer as soon as he is elected President.

OBAMA 08- YES WE CAN!

Fox News finds Pennsylvanians Agreeing with Barack

j f n — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 04:52:14 EDT

Interesting, Laura Ingle of Fox News went out in the town of Allentown, Pennsylvania to get a sense of what voters truly think about his late Friday comments and whether or not there was any truth to it. Surprisingly, even FOX couldn't slant this one.

http://onthescene.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/04/12/are-people-bitter-in-pennsylvania/

Check it out at the link above.

Also, get the press to cover Amanda Scott's blog about Pennsylvanian testimonies about their frustrations.

Digg it here. This helps decide what stations cover; it shows what the viewers are interested in so please take the little time that's necessary to register. It's so worth it to have a voice in these matters.

NYTimes poll - Obama supporters most optimistic

Independent_For_Obama — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 19:30:02 EDT

With all due respect, if you're not bitter, you're just not paying attention. I think everyone knows that we're in bad shape and that we have the right to be bitter, including Hillary Clinton. She peddled the politics of gloom and doom earlier in her campaign. Her narrative was that it was the nation's anger and angst that would sweep her into the White House and that she would 'save' us. Back then she knew that we had a reason to be bitter. About what? I don't know about you, but

I'm bitter every time the 'death toll' from Iraq is updated. The 1st death is no less meaningful to me than the 4,000+. Every new report causes emotional pain.

I'm bitter every time the 'death toll' is iterated, without mention of the 30,000+ soldiers who've been wounded.

I'm bitter every time the 'death toll' is iterated, minus the wounded toll, minus the innocent Iraqi death toll... though the government is sure to let us know they keep count of how many terrorists have been killed.

Are People Bitter in Pennsylvania?

Mary from Vermont — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:09:30 EDT

I know it's Faux News, but they have videos of 2 Pennsylvanians who say that Obama was pretty right on with his comments......

http://onthescene.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/04/12/are-people-bitter-in-pennsylvania/

Glenn Beck, Fox News, and HNN: Obama No Jeremiah Wright!

Wayne — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 06:56:13 EDT

The Acton Institute is a conservative think tank with the goal of “Integrating Judeo-Christian Truths with Free Market Principles (see http://www.acton.org/about/principles.php )

Professor Anthony Bradley (Assistant Professor of Apologetics and Systematic Theology, Covenant Theological Seminary) is a research fellow at the Institute and is a favorite of Glenn Beck and other Fox flunkies (HNN video with Beck here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Hv1ShidiN2g )

Bradley is the one most likely to be quoted when someone tells you that Wright’s religion is anti-white and anti-American. So that makes it especially powerful for us to cite back to them Bradley’s statement below that Obama does not believe in what Reverend Wright preaches. It will also help with that “he sat there for 20 years so he must believe it” argument.

Fox News: Rev. Wright like Jesus!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wayne — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 06:50:43 EDT

Here's a Fox News interview with a (white) Catholic priest who supports Rev. Wright by comparing him to Jesus. What if we took 30-second film clips of Jesus overturning tables in the temple? Or saying you must hate your parents in order to love me? We would have thought him a crazy man.

Well worth watching and spreading:

http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.html?videoId=1fd1c0cf-5c80-4d75-996f-bd53b2461ae0&sMPlaylistID

(Added bonus: He goes on to compare Wright's patriotism to Bill O'Reilly's!)

Please recommend this blog on DailyKos!

Wayne — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 12:18:41 EDT

Here's the link to a blog I posted on Daily Kos:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/4/5/11512/74004/537/490684

Please go over there now and recommend it!

This is what you'll see when you get there:

News accuracy rating systems won't work

Jeffrey P Goldberg — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 10:08:02 EDT

In a blog post Bruce Moses responds to a comment I made to another one of his posts. The discussion was basically how does FOX News get away with being to biased and flat out untruthful. Why do so many people watch and believe FOX News? One point that I made in my comment was that I had originally hoped that Fox would be eliminated in the "marketplace for ideas" but this obviously hasn't happened. Bruce then wrote posted a proposal (see link above) and this is my response to it.

Any rating system that marked Fox News as low on truthfulness would simply be declared by Fox as part of the "liberal, America-hating media establishment."

Furthermore, I believe that there are plenty of independent organizations that do attempt to rate news providers. Nobody, other than journalists, pays any attention to them. And then of course there are the interest groups with their own news rating services. Google "accuracy in news" and you will find that just about everyone with a point of view has their own accuracy rating scheme.

I think that the reason that things like Fox News don't get eliminated in the market place for ideas will be the same reason that snake oil (as opposed to tested medicines) or get rich quick schemes (as opposed to rational investment practices) don't also get eliminated in the market place for ideas. I, as an atheist, would add religion as another example. In some cases bad ideas can drive out good. The answer is going to lie deep in human psychology. Some kinds of ideas have staying power and can be transmitted more easily than others. While truth and verifiability are factors, they are not the only ones.

I think that Richard Dawkin's notion of memes is going to be the best way to approach understanding why some bad ideas can take such hold in a population. This will require understanding what it is about the human brain that makes these ideas "sticky". I think that many intellectuals like to think rationality will always defeat irrationality in a fair fight. But a fair fight is one where rationality already holds sway. The fact of the matter is what we are a species with a great deal of irrationality. That isn't going to go away, and we need to find ways of dealing with it that are realistic about how humans actually think.

Recognizing that irrationally of various sorts will dominate some sorts of decisions and behavior we are left with a choice between democracy and freedom on one hand, and some sort of (initially) benevolent dictatorship of the sort envisioned by Plato on the other. My vote is for freedom and democracy. Democracy and freedom of ideas won't always produce the best results, but power corrupts, and so even the most benevolent dictatorship will go sour quickly.

What FOX NOISE Did Not Show You About Rev. Wright!

Mark Ungemach (Democratic Committee Person, Franklin Township, Landenberg, PA) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 11:38:32 EDT

Fox caught red handed. Made false video and lied about Obama's pastor.

Fox news doctored and falsified the video of Obama's pastor Wright. Wright did not preach those words himself. He was quoting a White Man.; Ambassador Edward Peck. And he is a retired, white, career U.S. diplomat who served 32-years in the U.S. Foreign Service and was chief of the U.S. mission to Iraq under Jimmy Carter. The complete video below will show that Pastor Wright is telling his audience that "I will tell you what a white man named Ambassador Peck said". And then he will quote Mr. Peck. And he ends by reminding his congregation "A white man said this, I didn't say it". Fox didn't show that because they wanted people to think it came from Pastor Wright.

Here's the evidence.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOdlnzkeoyQ&feature=related<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOdlnzkeoyQ&feature=related>

Here's the proof that Fox knew it was a lie because Peck said these words on Fox News after 9/11 and that's where Pastor Wright got the quote from.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/21/meet-the-white-man-who-_n_92793.html<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/21/meet-the-white-man-who-_n_92793.html>

And after they made the false tape, Fox put it out on the internet and nobody knew where it had come from.

KEITH OLBERMANN Responds to Rick Basora Request - SHAWN HANNITY and FOX Owner RUPERT MURDOCH Now Featured on WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD!

Rick — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 10:11:01 EDT

GREETINGS OBAMITES!
Some of you know that I lead an ongoing "charge" against the insidious journalism practiced by FOX NEWS and SHAWN HANNITY. I have taken it personally, as have many of you, when these Neoconservatives apply these dangerous, misleading and offensive practices to our candidate. While the attached letter was sent to over 80 newspapers, Editors and pundits, I took the liberty of forwarding it, separately, to Mr. Keith Olbermann and COUNTDOWN at MSNBC. I did so, because I know NO OTHER PUNDIT who could vocalize the feeling of indignation that so many of you have told me that you have felt. It warranted, I felt, the castigating tone that is one of Mr. Olbermann's "to the point" hallmarks. I was honored in that he conveyed my message "loud and clear." This, my friends, was beyond imperrative, because Mr Hannity's incidiary tone could have reasonably been expected to incite radicals who, in an a "John Wilkes Booth-like" show of mutated patriotic bigotry, could very well attempt to do PHYSICAL harm to Senator Barack Obama or to members of his family. Keith, however, took it ONE STEP FURTHER, and exposed the expressions of SANCTIONED HATE that have come forth from FOX owner, RUPERT MURDOCH and the patrons of his public-opinion boards and blogs. I have posted the TWO relevant links in the "boxed" section immediately following this one, as well as at the points of relevance in the main body of this piece for easy reader correlation. It may interest you to know that, yesterday, it was made clear, that Democratic Governor, and staunch Clinton supporter, Governor Ed Rendell, of Pennsylvania, has endorsed…FOX NEWS! (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23889508#23889508). The Governor described it as "a fair and balance"news service. Keith immediately bestowed upon him the same "testimonial" earned only by the members of that most "exclusive of exclusive," "members only" order; THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD!

Subsequent letter: Shawn Hannity: STOP the anti-OBAMA “FOX-VIRUS” NOW (http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/rickbasora/gGBnpb)

KEITH OLBERMANN presents: THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD

                 March 19, 2008 -  Hannity's Site Features Outrageous Obama Posts
                 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23716643#23716643

                 March 21, 2008 - FoxNews.com HATE SPEECH
                 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23716643#23750779

From: Rick Basora [the_dragonwolf@comcast.net]

Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2008 11:23 AM

To: KEITH OLBERMANN & COUNTDOWN [countdown@msnbc.com]

Subject: FW: SHAWN HANNITY - THE PINNACLE OF IRRESPONSIBLE JOURNALISM AT ITS WORST

The very “worstest” person in the world

Keith, You are my absolute “bestest PUNDITARIAN hero.” I’ve circulated this “modestly” but my deepest hope is that it gets to you. Kindly note the “Olbermannisms.”

SIC’EM!

Nothing can excuse the extremes of irresponsible journalism exhibited by Shawn Hannity and FOX on the 3/9/08 edition of Hannity's America. There, he deliberately attempted to vilify a Presidential candidate with tabloid-worthy disinformation. This is how tyranny is raised; by feeding it. I wrote this letter and sent it to the journalistic world in order to expose this un-American "jester". I am forwarding it to the respectable and credible Keith Olbermann, in hopes that he may use it as a "belt" with which to "spank" this buffoon for discrediting your legitimate profession of "informers of the world." If this “Roman Circus” of an election campaign succeeds in its apparent objective of robbing America of its “popular” will, let all Americans know, that Shawn Hannity stands charged and convicted of complicity.

From: Rick Basora
Sent: Monday, March 10, 2008 11:26 PM

To: Hannity@foxnews.com; Feedback@foxnews.com; yourcomments@foxnews.com

Cc: 'americasnewsroom@foxnews.com'; 'Myword@foxnews.com'; 'Friends@foxnews.com'; 'Jamie@foxnews.com'; 'Newswatch@foxnews.com'; 'Foxreport@foxnews.com'; 'Atlarge@foxnews.com'; 'JER@foxnews.com'; 'Lineup@foxnews.com'; 'Martha@foxnews.com'; 'Ontherecord@foxnews.com'; 'Special@foxnews.com'; 'Cavuto@foxnews.com'; 'editor@ajr.org'; 'mailto:editor@ajr.org'; 'rrieder@ajr.org'; 'rsmolkin@ajr.org'; 'tkunkel@ajr.org'; 'executive-editor@nytimes.com'; 'managing-editor@nytimes.com'; 'washington@nytimes.com'; 'national@nytimes.com'; 'metro@nytimes.com'; 'news-tips@nytimes.com'; 'public@nytimes.com'; 'president@nytimes.com'; 'CEO-CarolineLittle@wpni.com'; 'executive.editor@washingtonpost.com'; 'wsj.ltrs@wsj.com'; 'a.murray@wsj.com'; 'a.latour@wsj.com'; 'd.pettit@wsj.com'; 't.cullen@wsj.com'; 'j.fry@wsj.com'; 'darren.mcdermott@wsj.com'; 'ombudsman@washpost.com'; 'metro@washpost.com'; 'national@washpost.com'; 'tips@tribune.com'; 'ctc-tribletter@tribune.com'; 'publiceditor@tribune.com'; 'EAchenbaum@tribune.com'; 'ctc-editor@tribune.com'; 'bdold@tribune.com'; 'TMcNulty@tribune.com'; 'gdelama@tribune.com'; 'JCWarren@tribune.com'; 'aaguilar@tribune.com'; 'aahmed@tribune.com'; 'KAlleynemorris@tribune.com'; 'LBAnderson@tribune.com'; 'rranderson@tribune.com'; 'kataiyero@tribune.com'; 'NBendavid@tribune.com'; 'lbowean@tribune.com'; 'SChapman@tribune.com'; 'LCohen@tribune.com'; 'JChase@tribune.com'; 'JCrewdson@tribune.com'; 'HDardick@tribune.com'; 'MDorning@tribune.com'; 'askamy@tribune.com'; 'national@latimes.com'; 'tvtimes@latimes.com'; 'op-ed@latimes.com'; 'letters@latimes.com'; 'info@ap.org'; 'mediainquiries@msnbc.com'

Subject: SHAWN HANNITY - THE PINNACLE OF IRRESPONSIBLE JOURNALISM AT ITS WORST

To Shawn Hannity and to the Management of Fox Broadcasting;

Last night, as I watched Shawn Hannity, on Hannity’s America, corrupt the minds of “the corruptible” with a program that tendered accusations of “terrorist” affiliations between Barack Obama and William Ayers of the former Weathermen, I was reminded of the collective “brainwashing” that, as a child, I was taught to believe was a characteristic only of “evil” nations like the former Soviet Union and of former Nazi Germany. As a child, I recall being assured by my 6th grade teacher that such a robbery of the human “will” would never be tolerated in America. FREEDOM, she said, could only be achieved by a people who were empowered with TRUTH as the element that, along with a sense of identity, made valid their RIGHT to CHOOSE it. Last night, your Shawn Hannity usurped that right from those Americans susceptible to the inflammatory; from those vulnerable to the politics of FEAR and from those ignorant BY CHOICE to the REALITIES of the Presidential candidates at large.

Mr, Hannity, I am compelled to remind you that, despite your reluctance, we still reside in a country where the rule of law prescribes that a person is innocent, and not by association, until proven guilty. I feel further obligated to engage your cynical racial and religious bigotry by reminding you that, if African Americans find refuge in institutions and churches whose very names herald a predictable WELCOME, it is because the sins of our fathers have forced them, however subconsciously, to find refuge in an identity. (Keith Olbermann's observations - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23716643#23750779) No, Mr. Hannity, a church with a name that speaks to a black congregation is not a racist statement; it is a statement of fraternity that you and our forefathers insisted on disallowing white America from fully participating in…and yet…they welcome us. Further, you “mouth” the word “Muslim” as if it were the very “sound” of social and religious leprosy. You might recall that legitimate Muslims are a peaceful people in non-complicity with the fanatics that did us and still wish us harm. Your message, sir, is one that has a history of inciting lynch mobs and, just in case Jenna, LA taught you nothing, ALL OF AMERICA will put that mob DOWN. While I am certain that Senator Obama would strongly sensor my statement, I will ask you that, if you must hate the mutations of religious principal, then, Sir, hate the religion of The Crusades, of the THOUSAND YEARS of European Inquisition, of Waco, Texas and of The Salem Witch Trials. Hate whatever fed the narcissism of Reverends Jim Baker and Jim Jones and you can start by hating the perversion of 10,000 pedophile priests, the Institutions that fed them our children. Hate those who sanctioned their rape and that, in doing so, stripped many of us of the comfort that one should find in the words “In God We Trust.”

As it has become commonplace with radical Conservatives, last night Mr Hannity invoked the late President Reagan and his anecdote of a father who, back in the days of the “cold war”, declared that he would prefer to see his two little daughters dead…rather than to see them live under a faithless and godless Communist regime. With that story, Mr. Hannity attempted to rouse his audience to a “pitch” of nationalistic outrage. It appeared to me that he was IMPLICIT LY charging Senator Obama of practicing a communist-like godlessness. Allow me to remind FOX and Mr. Hannity that it was Mrs. Hillary Clinton’s Wellsley College thesis honoring her ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT mentor, Saul Alinsky and his MARXIST teachings, that earned her the appellative “Alinsky’s daughter.” The document necessitated its being SEALED to the public by a 1993 special Presidential order issued by her husband who considered it a political liability because of its “radical” content. This document was “unsealed” in 2001 after the Republicans took office and is currently available for your scrutiny and review. What happens to human convictions after 40 years have passed is known only to those minds that contain them and to God Himself who made them; not to Shawn Hannity.

He went on to showcase President Reagan in a clip from his “Star Wars” speech, where he indicated that America was “a country that did not start wars.” Gentlemen, if this was Shawn Hannity’s way of weaving “illusions of war-mongering” with which to surround a Presidential candidate who stands on a platform of DIALOGUE as his preferred weapon of pre-emption of war, you may want to advise him about the fact that we ARE, in fact, in a war unjustly started; a war that he endorsed and that he is a member of the political party that started it. Senator Obama was the legislator who attempted unsuccessfully to galvanize an effective movement to avoid it. History has proven him to have been STRATEGICALLY CORRECT and no degree of Mr. Hannity’s resenting him for it will grant him access to that elite minority reserved solely for the JUDGEMENTALLY SOUND.

As the pariah of last nights “Hannity’s America” unfolded, it was clear that Mr. Hannity extended warm and humane concern for the life and wellbeing of one Britney Spears. In stark contrast, was his misguided and malicious presentation of the character, principals, religion and persona of one Barack Obama; a legitimate Senator of the United States, respected by what most polls reflect as the majority of our country’s electorate. In doing so, this contemporary carpetbagger has insulted the MILLIONS whose voices are the mandate that drives his candidacy. Hannity has slapped the essential face of Democracy; of the decent journalists and pundits of FOX and of our media. He attempted a coupe on the people’s right for TRUTH to be allowed to guide the American Electoral process. Most of all, Mr. Hannity has provided the most educated minds in America, described by Frank Newport of the Gallup Organization as being the core of Senator Obama’s support, with irrefutable evidence that any legitimate opposition to Senator Obama’s Presidential bid can only find momentum in feeble minds inspired by synthesized realities delivered by “tabloid” journalists beholden to tyrants who, regardless of their party affiliation, are certainly worthy of the descriptive, “MONSTERS.” It is no wonder, gentlemen that we are referred to in Europe as “hypocritical contradictions of ourselves.”

Perhaps, Mr. Hannity, you may want to discuss issues that are current and of legitimate concern to America. I might suggest that you begin with programming devoted to the more than TEN MILLION DOLLARS in Saudi, Middle Eastern and Taiwan contributions received by the Clintons and disclosed by The Washington Post, The NY Times, Jihad Watch and more. Some good questions to begin with would be; how will this impact “President” Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy decisions regarding the war on terror if she and her husbands personal interests are funded by the world’s largest supporters of it? How will this Saudi endorsement affect her right to speak to women’s rights? How will Taiwan’s “offering” temper her engagement of China as the possible new “owner” of America? There are REAL issues, I assure you, that scream for addressing; issues of far greater nobility than your need for tabloid ratings. If, however, that is all that we can expect from you, you might consider a piece on the story that just broke on New York’s Governor Spitzer admitting to involvement in a prostitution ring. It is, as you know, yet another scandal from a State plagued by the seemingly polar opposites of unspeakable hardship and of chronic corruption by its politicians. That should be sordid enough to satisfy your personal and/or political libations, Sir.

Take heed of these, my closing words. The irresponsibility of Shawn Hannity’s “rabble rousing journalism” could very well inspire right wing radical extremists to commit acts in PATENT SUPPORT of his bastardized rant. Because you, Mr. Hannity, are in contempt of the most basic of professional standards and of the ethics of personal decency, we, the majority of America’s electorate hold you and The Fox Network personally responsible for any such actions and further hold you accountable for promoting them and for inspiring them. (KEITH OLBERMANN'S observations - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23716643#23716643)

If we are to learn the lessons willed to us by the American “giant” that was Robert F. Kennedy, it behooves us to recognize that YOU, Mr Hannity, are THE EXTREMIST.

“What is objectionable, what is dangerous, about extremists is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents.” Robert Francis Kennedy

Rick Basora

Fort Lauderdale, FL

The Truth about Rev. Wright

Tovala — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 01:09:51 EDT

So they have diminished the Rev. to a sound bite and made him look like a Nazi, but how many of you have actually seen the ten minute sermon? I bet not many. I am Jewish and I just sat and watched and what a mess the media has made. This man has lost his integrity and his reputation because Fox does not want a Dem in office and because CNN is too lazy to research the facts before posting information--wait I am sorry CNN is more concerned with ratings then the truth and that to me makes me ill. The media is despicable, deplorable, and downright dirty. I have attached the true sermon--by which the Rev. Wright was quoting a "white ambassador named George Peck" who was interviewed on Fox after 9/11. Rev. Wright went on to denounce violence, terrorism and told his congregation that they need to reflect on what they have done to cause harm to this nation and to their relationship with G-d. After this debacle I will never again watch the News. I am sick to my stomach because of the lack of journalistic integrity that journalists portray. Please watch and learn. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T6-O8GIylQ&hl=en] I have also included a white pastor who knows Rev. Wright. Listen to what he has to say about what the news media is doing to this man's reputation. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ec_um8cts0&hl=en] Here is an explanation on the foundation of Obama's church. Watch it all the way through. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quSSJw-oz4o&feature=related=en] McCain and Huckabee are defending Obama. How many news outlets are talking about this? Don't you think it is amazing the way people defend him? It says a lot about Obama's character, when the Republicans are defending a Democrat against a Republican, rightest news media. Amazing. Now put that in your pipe and smoke it, Fox news. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed1Tb-vrEww&hl=en]

Email and volunteer to call in Penn

RD Larson — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 02:58:30 EDT

All of this flap about Reverend Wright and Obama's new pastor is immaterial to his platform and issues. I think if we could call and write the different news medias we could get them off of the focus on this. Older people do remember the old days more clearly and some have a harder time changing than others. What OTHER people say is not what OBAMA himself says. With all the money and hoop-te-do in the news media for the might advertising dollar they often lose sight of the reality of things. I have been in many churches and temples where the minister got all revved up over getting his "word of God " crossed to his flock. A sermon and a speech are two different things. I disagree with a lot of people about a lot of things. I do think we should speak up when people are rude but I don't think ripping them apart will help to keep them from saying it if they think it. Those people who are negative and wrathful are difficult to deal with. Just look at celebrities and their struggles with the press. Think how this is for the candidates. What a bunch of bull. I knew a man once who had a wall of inappropriate pictures in his OWN house and I didn't say anything because I was a guest. He later became a minister and my very up-tight friend attained his church. I was dying to tell her about his wall of porn but I didn't because what good would it do? Or maybe he'd changed. Obama is right; we all have off-duty relatives and friends; we can tell them that it's not right about what they say or do but it IS a free country still. Some people go off kilter in their views. If Obama can unite this country he will have to get past this and tell the voters that he supports Asians, blacks, Latinos, Native Americans and whites. I have been to Churches that had ministers that preached hell, fire and brimstone on all kinds of stuff. No one is infallible. Not even the Dalai Llama. Life goes on so lets help get Barack Obama elected so we start to fix the problems we're having in this wonderul nation. I think he is our best hope for the future.

Politics of the future

Steve — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 23:23:17 EDT

Imagine this as the theme song for the Obama campaign, the Clinton campaign, and FOX NEWS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gb6PHCVOU7s

Fox News Blows Goats and Likes It! Vote Democrat!

Darrell Ross — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 23:26:48 EDT

I like to read my news online. I especially like to read articles where people are allowed to post comments. I enjoy learning the reactions of the populace by reading 30-40 reactions to an article or blog post. I can't help but get the feeling that the press is running the show.

Most people just comment based on what they read. If they read Hillary-supporter-news agencies, they likely feel good about Hillary. If they read Obama-supporter-news sources, they likely gravitate towards him.

Most comments are the "same old" bull. I can tell after two sentences that they are using those cliche USA education techniques to regurgitate opinions they read elsewhere. Why can't folks read about each candidate from multiple news sources and be open to different views? I think it's partly the large influx of new blood in the political sphere. We have so many new people who have never followed campaigns and for the first time are getting into the fray. I think many of them are missing the "spin" factor, especially that of the press.

At the start of the show, Obama's change rallies even got members of the press excited. Their excitement spilled into their articles and the press was glowing about change for the first time I can remember since I became elligible to vote ten years ago. Ironically, the "change" in the press was just a speed bump and they quickly returned to their same-old.

It probably dawned on some of the news agencies (ahem, Fox News) that the change Obama spoke of included them. I recently exchanged e-mails with my Dad about different news agencies and I liked his take on Fox News that "fox, however, is in a class by itself for pure disinformation and intentionally corrupt misdirection."

--------

In my opinion, Hillary and Barack are both outstanding candidates. Both of their campaigns have used personal attacks. I feel more have come from Hillary's scorched earch campaigning but it's unfortunate that the diverse democratic party is so divided at this time.

Change is good. I agree with Hillary and Barack that McCain is not aiming at change, only at policies that were tried and failed by former presidents.

My hope is that when we finally finish the nomination, those whose candidate loses will have the strength of character to vote for change and not be blinded by their rage. I mean, I don't like Hillary and am quite angry with her but I will not vote to send our nation further down the drain purely out of spite; I do not suffer from blind rage.

Do you?

Shawn Hannity: STOP the anti-OBAMA “FOX-VIRUS” NOW

Rick — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 21:03:29 EDT

From: Rick Basora [the_dragonwolf@comcast.net]

Sent: Sunday, March 23, 2008 6:00 PM

To: letters@time.com; WebEditors@newsweek.com; Letters@newsweek.com; letters@usnews.com

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Subject: Shawn Hannity - STOP the anti-OBAMA FOX VIRUS NOW

Dear Mr. Hannity;

By now you must certainly be aware that a NATIONAL MOVEMENT is in motion against you and against what America has come to know as THE FOX VIRUS that comes forth from the RADICAL EXTREMIST NEO-CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN mouthpiece that you and FOX have become. Presenting our voice to the media of America now comes in the form of the Robert Greenwald film “Fox Attacks Obama (Spreading the Virus)” which, as you can see, is the envelope sent “special delivery” and containing the national petition now underwritten by moveon.org and their Political Action’s Adam Green.

After the travesty of ethical journalism perpetrated by FEMA on October 26, 2007, where it hosted its own “staged” televised news conference reporting on the state of EMERGENCY SERVICES to victims of Hurricane Katrina, it was brought to the attention of America that, not only was the person addressing this “skit” a FEMA official, but so were those asking the questions who, while posing as reporters, were exposed by Al Kamen of The Washington Post in his article FEMA Meets the Press, Which Happens to Be . . . FEMA. The fact that the article alleges that you carried this charade LIVE, and then passed on the video to MSNBC and other news outlets, renders FOX Television, and its agents, complicit in the efforts of what Christy Hardin Smith, of FIREDOGLAKE, calls The Department of Planting Your Own Propaganda And Hoping No One Notices assigned to the Bush administration.

Mr. Hannity, neither you, nor your colleague-at-arms, Rush Limbaugh, can be allowed, by a nation on the very brink of social, economic, political and global chaos, to continue manipulating puppet strings, pushing buttons and pulling levers the outcome of which you CLEARLY know nothing about. Mr. Limbaugh’s disgracefully titled attempt at hijacking the current Presidential election has earned him the dubious distinction of being named WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23908634#23908634) by MSNBC's KEITH OLBERMANN. It now appears on his own website with the headline Operation Chaos Under Assault.

As you frantically attempt to continue the milking of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright controversy, synthetically created by your Conservative minions, you appear less than pathetic before an increasingly intolerant nation that, as you can see, by Senator John McCain’s attainment of the honorable position of The Republican Presidential Nominee, America has declared you and your Neoconservative “cult”, politically, philosophically, morally and subversively UNDESIREABLE.

I, and America, continue to observe your frenzied contribution to the engineering and staging of a premeditated and choreographed conspiracy aimed at discrediting the legitimacy of Senator Barack Obama as a Presidential candidate, as well as the WONDER of the grass-roots movement taking shape around him. We watch in dismay as you question your guests, carefully selected to provide the most desirable answers for the damming of the voice of HOPE that FOX radio has described as “sounding like Hitler.” Yet, when Democratic Analysts, Tanya Acker and Bob Beckel, as well as your own Alan Colmes, have asked you questions as simple as “So, are you saying that every child whose parents took them to the Trinity United Church of Christ is, therefore, disqualified from growing up to aspire to one day becoming President of the United States,” you conspicuously, and at every turn, refuse to answer the question. You are fully aware that, answering that question, honestly, would reduce you to the hypocritical contradiction of yourself that you are. Take note, Mr. Hannity, your refusal to respond implicitly convicts you in spite of you.

I was held in utter disbelief … which then slowly grew to anger when, last night, you summoned former House Speaker, Newt Gingrich, to join in the spreading of THE FOX VIRUS. I found two things to be in poignant opposition with your intention of subverting America. The first was Mr. Gingrich’s repeated insistence that he did NOT question Senator Obama’s integrity, his loyalty to America or his non-alignment with Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s apparent anti-American rants. Later in the same program, and despite your best efforts, this same opinion was echoed, with even greater emphasis and eloquence, by Senator John McCain, who insisted on addressing issues of legitimate concern to our country and clearly, refused to participate in your scripted outcomes. You must, as a consequence, Sir, be torn between wondering if the walls of correctness are closing in on you or whether they, in fact, are spreading so far apart that your only company would be the members of your own League of Liars.

The second observation, born of your program’s intentions, last night, was your patent set-up of “JUDGMENT” as the supposedly flawed characteristic displayed by Senator Barack Obama in his choosing to continue to attend Wright’s Trinity church. You spoke the word “JUDGMENT,” with diacritical accentuation, no less than a dozen times and consistently modified it with adjectives such as “flawed,” “poor,” etc in your transparent attempt to pre-empt the Senator’s platform of SOUND JUDGEMENT in the furtherance of his Presidential bid. I will excuse myself from redundancy and I will quote my own words from the letter that, on March 16, 2008, I sent to you and Fox Management titled SHAWN HANNITY - THE PINNACLE OF IRRESPONSIBLE JOURNALISM AT ITS WORST:

“Gentlemen, if this was Shawn Hannity’s way of weaving “illusions of war-mongering” with which to surround a Presidential candidate who stands on a platform of DIALOGUE as his preferred weapon of pre-emption of war, you may want to advise him about the fact that we ARE, in fact, in a war unjustly started; a war that he endorsed and that he is a member of the political party that started it. Senator Obama was the legislator who attempted unsuccessfully to galvanize an effective movement to avoid it. History has proven him to have been STRATEGICALLY CORRECT and no degree of Mr. Hannity’s resenting him for it will grant him access to that elite minority reserved solely for the JUDGEMENTALLY SOUND.”

Last night, what achieved the “apex of the offensive,” Sir, was that you utilized former Speaker, Newt Gingrich, to assist you in making the point of presenting Senator Obama’s judgment as, somehow, flawed. Might I remind you that Newt Gingrich headed the 1998 charge to impeach President William Jefferson Clinton on charges stemming from the extramarital affair that he sustained with one Monica Lewinsky. In a March 8, 2007 Associated Press article featured on your very own FOX News, titled "Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich Acknowledges ...Having Affair During Clinton Impeachment," we are presented with an interview with James Dobson of Focus on the Family that reveals the following:

“Gingrich argued in the interview, however, that he should not be viewed as a hypocrite for pursuing Clinton's infidelity.”

"The president of the United States got in trouble for committing a felony in front of a sitting federal judge," the former Georgia congressman said of Clinton's 1998 House impeachment on perjury and obstruction of justice charges. "I drew a line in my mind that said, 'Even though I run the risk of being deeply embarrassed, and even though at a purely personal level I am not rendering judgment on another human being, as a leader of the government trying to uphold the rule of law, I have no choice except to move forward and say that you cannot accept ... perjury in your highest officials."

Sir, translated into common English, this says…There are rules and laws that apply to ALL, including the President of The United States, but that I, because my name is Newt Gingrich, a Neoconservative, reserve the right to exempt myself from them. No, Mr. Hannity, your show, your network, your self-righteous, pontificating ploys called supporting guests, your intentions, your manic obsession with imposing dynastic rule… but most of all, YOU… are tacitly UNACCEPTABLE as is your effort to present this morally diseased neoconservative “fowl” as someone qualified to “judge the judgment” of EAGLES. I am taking the liberty of forwarding this correspondence to Representative Henry Waxman, who, last year moved to have yours and Mr. Rush Limbaugh’s actions investigated, as well as to Federal Communications Commission Chairman, Kevin Martin, who, I am advised, has been put on notice of the nature of your endeavors, that now appear to many, as being contrary to our very national security.

America will NEVER belong to your minion of disguised patriotic indigence, Sir, and, least of all, to YOU. I would suggest that you listen to a song, considered by many of my generation as an American Anthem, and that I recently sent to the Democratic Superdelegates as well. In ’64 Bob Dylan spoke of times that were “a-changing. I submit to you, Shawn Hannity, that there is an unmistakable wind of CHANGE in the air and MILLIONS, like me, bear witness to its hopeful reality. To you, and to those like you, frantically trying to stop this will be like trying to stop the wind. We have paid for this campaign and for this movement, unlike the politicians of yesteryears and of today, with our own monies, 5, 10, 25 dollars at a time. I know that you must resent the force that such a movement presents. Your colleagues must , as well, fear the threat to their lifetime relationships with lobbyist dollars that will scatter like fallen leaves on this wind. Yes, Mr Hannity, make no mistake. More than times a-changing, Sir, the times …THEY DUN HAVE CHANGED!

                          Come senators, congressmen
                          Please heed the call
                          Don't stand in the doorway
                          Don't block up the hall
                          For he that gets hurt
                          Will be he who has stalled
                          There's a battle outside
                          And it is ragin'.
                          It'll soon shake your windows
                          And rattle your walls
                          For the times they are a-changin'.

From the song The Times They Are A-Changin’ by Bob Dylan (1964)

Complete lyrics - http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/times.html

Listen to it here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vou4qUu5YY

RICK F. BASORA

Fort Lauderdale, FL

The_Dragonwolf@comcast.net http://my.barackobama.com/page/dashboard/public/gGR355

America Out-FOXed Again!

Mark Wiznitzer — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 12:30:26 EDT

If you're like me, you think the last thing you want to do is watch a sermon by Jeremiah Wright. That is unless, you want a "context", as it is called, for the incendiary vitriol of those snippets we were bombarded with by the media, with FOX News leading the charge.

Please take 10 minutes and watch the more fulsome version of the "chickens coming home to roost" quote in the post-9/11 sermon.

What you will learn is that Wright is quoting a former U.S. Ambassador, Ed Peck, in a FOX News appearance. Peck is a retired State Department "Arabist" who has made it his business to criticize US Middle East Policy on everything from our support for Israel to the sanctions on Saddam Hussein's Iraq. When you hear Wright's sermon in its context, not just the sound bite we were treated to previously, what is your reaction? Please comment below.

This was crossposted on March 21 at One Millions Strong, where you can read a number of good comments.

RE: FOX NEWS NETWORK ATTACKS OBAMA

ODEH ODEH — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 12:43:40 EDT

I have written several times about media sensationalism and the ultimate sacrificing of the objectivity of journalism and other forms of information dissemination. The media owe the American people the sacred responsibility of standing on the path of truth and anything short of that should be consider absolutely wrong and unbecoming of the network propagating such smear.

Fox may have done a remarkable work of trying to bury the issues that of urgent concern to America and elevate its network as an opinionated, dogmatic and narrow-minded media organization. However, how has this sentimentality and maliciousness help the American people? It is indeed very sad to see the network compromise the very essence of journalism by wantonly taking side, rather than present the American people with balance information.

Regarding the issue of Fox News having been inclined to the Republican Party, well, the previous appointment of Tony Snow as a one time press secretary to George Bush does not come as a surprise. Furthermore, Fox News continue to feed the American people with stories that manifest that the war in Iraq is actually very successful and America is winning.

To the issue of Rev. Wright; rather than bury Obama, he took it upon himself to explain to the American people the difference between reality and fallacy. Why Fox News did never propagated inflammatory comments made by Pastor John Hagee, in which he says Katrina was God’s punishment for homosexuality, Jews are to blame for anti-Semitism and Catholicism is the “whore of Babylon” and a “cult?” Furthermore why did most network journalists ignored Rick Parsley, a televangelist who McCain called his “spiritual guide” said “I do not believe our country can fully its divine purpose until we understand our historical conflict with Islam. The fact is that America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed...”

How does the United State hope to pursue the policy of diplomacy, rather than the inimical militarism in this 21st century with spiritual leaders asking for the condemnation to death of Americans who might be Moslem and the people of Islam? Even the Jesus Christ that these pastors pretend to serve never in any time condemns other religion on the basis of divergent views, let alone to begin to ask for their execution.

I am just sadden but not surprise by the actions of Fox News network, after all it was the same organization that act as the originator of the malicious, fallacious and very dumfounded accusation from the Clinton’s mailers’ that Obama was a Moslem.

My honest suggestion is for the Fox News network to train its journalist to appreciate the differences in mankind, be it in the area of religion, race, color, ideology and even simple thing as the name an individual may bear. That I am bearing a Christian name does not actually prove that I am a Christian.

God bless USA

God bless Obama

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3495&id=12363-8884382-UXDoZj&t=455

Boycott Advertisers of Fox News

Jen Strebs - ObamaZoo — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 11:57:11 EDT

Fox has takena troubling racial slant that is grossly inappropriate recently. We must stand up against this and the way to do that is my organizing a Boycott of the advertisers on that channel. It only took me 20 minutes to contact all the advertisers listed here. Please check the link and feel free to use the letter that I send if you want.......

I want to and your company to know that a concerted effort has begun to Boycott your products because of your sponsorship of Fox News. I will never buy your products while you continue your relationship with them. Fox News blatantly lies to the American people and is not a reputable news organization. It is disappointing that your company would want to associate with such an organization. I strongly warn you to stop your sponsorship of Fox News. They allow racist and anti-semitic postings on their moderated web sites and their "fair and balanced" coverage continues to take a shocking and hateful racist turn. Yesterday even their own anchors raised concerns ON AIR. Take action now before the integrity of your company and products is also called into question. Thank you for your time.

http://www.debone.com/boycottFoxNewsSponsors.html

fox news

Rev Bry — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 01:08:54 EDT

There is nothing that irks me more than fox news. If I go into a restaurant or business with fox news on their tv, I will ask them to change it. If they don't, I walk out telling them I will not visit their store again and the reason why.

There are plenty of youtube clips with some of the idiocy that they spout and I would encourage you to simply not watch. The latest clips have fox comparing Obama to Hitler and that is just plain wrong.

In my humble opinion, fox news=slimey journalism

and yes, you may quote me.