Politics Plus

MSNBC is, in my opinion, the most balanced of the news networks.  While their daytime reporting follows a standard right-slanted corporate agenda, they have three excellent commentary shows in the evening from Ed Schultz, Rachel Maddow, and Lawrence O’Donnell.  Providing balance from right are three continuous hours of Joe Scarborough in the early morning.  Sadly, one of Joe’s daily sidekicks has been Pat Buchanan, an ideologue whose racist comments have fouled the airwaves far too often.  Fortunately, he may have gone too far.

Can there really be a line that even right-wingers can’t cross when it comes to cable news? Or is it simply that Buchanan isn’t a good fit with the network’s plans?

PASADENA, Calif. — MSNBC’s top executive said Saturday that he hasn’t decided whether conservative commentator and author Pat Buchanan will be allowed back on the network.

Buchanan, a former GOP presidential candidate and a paid MSNBC contributor, hasn’t been on the network since the publication of his book “Suicide of a Superpower” last October. The book has chapters titled “The End of White America” and “The Death of Christian America” and its author argues that the United States is in the “Indian summer of our civilization.”

“When Pat was on his book tour, because of the content of the book, I didn’t think it should be part of the national dialogue much less part of the dialogue on MSNBC,” said MSNBC President Phil Griffin. The minority advocacy group Color of Change has circulated a petition urging MSNBC to fire Buchanan…

… [emphasis original]

Inserted from <Crooks and Liars>

Here’s the video:

Buchanan talks about minorities as ‘tax consumers’ but ignores that the biggest tax consumers of all are the Banksters he defends daily.

Buchanan has a long history of racism.  I defend his right to believe and say what he will, as long as he does not advocate violence, like so many other Republicans do.  At the same time, I have a right to try to co curtail not his speech, but his microphone by advocating his dismissal both to MSNBC and to their sponsors.  Let Buchannan and Republican racists like him, keep their bigotry under their sheets and hoods, not on the public airwaves.

All over the country Republicans are enacting draconian legislation designed to separate the people most likely to vote for Democrats from their right to vote.  They scream of rampant voter fraud, even though a DOJ study documented voter fraud at under 3/10,000 of 1%, Republicans scream that the accuracy vote must be protected in every case.  The problem is, there are cases in which they don’t seem to think so.

Is Mitt Romney’s eight-vote victory in the Iowa caucuses in doubt?

Edward True, a voter in Appanoose County, told KCCI-TV in Des Moines that he believes there is a typo in the results for his county that could possibly swing the GOP results in favor of Rick Santorum. True, who helped count votes, said he believes there is a 20-vote discrepancy.

Iowa Republican Party Chairman Matt Strawn issued a statement late Thursday night saying GOP officials "do not have any reason to believe the final, certified results of Appanoose County will change the outcome of Tuesday’s vote."

Santorum told Fox News [Faux Noise delinked] last night that Strawn told him there are two instances in which there were errors reported in Tuesday night’s count, with one being in his favor and the other in Romney’s favor. The former Pennsylvania senator said the two errors essentially cancel each other out, with Romney ending up with a one-vote advantage… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <USA Today>

Santorum certainly is a bush-leaguer to have fallen for that hokum from Strawn!

What about the accuracy of every single vote? I guess it does not count for Republicans, who seem to be saying that a few votes here and there don’t matter.  Could it be that they are lying?

Rachel Maddow exposes even more.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The bottom line here could not be more simple.  Republicans don’t give  rat’s ass about the integrity of the vote.  They care only about stacking the deck in their favor.

Every Republican in office is one Republican too many!

We have more good news for the oppressed laborers in the totalitarian Corporate Plutocracy of Fitzwalkerstan, formerly Wisconsin.  Two of Walker’s best buddies are proving to be just like he is, and in the process, demonstrating that Walker is not fit to govern at even the county level.

Two people, including a former close aide to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker when he served as Milwaukee County executive, were arrested on felony theft charges Thursday as part of an ongoing criminal investigation that centers on people who served in the county during Walker’s tenure…

…Former county housing director Tim Russell, 48, was charged with two felony and one misdemeanor embezzlement charges, according to the criminal complaint from the Milwaukee County district attorney’s office.

Kevin Kavanaugh, Walker’s appointee to the Milwaukee County Veteran Service Commission, was charged with one felony embezzlement charge of taking more than $10,000 from a business and four felony counts of fraudulent writings by a corporate officer.

Russell and Kavanaugh each face up to 10 years in prison if convicted of the most serious felony embezzlement charge.

The arrests come more than a year and a half after a secret investigation into people who worked in the county when Walker served as executive began in May 2010. The arrest of a close Walker aide raises more questions about the extent of the investigation and its direction as Walker faces a possible recall election motivated by anger over his proposal effectively ending collective bargaining rights for public workers.

Russell, who previously ran former Gov. Tommy Thompson’s Milwaukee office, had worked for Walker’s county executive office from 2002 until Walker was elected governor in 2010. Russell also worked on Walker’s gubernatorial campaign but did not follow Walker to Madison… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Seattle Times>

One of Walker’s biggest failings is that he is so vain, that he uses himself as an example in determining who to appoint.  That explains the high incidence of corruption among his associates.

Keith Olbermann added depth when he interviewed Wisconsin Democratic Party Communications Director, Grame Zielinski, on Countdown.

Keith called it right when he identified Walker’s lies as projection: accusing others of the vile traits and traits and criminal behavior that describe him and that he perpetrates himself.

Kudos to the heroes of Fitzwalkerstan, fighting to become Wisconsin once again!