They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. If so, I get to save a whole bunch of writing today, because I have a series of charts for you by Media Matters about how television covered the economy in the second quarter of 2013, both in general and by network.
I suggest you click through, because the article also contained worthwhile text.
From my own analysis of these charts, it seems clear that TV coverage of the economy is woefully inadequate, long on ideology, and short on fact. Overall, it is skewed severely right, reflecting the networks’ own 1% corporate agendas. It indicates that one network, MSNBC, stands head and shoulders above the rest, despite having the need for much improvement. It also indicates that one network, The Republican Ministry of Propaganda, aka Faux Noise, is so far below the rest, that it comes as no surprise that Fox viewers are not as well informed as people who watch no broadcast news at all.
Here is the twelfth article in our Republicans on Parade series, featuring individuals who personify what the Republican Party has become. Today’s honoree is Erik Rush, WND writer, Faux Noise commentator, and Muslim hater, for the InsaniTEA of his conspiracy theories.
Erik Rush says he is positive that President Obama and his minions are murdering people, and he doesn’t need any proof to back up his charges because requiring evidence is just a “ruse” of the “political left.” He previously wrote a column alleging that the Obama administration had a hand in the murder of a gun enthusiast, while admitting he had “no proof” besides an “inclination.”
Now, much like the debunked Clinton Body Count claims of old, the WorldNetDaily columnist asserts that Obama killed his gay lovers and drowned a woman who may have “come by information on the night of the [Aurora] shooting that wound up being detrimental to her health.” According to Rush, Obama also killed journalist Michael Hastings, an identity theft criminal [Fascist propaganda delinked], his dog trainer, Ambassador Christopher Stevens and Andrew Breitbart (of course).
Rush insists that he is simply asking questions! This is the age of FEMA camps [Faux Noise delinked], Rush writes, after all…
The only kernel of truth in the whole thing was that there actually was study into opening FEMA camps, but this is projection, because that happened during the eight-year Fourth Reich under Texas Torquemada.
This is how the twit tweets:
It shocks me that anyone would believe this garbage, and saddens me that, if I did a Republicans on Parade segment every day, there would still be scores of worthy recipients left over.
As I write for tomorrow, Day 28, it’s a chilly 76° at my desk. The sun has hit the breezeway and will superheat the air, but If I’m lucky, it will stay below 90°.
Update: Late in the day, I received news on a possible place to live so I am going to fill out an application in the morning. Therefore, expect an Open Thread at most on the 13th.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:12 (average 5:30). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Bill Moyers: Muckrakers and activists have been working to expose the brutality of industrialized meat production since Upton Sinclair’s writing of The Jungle in 1906. But an ALEC model bill known as “The Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act” would make it a crime to film at animal facilities — such as factory farms or slaughterhouses — with the intent to “defame the facility or its owner.” So-called “ag-gag” laws that appear inspired by the ALEC model have been passed in several states. This report, produced by Okapi Productions, LLC and the Schumann Media Center, Inc. looks at the effect of these laws on both our food supply and our freedom of speech.
ALEC is Republicans’ way to say "screw you" to animals, health, and the Constitution.
From Crooks and Liars: TX Anti-Abortion Representative Tried To Kick Pregnant Women, Kids Off CHIP
Listen to that bitch (apology to female dawgs) lie. Republic have plenty of money for 1% welfare, but want to starve hungry children. Isn’t it ironic that her excuse for depriving pregnant women is that the children don’t count because they aren’t born yet? That is the polar opposite to her position on choice, where they count more than the mother and her doctor.
From Daily Kos: The Washington, D.C., city council voted Wednesday afternoon to impose a $12.50 living wage on large retailers, passing a bill that Tuesday drew threats from Walmart that it would scrap plans to build three stores in the District that have not yet begun construction (three are already being built). Walmart had reportedly promised District officials that it would pay an average of $12.39 or more, so the fact that $12.50 was reason to pull out sheds more than a little doubt on the corporation’s claims.
The Large Retailer Accountability Act applies to businesses that have corporate sales over $1 billion and spaces of 75,000 square feet or more—big box stores, in short. Though the bill has been characterized as targeting Walmart, it will apply more broadly to stores including Target and Macy’s.
It’s clear that Wal-Fart lied when it promised to pay $12.39, as the additional $0.11 would not be worth this kind of effort. This is nothing less than blackmail. Why should taxpayers subsidize Wal-Fart profits, because they won’t pay employees enough to buy food.
Here is the eleventh article in our Republicans on Parade series, featuring individuals who personify what the Republican Party has become. Today’s honoree is Jack Hunter, aka The Southern Avenger, because of years of racist rants and ongoing service to one of America’s most deceptive racists.
The “Southern Avenger” may sound like a comic book character, but he is no superhero fighting for truth, justice and the American way.
In fact, the man who calls himself the Southern Avenger is Jack Hunter, a close aide to U.S. Sen. Rand Paul and for years a pro-secessionist, mask-wearing radio pundit and neo-Confederate activist, The Washington Free Beacon reported today.
Hunter co-wrote Paul’s 2011 book, The Tea Party Goes to Washington, and joined the Kentucky Republican’s Senate staff in 2012 as social media director.
But from 1999 to 2012, the 39-year-old writer was a South Carolina radio shock jock who “weighed in on issues such as racial pride and Hispanic immigration, and stated his support for the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln,” according to the Free Beacon, a conservative online publication of the Center for American Freedom.
The publication quoted from a commentary Hunter wrote in 2004, saying that he thought Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth’s heart was “in the right place” and adding that he raises “a personal toast every May 10 to celebrate John Wilkes Booth’s birthday.”
Hunter apparently didn’t wear his heart just on his sleeve. He wore it on his face. During his radio days, Hunter often pulled on a mask resembling a Confederate flag at public appearances, giving him the look of a third tier professional wrestler, the guy who always gets body-slammed and then thrown out of the ring.
It’s unclear whether Hunter wears his mask while writing. Whatever his method, though, he has been prolific. He has produced dozens of articles and video commentaries for the conservative online Daily Caller and appeared as what one Fox Business host termed a “regular” guest on that network, according to Media Matters For America.
In addition, Media Matters reported that Hunter also helped former U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, now president of the Heritage Foundation, write his most recent book… [emphasis added]
He’s a racist, a guest authority on the Republican Ministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise, serves Rabid Rand, and writes for both him and Jim DeMint. There can be no doubt that he is, in fact, a Republican. Chris Hayes covered the story well.
It should come as no surprise that Paul, Idiot, son of Idiot, named after Idiot would employ such as Hunter. Of course, such despicable racism runs in the family. Rachel Maddow demonstrated how the story is a family affair and extended it to the Republican Party in general.
Son of Idiot learned how to hate well at the knee of his rabid father, but he has learned to be more polished at evading it, and if that doesn’t work, lying about it.
As outrageous as it is that Hunter should be employed as a key staffer for a US Senator, it is even sadder that views, such as his, represent today’s Republican Party so well. If you are a Republican, you may not be a racist, but if you are a racist, you are almost certainly a Republican.
I’m writing early as is becoming my practice. The temperature at my desk has cooled to a livable 78°, and today is not supposed to be as bad as yesterday.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:13 (average 5:08). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Truthdig: Since 9/11, American law enforcement has taken a disproportionate interest in American Muslims across the country, seeing a whole community as a national security threat, particularly in California and New York City. But here’s the thing: the facts that have been piling up ever since that date don’t support such suspicion. Not at all.
The numbers couldn’t be clearer: right-wing extremists have committed far more acts of political violence since 1990 than American Muslims. That law enforcement across the country hasn’t felt similarly compelled to infiltrate and watch over conservative Christian communities in the hopes of disrupting violent right-wing extremism confirms what American Muslims know in their bones: to be different is to be suspect.
I have said for many years that Al Dubya is a far greater threat to America’s freedom than Al Qaeda ever was.
From Think Progress: Antonio Vanegas may be deported because he filed a complaint against his employer over unpaid hours at a food court restaurant, according to the Huffington Post on Tuesday. The Guatemala native was detained for four days after exposing labor violations at the pita shop where he worked. He now faces a deportation hearing in August.
Vanegas, a federal contract worker at Quick Pita inside DC’s Ronald Reagan Building, said that he worked upwards of sixty hours a week, but did not receive overtime pay. He claimed that he was paid $6.50 an hour under the table even though federal law dictates that contract workers like Vanegas should make the local prevailing wage — $8.25 an hour in DC.
Vanegas’s legal status was never an issue during his three years of working at Quick Pita, even though numerous police officers and immigration agents made up his customer base. Only when he was vocal about being underpaid and overworked did the Federal Protective Service, a security branch of the Department of Homeland Security, show up to take away Vanegas’s work badge. At the same time, he was turned over to immigration officials. He also lost his job.
There could not be a better explanation of why Republicans want to retain a large undocumented work force.
From Crooks and Liars: A Libertarian activist who posted a July Fourth video of himself loading live ammunition into a shotgun in downtown Washington, D.C. was reportedly arrested late Tuesday.
Adam Kokesh’s producer and roommate Darrell Young told WRC that the gun activist’s home was searched by U.S. Park Police in connection with the YouTube video that shows the shotgun being illegally loaded in downtown D.C.
Fairfax County police assisted in the search and said that Kokesh was taken into custody and charged with possession of a Schedule I or II drug and possession of a Schedule I or II drug while in possession of a firearm.
It’s always good news to report such an event in the life of a ‘Republicans on Parade’ honoree. I hope that he receives a long opportunity to change his ways.
With all the dishonest Republican propaganda spewing from the pit about how bad, unfair and expensive the new insurance exchanges will be, I decided to do a little poking around at our local exchange to discover if it is as bad as Republicans are claiming.
While opponents of the Affordable Care Act are spending millions on ads misleading Americans about the law, the federal government and some states are crafting innovative campaigns for encouraging the uninsured to enroll in the health care exchanges — new marketplaces that will offer comprehensive health care coverage without discriminating against applicants on the basis of gender or pre-existing condition. Enrollment is scheduled to begin in October.
Oregon, which has long led the nation in health care innovation, is one of 17 states (plus the District of Columbia) that is running its own exchange. Called “Cover Oregon,” the exchange has produced two slick videos that aim to convince young people that maintaing [sic] health insurance coverage and staying healthy is an Oregonian value. Watch one of the ads below and the other one here.
All exchanges face the task of enrolling enough healthy people to balance out the cost of covering sicker individuals — and Oregon is clearly hoping to get ahead of that challenge. The Washington Post’s Sarah Kliff notes that Cover Oregon is “spending $2.9 million on outreach work between now and October, much of which will go toward airing television spots like this one. Of its paid media budget, 45 percent is earmarked for television and cable spots.”
Now, you have to admit, isn’t it nice to see something uplifting for a change?
I ran a couple household examples through the cost calculator at the site. The first is a 62 year old single, earning $25,000 for a household of one adult and no children. That family’s premium is $144/month, and the maximum he or she can spend on health care before 100% coverage kicks in is $3,125 in a year. The second is a 55 year old couple, earning $60,000 for a household of two adults and three children. That family’s premium is $203/month, and the maximum they can spend on health care before 100% coverage kicks in is $4,187 in a year. That’s not that bad!
Of course, Oregon leads the way, but there have to be other states with reasonable exchanges, unless your state is under RepubliCare. If so, you have my condolences, because of what RepubliCare offers.
Here is the tenth article in our Republicans on Parade series, featuring individuals who personify what the Republican Party has become. Today’s honoree is Republican Pat Buchanan, for his pseudo-Christian hatred and extreme bigotry with respect to immigration reform.
Pat Buchanan continues to go all-out in his opposition to new bipartisan immigration policy, claiming in a recent interview with conservative radio host Andrea Tantaros that immigration reform will cause the United States to break apart like the Soviet Union.
The Daily Caller posts a clip of Buchanan warning that if “you put 100 million Hispanic folks in the United States,” the southwest will become “as much a part of Mexico as it is of the United States.”
“If they have a different language, different culture, different faith, basically you get two peoples and two peoples eventually become two countries,” he said.
Buchanan went on to offer an alternate history of the United States, which he said became “one nation back around 1960, when all the immigrants who had come from eastern and southern Europe 1890-1920 had been assimilated and Americanized” through the Depression, World War II and television programming. “That brought us all together, and now we’re falling apart,” he said… [emphasis added]
Buchanan fails to acknowledge that Europeans coming here also had different cultures, languages and religions, but have merged to form one people. It is racist to assume that the same will not happen with Latinos.
In this case, there is little Republicans can say. Buchanan is clearly a Republican and a long term white nationalist. He even said, “Those who believe the rise to power of an Obama rainbow coalition of peoples of color means the whites who helped to engineer it will steer it are deluding themselves. The whites may discover what it is like to ride in the back of the bus.”
I wrote an article on this yesterday, but here it is again with more information.
From NY Times: Rick Perry, the longest-serving governor of Texas and an unsuccessful Republican presidential candidate last year, announced on Monday that he would not seek another term but would instead “pray and reflect and work to determine my own future path.”
Translation: Despite being clobbered by Herman "9-9-9" Cain last time, this fool is running again.
Erik Rush says he is positive that President Obama and his minions are murdering people, and he doesn’t need any proof to back up his charges because requiring evidence is just a “ruse” of the “political left.” He previously wrote a column alleging that the Obama administration had a hand in the 
The “Southern Avenger” may sound like a comic book character, but he is no superhero fighting for truth, justice and the American way.
Pat Buchanan continues to go all-out in his opposition to new bipartisan immigration policy, claiming in a recent interview with conservative radio host Andrea Tantaros that immigration reform will cause the United States to break apart like the Soviet Union.