TomCat

Ailes and Fox Lies

Posted by TomCat at 4:41 am Politics

Mar 072013

Anymore it can be difficult to tell whether or not what you are seeing as news on your TV id true or not. However, at times it can also be quite easy. If it’s an ad that says they’re giving it away, you can be sure it’s a lie. If it advertises a payday loan, you can be sure it’s a lie. And if you’re watching Faux Noise, the Republican Ministry of Propaganda, you can be sure it’s a lie, For example:

Vanity Fair has a new piece about Fox News chief Jabba the Hut Roger Ailes, and it's as charming as you might imagine.

[Ailes' spokesman Brian] Lewis then read Ailes a summary of the flap over Democratic operative Hilary Rosen’s comment that Ann Romney, mother of five, had never worked a day in her life. Ailes spun it without hesitation. “Obama’s the one who never worked a day in his life. He never earned a penny that wasn’t public money. How many fund-raisers does he attend every week? How often does he play basketball and golf? I wish I had that kind of time. He’s lazy, but the media won’t report that.”

So Fox News' chief said the President is a lazy black man who lives off public money and loves to play basketball. Nothing at all racist about that characterization.

For the record, Obama taught law at a private university and worked at a law firm, so Ailes is not only peddling racist garbage, he's peddling lies… [emphasis original]

Inserted from <Crooks and Liars>

However, as worthless as Alies’ statements are, you have to give him credit for one thing. He is not just a liar. He is an expert liar. Cenk Uygur discussed Ailes’ tactics.

Cenk is spot on here. And Faux Noise has never been news. It’s infotainment and infoganda for Republicans.

Open Thread–3/7/2013

Posted by TomCat at 4:40 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Mar 072013

Yesterday I had to walk another 1 1/2 miles, so I’m quite tired, but not so much that I cannot blog. I’m current with replies, however briefly. Tomorrow appears routine.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:41 (average 5:09). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From USA Today: States with more gun laws have fewer gun-related deaths, according to a new study released Wednesday by Boston Children’s Hospital.

This is NOT rocket science!

From CNN: Overriding a veto by Arkansas’ Democratic governor, the state’s Republican-controlled House and Senate approved a bill to ban abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy, the most restrictive such law in the country.

Gov. Mike Beebe, a Democrat, vetoed the bill Monday, saying it "blatantly contradicts the United States Constitution, as interpreted by the Supreme Court."

And the Republican War on Women goose-steps on.

From The Oregonian:

In case you were wondering how much U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley disdains the automatic "sequestration"-driven cuts to education, here is a rundown of what he called them Wednesday:

"Completely unacceptable"
"Very draconian"
"Unwise"
"Dumb and dumber"

During a conference call with reporters, Merkley showcased not only his views but those of Oregon educators who agree with him.

Jamie Zartler, a teacher at Grant High in Portland, put it this way: "Congress is mugging our kids."

Merkley was swift to lay out the negative numbers facing Oregon schools — a $10 million hit to funds for high poverty schools, a $6.4 million cut for special education and a $3.5 million drop in money for Head Start.

Dumber kids for America! It’s the Republican way!

Cartoon:

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Open Thread–3/6/2013

Posted by TomCat at 2:57 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Mar 062013

I’m still feeling quite stiff and sore, and I have an early morning appointment that could last all day. I’m current with replies. Today’s appointment will also involve quite a bit of walking, so whether or not I’m back on schedule tomorrow will depend on how long it takes, and how I feel.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:47 (average 5:31). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: They trim trees, mow lawns, care for the elderly, clean up and rebuild after hurricanes and floods — and they defend the Constitution, too. Immigrant day laborers, who are so often the targets of local laws meant to sweep them off street corners, keep battling in court to defend their right to seek work, and they keep winning.

On Monday, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld a decision by a federal district judge to block the parts of Arizona’s immigration law that criminalize day laborers, calling those provisions an unconstitutional restriction on free speech.

It was the latest in a series of defeats for Arizona, which enacted its crude and spiteful law in 2010 for the express purpose of hounding undocumented immigrants out of the state.

The Arizona Death Angel, Jan Brewer, Crazy Joe Arpaio, and other Republican white supremacists must be diluting their InsaniTEA with their own tears.

From The New Yorker:

At the Supreme Court today, Justice Antonin Scalia told his fellow Justices how privileged he felt to serve on the highest court in the land, adding, “I can say stuff here that got me fired at Kinko’s.”

Responding to quizzical looks from his fellow Justices, Scalia related a little-known chapter from his career, when he briefly worked for the copying establishment in the mid-nineteen-seventies.

“They were pretty uptight,” he reminisced. “It seemed like every time I opened my mouth I got hauled into H.R.”

According to Justice Scalia, “The gal in Human Resources told me, ‘Nino, you can’t just go around insulting blacks and women and whatnot. There’s not a workplace in the country that will tolerate that.’ ”

“Well, guess what? She was right—until I got this job,” he chuckled.

Obviously, this satire is not true, but what is true is that virtually any company that deals with the public would fire Scalia, if he displayed the same racism he does now.

From Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan is floating a plan that would force Medicare cuts onto people aged 56 and younger, tweaking a pledge not to touch benefits for those older than 55.

The tweak is under discussion as part of the Wisconsin Republican’s fiscal 2014 budget plan in order to meet an important GOP pledge to balance the federal budget in 10 years, people familiar with the plan said Tuesday.

Ed has more.

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

Lyin’ Ryan demands that seniors’ earned benefits be taken away to provide more welfare for the 1%. Medicare is the most efficient health care delivery system in the nation. That’s why Republicans want to destroy it.

Cartoon:

6Cartoon

Open Thread–3/5/2013

Posted by TomCat at 2:13 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Mar 052013

On the plus side, yesterday’s medical appointments went well. My urologist said to come back and fill another cup in a year, and the pain from my podiatrist cutting the growth for my foot is almost gone. On the minus side, the day wiped me out. My first bus did not come, because the driver made wrong turn and skipped my stop. I had to wait for the next bus. That kept me late all day, so I had to push myself much too hard, just to stay close enough to avoid being charged for missed appointments. (Medicare does not cover missed appointments.) Two miles walking stretches my limits, as it is, but two miles speed walking exhausted me and left my legs too sore and cramping to sleep, so this article will have to be it for today. I’m current with replies. I have an early morning appointment, related to my volunteer work, that may last most of the day, so tomorrow I shall have an Open Thread, at most. I should be all the way back on Thursday.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:09 (average 5:07). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: Oberlin College [Oberlin Ohio], known as much for ardent liberalism as for academic excellence, canceled classes on Monday and convened a “day of solidarity” after the latest in a monthlong [sic] string of what it called hate-related incidents and vandalism…

…In the last month, racist, anti-Semitic and antigay messages have been left around campus, a jarring incongruity in a place with the liberal political leanings and traditions of Oberlin, a school of 2,800 students in Ohio, about 30 miles southwest of Cleveland. Guides to colleges routinely list it as among the most progressive, activist and gay-friendly schools in the country.

The incidents included slurs written on Black History Month posters, drawings of swastikas and the message “Whites Only” scrawled above a water fountain. After midnight on Sunday, someone reported seeing a person dressed in a white robe and hood near the Afrikan Heritage House.

Evidently, liberal thought is too great a challenge for Ohio Republicans to tolerate.

From Reuters: Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano on Monday cautioned airline passengers to get to the airport extra early because U.S. spending cuts have already led to long lines at some security checkpoints, and said the coming furloughs will only make the situation worse.

This is one of the few areas where pain from the Republican sequester will move beyond hurting the poor.

From WHEC: Republicans controlling the House are moving to take the roughest edges off across-the-board spending cuts that are just starting to take effect.

Even as the military would bear a $43 billion cut over just seven months, the new GOP measure released Monday would give the Pentagon much-needed money for readiness. It also would ease the pain felt by critical agencies like the FBI and the Border Patrol.

I said they would do this. I’m all for easing the pain of the sequester, across the board, but Republicans are trying to shove more of the burden onto domestic spending to free up more money for military industrial complex profits. There is no combination of cuts that will work, without revenue.

Cartoon:

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What a Republican idea!

Open Thread–3/4/2013

Posted by TomCat at 1:51 am Open Thread, Personal

Mar 042013

I’m off to two medical appointments today, so this is today’s only article. I’m current with replies. Tomorrow should be normal. but on Wednesday I have an early appointment than may last several hours, so that will also be an abbreviated day.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:38 (average 5:44). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: The spending cuts mandated by the sequester may hamper the United States’s [sic] ability to invade countries for absolutely no reason, a Pentagon spokesman warned today.

The Pentagon made this gloomy assessment amid widespread fears that the nation’s ability to wage totally optional wars based on bogus pretexts may be in peril.

That’s why the sequester would have never happened if we had a Republican ChickenHawk-in-Chief!

From NY Times: Conservatives like to say that their position is all about economic freedom, and hence making government’s role in general, and government spending in particular, as small as possible. And no doubt there are individual conservatives who really have such idealistic motives.

When it comes to conservatives with actual power, however, there’s an alternative, more cynical view of their motivations — namely, that it’s all about comforting the comfortable and afflicting the afflicted, about giving more to those who already have a lot. And if you want a strong piece of evidence in favor of that cynical view, look at the current state of play over Medicaid.

Click through for the rest of this fine Krugman editorial that explains how Republican governors are converting Medicaid into welfare for the 1%.

From Think Progress: Meet The Press Host Challenges Boehner On GOP Tax Myths

4taxratesgrowth

Agent Orange earned his BS in Bullshitology. The data is unequivocally clear that the economy has been healthier when top marginal tax rates have been higher.

Cartoon:

4Cartoon

The Keystone Debacle

Posted by TomCat at 4:57 am Politics

Mar 032013

Needless to say, I am one of the people who is upset at the recent State Department release of their Environmental Impact Statement for the Keystone XL Pipeline. Ironically, they got most of the facts right, but used them to come to a conclusion that they do not justify. I also think some folks are being far too quick to blame this on Obama.

Construction of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline would create "numerous" and "substantial" impacts on the environment, the State Department said Friday in a draft environmental impact statement. But the project is a better bet than any of the alternatives, it said in essentially clearing the project to go ahead.

The report concluded that the Canadian synthetic crude oil the pipeline is slated to transport into the U.S. produces 17 percent more greenhouse gases than natural crude oil already refined here. In addition, it said the construction phase of the project would result in carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to about 626,000 passenger vehicles operating for a full year.

Without directly saying so, the report signaled the State Department’s belief that the pipeline should go ahead, concluding that other modes of transportation would have the same impacts and that proposed alternatives — including an above-ground route and a smaller-diameter pipe — "were not reasonable."

And on a central issue of discussion, it concluded that blocking the pipeline wouldn’t make any difference in the U.S.’s high consumption of oil… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <US News>

Here’s the flaw in their logic. When they concluded that the pipeline is no worse than the other alternatives, they started from the assumption that the Canadian synthetic crude would be refined on the US Gulf Coast, but why make that assumption? There is a far better alternative, and that is to tell Harper that he and his harlots have already destroyed far too much of Canada, so he should take his dirty Tar Sands crude and stick it where the midnight sun never shines.

Regarding Obama, he had nothing to do with the contents of this report. That happened much lower on the food chain. It was prepared by so-called “non-partisan” permanent staffers. Before Obama took office, I warned that Republican moles were burrowing-in. That is, temporary Republican political appointees were switching to permanent “non-partisan” staff positions in all departments. I said that would come back to hurt us over and over again. That was before we moved to WordPress, but here’s a reference from 2009. State was not exempt from that. If there was any high level involvement, it would have been from Hillary Clinton, because Kerry has not been at State long enough to have provided input. Although I will support Hillary if the wins the nomination in 2016, I have to admit that the environment is not her strong suit.

The best we can do at this point is to keep signing the petitions that are there now, and that will be coming, and to personally call the White House at 202-456-1414.

Republicans on Parade–3/3/2013

Posted by TomCat at 4:57 am Politics

Mar 032013

Here is the fourth article in our Republicans on Parade series, featuring individuals who personify what the Republican Party has become. Today’s honoree is Elois Zeanah because of her Republican perspective on education and her demonstration of Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christian love.

Oh, my. So much fear in 120 seconds, delivered with that sugar-sweet "bless your heart, honey" tone pouring out of her painted mouth. Honeybunches, she wants you to be very afraid.

Right Wing Watch:

Social conservative commentators have leveled harsh attacks against Common Core [several wing-nuts delinked]and now are working to convince lawmakers in the forty-five states which have adopted the standards to blocks its implementation. Republican legislators in the Alabama State Senate and House have proposed bills to repeal the board of education’s decision to approve Common Core, which State Sen. Dick Brebaker warned [extremist delinked]would “give the federal government a way to drive the education agenda here in Alabama.”

During a speech [Bagger delinked] at the Wetumpka Tea Party, Elois Zeanah of the Alabama Federation of Republican Women compared the adoption of Common Core to the indoctrination of children in Nazi Germany, with President Obama teaching children and imposing an “anti-Christian, anti-capitalism, anti-America…pro-homosexuality, illegal immigration, unions, environmentalism, gun control, feminism and social justice” curriculum.

The attack on Common Core standards is one of Americans for Prosperity’s projects [Koch Brothers delinked] this year. They’re just terrified that it might cost money to educate our kids. Even though 45 governors have endorsed the need for such standards and are ready to implement them, the teabirchers have decided this is where they’re going to stake their claim for liberty and free enterprise and lower government spending. On the education of the next generation… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Crooks and Liars>

Here’s the video:

Hate never sounded so sweet! Of course this is pure projection, because her agenda is to have taxpayers of all faiths and those who deny faith pay the bill to indoctrinate children in her faith, Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christianity, which has nothing to do with the actions or teachings of the Christ. That clearly violates the establishment clause.

For those who might question whether she is really a Republican, and not just a fanatic, that Teabaggers invited to address them, she is the 18th President of the Alabama Federation of Republican Women.

Open Thread–3/3/2013

Posted by TomCat at 4:56 am Open Thread, Personal, Plus, Politics

Mar 032013

I have now survived the first day of the Republican Sequester, and my sky has not fallen… yet. I’m current with replies. Tomorrow, expect no more than an Open Thread, if that. I have two routine medical appointments. The first is my podiatrist cutting the recurring cyst from my foot, which he does quarterly. The second is my six month follow up with my urologist after my kidney stone. They will kill most of the day.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:42 (average 5:11). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: FAITH IN HUMANITY RESTORED: On A High School Basketball Court In Texas

I can tell you for sure that we were not watching Congress. It’s nice to be able to share good news.

From LA Times: As California Republicans gathered here for their weekend convention, it was difficult to recall when the group that produced Ronald Reagan had slumped so low.

It’s nicer to be able to share good news twice. 🙂

From Council for the National Interest: Douglas Bloomfield, who served as AIPAC’s chief lobbyist for more than a decade, reports this week that the lobby intends to insist that the United States not include Israel’s $3 billion grants package in the sequester that goes into effect today.

On a scale of one to ten, AIPUKE is just wrong! The US should NOT fully fund Israeli military atrocities, while taking food from our own hungry!

Cartoon:

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