Right-Wing Media

Tea Party vs. Two Party

mfinbh — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:10:29 -0500

The American two-party system is fracturing, as both sides are struggling with immense war debt, a crippled manufacturing base, and a Federal Reserve that is devaluating the currency in order to prop up financial institutions that gambled trillions and lost; their bets became our losses as they were “covered by the house”. Progressives have been decrying the centrist wishy-washiness of so many Democrats for years, and there was an outspoken expectation that once the Democrats were in power, new, more liberal parties could emerge to challenge the old-guard Democrats to veer left or be shown the door. The surprise is that the right beat them to it (and here's why that's fine...)

The Republican Party is imploding: many laughed as ½ term Gov. Sarah Palin walked away from her job in Alaska because she felt she could be more effective from outside government. Crazy? Foxy? Blithering idiot? None – and all – of the above; because La Palin has become the camera-ready face of the far right, and in the shallow world of contemporary media politics, that is about all it takes to grab attention (substance be damned).

Thus, the off-year special election in the 23rd congressional district of New York has given us a glimpse of the breakup of the Republican Party, as many of that party’s stalwarts have defected – following the Twittering Palin – to the Conservative Party, which has abandoned its longstanding tradition of simply endorsing the Republican, instead pushing a fairly conventional Republican out of the race. These conservatives mean business, and although they narrowly lost this race, don’t think for a minute that they won’t continue to pursue and fine-tune this method, forcing an ever purer version of the right’s hardcore ideology, previously reserved not for government, but for am talk radio.

Democrats should take no glee in the mess on the right, unless they play it right. It should be seen as a warning bell, because mainstream Democrats will be facing an enormous primary season push to the left in the coming month (with eleven months to go before the midterm elections). This week, MoveOn raised $2 million in pledges in one day to force the hand of the Democratic Party:

(from MoveOn solicitation letter 11/03/09)
"You tell us how much you'd give. Then, we make sure the media, Senate leadership, and conservative Democrats know just how many of us are willing to support a challenge against anyone who blocks reform. Hopefully, none of them actually do it, and health care gets an up-or-down vote.

But if the nightmare scenario happens, we'll encourage viable primary challengers to come forward, and if they do, make sure all of us who've pledged have a chance to support them. In other words, potential primary challengers will know there's a huge group of Americans who are ready to help. And conservative members of the Democratic Caucus will too."

This is an important move for the left, because there is an expressed intent to actively work within the Democratic Party, and that’s the key here. The effect of this effort won’t be the same in every district, and the Democratic Party could begin to rupture just as the Republicans have begun to do.

Where does it lead? Of course both sides would like to inject more ideological purity into their representation, but when there are four or six competing parties or factions, history has shown us that too often the worst hard-liners will win out.

Our currency is being devalued by a Federal Reserve using its power to prop up only the wealthiest investors (most of whom have moved their wealth out of this nation’s currency into high risk international trades), while millions more are going bankrupt and being put out of their homes and their jobs by the very institutions that were saved by the government (homes lost to foreclosure, jobs by the seized flow of credit that is killing small and mid-size companies). Many of the homeless and jobless now marching to the beat of Palin and her media tea party brigade find comfort in hate and scapegoating, worshiping a message of racial, ideological or even sexual purity.

We must heed history’s warnings. Millions of angry unemployed and displaced conservatives, given the direction of a charismatic leader (in today’s environment, probably from the media world), well-armed and hungry for power, can start a civil war. The contemporary American version would take the form of civil unrest and massive, coordinated riots, straining the resources of government authority.

There is activism and there is anarchy. Activism is the only civil approach. Let the Republicans fracture into two parties, but it is critical that liberals fix – and maintain – the Democratic Party, and thus retain a majority that can advance a progressive agenda. We must not allow a party schism to occur in the Democratic Party.

Please Join the conversation at http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/24771

Glenn Beck Conspiracy Theories

Bob Fertik — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 10:38:31 -0400

I'd like to collect all of Glenn Beck's crazy conspiracy theories on one page. Please post them in the comments below - and provide a good link (to Beck or someone writing about Beck) whenever you can. Thanks!

9/5/09 If we understand BO by who he surrounds himself with as HE told us, what does VJ911 [Van Jones] truther stuff tell us about BO's middle east policy?

I want my name off the Boycott FOX News Advertisers! It has been 2 yrs.

ninammam — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 03:10:03 -0400

I want my signature OFF Boycott FOX News Advertisers. It has been 2 yrs. and the petition is STILL ongoing that is a long time for any petition. FOX News has changed a lot of their past views. Please REMOVE my signature.

Torture Supporters

Bob Fertik — Sun, 17 May 2009 12:37:57 -0400

Torture is what distinguishes civilization from barbarism. It is a moral issue that allows no compromise. Who supports torture, or refuses to oppose it?

Institutions

Wall Street Journal (1/6/09)
Washington Post (1/7/09,1/10/09)

"Pundits" and "Experts"

Fred Barnes @ Murdoch (1/11/09)
Bradley Blakeman @ GOP (12/18/08)
Steven Calabresi @ Federalist Society (11/26/08,12/18/08)
Tucker Carlson (12/1/08)
Lee Casey @ GHWB (2/17/09)
Linda Chavez @ Bush (12/21/07)
Liz Cheney (5/17/09)
Alan Dershowitz @ Wall St Journal (9/12/08,1/16/09)
Erick Erickson @ Redstate (1/11/09)
Charles Fried @ Reagan (1/11/09)
Frank Gaffney (1/23/09)
John Gibson @ Fox (11/21/07)
Jack Goldsmith @ Bush DoJ (11/25/08)
Stephen Hayes (5/16/09)
Daniel Henninger @ WSJ (1/15/09)
Charles Krauthammer @ WP (5/15/09)
Bill Kristol (11/29/08)
Andrew McCarthy @ National Review (12/29/08,1/6/09)
Judith Miller (5/16/09)
Peggy Noonan (4/19/09)
Bill O'Reilly (1/14/09,1/28/09, 1/29/09,2/12/09)
David Rivkin @ GHWB (2/17/09)
Joe Scarborough @ MSNBC (5/19/09,5/22/09)
Steve Steckler (11/26/08,12/18/08)
Stuart Taylor Jr. @ everywhere(7/12/08,11/20/08,12/5/08,12/9/08, 1/11/09)
Marc Thiessen @ Bush (1/22/09, 2/12/09)
Victoria Toensing (5/16/09)
Evan Thomas @ Newsweek (1/14/09)
George Will (4/19/09)

Elected and Party Officials

Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) (2/6/09, 2/20/09)
Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) (2/6/09)
Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) (5/24/09)
Rep. Peter King (R-NY) (5/17/09)

Michael Steele, RNC Chair (5/17/09)

MO Rep. Brian Nieves (5/17/09)

Pittsburgh Cop-Killer Was Brainwashed by FOX

Bob Fertik — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 16:51:12 -0400

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports,

Accused cop-killer Richard Poplawski spent hours posting racist messages on an extremist right-wing Web site, decrying blacks and Latinos and warning of forthcoming economic collapse fueled by the "Zionist occupation" of America, an expert in political extremism has determined. Earlier, he had praised the "AK" rifle as his ideal weapon.

It was an AK-47 that police say Mr. Poplawski used to gun down three Pittsburgh police officers who arrived at his house Saturday morning in the midst of a domestic dispute.

An account kept on Stormfront, a gathering place for racial extremists and others from the far-right show Mr. Poplawski's increasing belief in a coming economic and political collapse in the days leading up to the time of the deadly standoff in which he is charged with killing three Pittsburgh police officers.

Although he used a pseudonym on Stormfront, Poplawski's far-right views were well known to his friends. His best friend told reporters,

He just basically told me he didn’t like the Zionist control over our government, he didn’t like that there was about to be military policing, he didn’t believe in the fact that there was about to be a gun ban. He didn’t like anything that was going on in the political forefront, and he was basically very politically active, and he didn’t agree with what was going on right now in the United States of America.

So Poplawski's far-right ideology led directly to his murder of 3 cops. Incredibly, the reporters who interviewed Poplawski's best friend could not connect the dots, which spell F-O-X-N-E-W-S.

These reporters -- like the wingnuts unsure whether they're better off treading cautiously or furiously trying to turn a 180 by insisting that they're outraged that there would be outrage (because all non-wingnut outrage is by nature "political," whereas theirs is "patriotic") -- want desperately for this story to be about guns and/or wound-up loners.

Wingnuts want it to be about guns because they feel like they can win the gun argument. [But] Make the argument about how abso-effing-lutely irresponsible and crazy it is to be running a 24 hour cable news network [FOX News] filled with frothy-mouthed rantings from eliminationists, black helicopter freaks, world currency nutbars and various other paranoid pants-sh*tters selling Jonestown-style compound-squatting not just as political theory, but as news, and the ship of what's unfortunately emerged as modern conservatism is sunk.

Reporters want the story to be about guns, too, because the reality that modern conservatism has so completely surrendered to nervous-ticked, sweaty-palmed McVeigh-ism that it would actually coddle and nurture it with its own "news" network is simply too crushing a concept to contemplate...

Wake the hell up, people. There's a 24-hour eliminationist "news" nutwork broadcasting poison to already-fevered minds. Call it what it is. Be aware of what they're doing. And reporters, be clear on what they're up to, and whose profession they're using as cover.

And really, when a cop killer's best friend tells you casually that he was consumed with Zionist control of the government and imminent martial law and gun confiscations... that's actually the story!

David Neiwert has more.

CNBC Must Fire Larry Kudlow

Bob Fertik — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:23:40 -0400

Larry Kudlow's relentless demands for Wall Street bailouts are a major reason why working Americans are being forced to give trillions to the rich. Today he's demanding an end to mark-to-market pricing of toxic assets (h/t Josh Marshall) and a return to "mark-to-model" Enron Accounting. (He calls it "discounted cash flow model," which lets banks assume the mortgages underlying their toxic assets will be repaid at significantly higher rates than markets currently expect.)

On the basis of this Enron Accounting, Kudlow then predicts a bank-driven market rally and wants everyone to BUY BUY BUY. Of course Kudlow always wants everyone to BUY BUY BUY, which led everyone who took his advice to LOSE LOSE LOSE.

CNBC must fire Larry Kudlow for his crimes against honest accounting, which is the fundamental basis of Capitalism.

CNBC Must Fire Jim Cramer

Bob Fertik — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 11:31:08 -0400

Jim Cramer is just another rightwing coward. As long as he controls the microphone, he's the smartest guy in the world, the one guy who can solve all our economic problems. But if someone else - like Jon Stewart - controls the mic, he's reduced to a simpering, babbling moron. And Stewart definitely owned Cramer:

Stewart laid out a devastating indictment of the industry and CNBC's facilitating, coverup role. As Cramer fumbled to defend himself and CNBC, Stewart showed clip after clip of Cramer describing stock price manipulation, insider scams, and how cool and easy it is to fool federal and state regulators.

After getting his ass kicked by Jon Stewart, Cramer cancelled his appearance on Morning Joe, hid from the rest of the Peacock Empire, and only referred to his appearance with the other Stewart - Martha, the convicted insider trader - on his own afternoon show.

Rather than defend himself in his own medium - TV - Cramer retreated to his blog, where no rude interviewer could ask any embarrassing questions. And his blog revealed him to be a paranoid slave of Rush Limbaugh:

some would say, including Rush Limbaugh, I am on someone else's enemies list: that of the White House. Limbaugh says there are only a handful of us on it

Cramer, do you really think your insane rants are taken seriously outside your fevered brain, let alone by the White House?

Then Cramer blames President Obama for the Bush Bust:

Look at the incredible decline in the stock market, in all indices, since the inauguration of the president, with the drop accelerating when the budget plan came to light because of the massive fear and indecision the document sowed

"The market" started tanking in December 2007, which was the very start of the Bush Bust. The DOW crashed from a peak of 14,000 all the way down to 8,000 during Bush's last year. That was "the market" President Obama inherited.

Everyone who isn't insane like Cramer acknowledges "the markets" are falling because the real economy is in freefall and because gigantic banks are on the verge of bankruptcy, even if President Obama is using the hard-earned tax dollars of ordinary Americans to keep the banks on life support.

And in the past week, while Cramer was engaged in his paranoid war with President Obama, the DOW soared 700 points.

But here's why Cramer needs to be fired: he's lying about President Obama:

Obama has undeniably made things worse by creating an atmosphere of fear and panic rather than an atmosphere of calm and hope. He's done it by pushing a huge amount of change at a very perilous moment, by seeking to demonize the entire banking system and by raising taxes for those making more than $250,000 at the exact time when we need them to spend and build new businesses, and by revoking deductions for funds to charity and that help eliminate the excess supply of homes.

Who in his right mind thinks President Obama has created "fear and panic" rather than "calm and hope"? (Obama spent quality time with the Business Roundtable.) Who in his right mind thinks President Obama has "demonize[d] the entire banking system"? Who in his right mind thinks President Obama has "rais[ed] taxes for those making more than $250,000"? Who in his right mind thinks President Obama has "revok[ed] deductions" for charities and mortgages?

It's one thing to accurately criticize President Obama's specific economic policies. It's quite another to distort them beyond all recognition. That's not within any accepted boundaries of journalism - it's just plain lies.

If Cramer is too stupid - or paranoid - to realize he's lying, he doesn't belong on any TV station. If he's lying on purpose, he certainly doesn't belong on CNBC.

Either way, it's time for CNBC to fire Jim Cramer.

Update 1: Of course CNBC may knowingly employ a liar because it is a criminal enterprise devoted to insider trading. As Brent Budowsky writes,

What does it tell us that a high percentage of guests on CNBC, and unnamed sources quoted on CNBC, are shorting the market, but CNBC refuses to tell us they are? If a trader would lose a lot of money if America succeeds, and make a lot of money if America fails, don’t we the people have a right to know this when they seek to spread fear and panic?

The issue is not whether they are right or wrong, the issue is whether we the people have a right to know their true financial interests. And we have a right to ask why CNBC systematically fails to tell us their true interests

Update 2: Cramer's non-defense didn't impress his bosses, according to the Pentagon Post:

Cramer has told colleagues he felt blindsided by Stewart’s hostile approach. But many CNBC staffers were furious with Cramer yesterday for failing to defend the network’s reporting or to criticize Stewart’s video clips as selectively edited or out of context. CNBC declined all interview requests, saying in a statement: “CNBC produces more than 150 hours of live television a week that includes more than 850 interviews in the service of exposing all sides of every critical financial and economic issue. We are proud of our record.”

Cramer used an analogy to the college basketball playoffs to depict himself as the underdog. “When you are a Big East team and you are 16th seed in the Western Regional, you just want to leave with your head intact,” he said by e-mail. “When I walked out, I checked in the mirror. It was still attached. So I am thrilled to have been in the tourney.“

Update 3: Jim Cramer stands accused of far greater crimes than lying about President Obama:

This rabbit hole involves the thugs surrounding Jim Cramer and some of the top financial "journalists" from the New York Times, WSJ, Fortune magazine and BusinessWeek, top hedge funds, the Mafia, and the DTCC. It also includes "blackmail, smear campaigns, espionage, fraud, harassment, extortion, bribery, rumor-mongering, sabotage, off-shore money laundering, political cronyism, frivolous lawsuits, witness tampering, biased financial research, false identities, bogus credit ratings, bribery, libelous blogs, bad science, forgery, wiretapping, counterfeiting, collusion, lying, cheating, threats and theft."

And if that wasn't fun enough, it may be the underlying story of what collapsed the entire, global banking system or at least served as the catalyst for the collapse.

Jon Stewart Owns Jim Crymore

Bob Fertik — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 07:45:29 -0400

Like all rightwingers, Jim Crymore can dish it out - but he sure can't take it. By being such a jerk, he's just making it easier for Jon Stewart to make mincemeat out of him. Quit crying, Crymore!

What Happened to Larry Kudlow's Mustard Seeds?

Bob Fertik — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 17:30:08 -0500

Eric Boehlert is laughing at the headline from CNBC's "incessant Street cheerleader, Larry Kudlow"

"Recovery Indicators Are Being Ignored"

What are Kudlow's recovery indicators?

Consumer incomes, after tax and adjusted for inflation, have increased for five straight months, which is largely from the tax-cut effect of plunging energy prices.

Housing affordability is at a record high. Purchasing-manager surveys are now bottoming out. Fear-based credit spreads continue to decline. The money supply is expanding rapidly. And commodity prices are bottoming.

And then there’s one indicator that never gets enough credit — the shape of the Treasury yield curve.

Good times!! But I was very disappointed Kudlow didn't call them "Mustard Seeds of Hope" as he did last October 17:

I think of the Fed cash injections and the energy tax cut as planting mustard seeds that will bloom into a future bull-market recovery. The mustard seed, of course, is a New Testament reference. My friend Jerry Bowyer fleshes it out: “The kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches of it.” That’s from Matthew 13:31:32.

So aren't we all loving Kudlow's "bull-market recovery?"

Next time Kudlow opens his Bible, he needs to re-read Genesis 41:27

"The seven lean and ugly cows that came up after them are seven years, and the seven thin ears scorched by the east wind will be seven years of famine.

And then he should read the parable of George Bush - the Prodigal Son.

Happy Happy Joy Joy!! A Different Take on The Trumpeting of "The War on Christmas" -- a New Holiday Tradition

Max R. — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 19:27:22 -0500

I originally posted this at another venue when the topic of "Merry
Christmas vs. "Happy Holidays" came up. A little raw, but effective, I
think...

That whole 'War on Christmas' thing is really obnoxious and totally
fueled by rightwing mindfuKKKing pus-pockets like Bill ('get a load of
my falafel...er...loofah baby!') Oh Really? to work as a media
distraction and to amplify or outright create divisiveness. Hell, he and his cohorts have made it a flipping holiday tradition!!

As a progressive, quiet, private worshipper of the New Test. I just
came up with one, 'Happy Holy!' (I checked -- there are 64,000 hits for
it at Google, so it's not that prevalent, it seems) I kinda like that
... shuts down anyone saying that it isn't spiritual to say 'Happy
Holidays' or whatever the bug is up their butt. And maybe also any of
the (relatively few I suspect) too-PC buggers that think it's wrong to
impose one's religion [gasp!] with
an innocuous season's greeting. Or say: Happy Hannukah, Merry Xmas,
Happy Kwaanzaa, Happy Holidays...anything inherently benevolent (as
practiced in it's non-corrupted-by-the-WiMPs* form).

So....Happy Holy! Merry Xmas, Season's Greetings, Mele Kalekemaka,
Happy Hannukah, Happy Kwaanzaaa, Happy Holidays, Happy Holy, Happy Holy
Days, Happy Happy Joy Joy ("Stimpy, You EEEEDIOT!!!" Hey, where's Powdered
Toast Man for the holidays?) , but mostly...Peace Out!!

* WiMPS = White Male Power Structure