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Latest Articles: The Water Cooler
A Report On The Symbiotic Relationship Between Far-Right Extremists And The Tea Parties
Post Date: 2010-11-23 14:15:42 by Brian S
4 Comments
A couple of months ago I traveled out to Montana as part of a project examining how the extremist right -- particularly the Patriot movement -- has embedded itself within the Tea Party movement, particularly on a local level in rural areas where elements of the 1990s militia movement were still lurking. This includes Hamilton, Montana. The piece is now up at AlterNet: "We Are at War": How Militias, Racists and Anti-Semites Found a Home in the Tea Party Maybe it's the gun-making kits that are being raffled off as door prizes. Or maybe it's the fact that nearly everyone inside this hall at the Ravalli County Fairground is packing heat. But most of all, it's the copy ...
Culture War Brewing Within Tea Party?
Post Date: 2010-11-23 14:09:44 by Brian S
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Social conservatives who felt shut out of the conversation in the last two elections are banking on a Hill resurgence going into the 2012 presidential campaign. These voters didn't see GOP presidential nominee John McCain as their guy in 2008, and the economy squeezed their issues in the midterms. So a more robust social agenda on Capitol Hill should be a given, says Tony Perkins, head of the conservative Family Research Council, since more than 50 of the freshman House Republicans who will give the party a majority come January oppose abortion. But libertarian-minded Tea Party activists have been warning freshmen whom the movement helped elect that if they stray from a laserlike focus ...
Michele Bachmann Gives The BBC A Ride On The Crazy Train
Post Date: 2010-11-23 13:45:10 by Brian S
1 Comments
The BBC tried to nail Michele Bachmann down on the bogus Limbaugh/Hannity/Beck meme that Barack Obama spent more per day in his official visit to India -- $200 million -- than America spends a day on the war in Afghanistan. Instead of getting a straight answer, the reporter got a ride on the crazy train. Not only did Bachmann refuse to back away from her accusation after the story was demonstrated to be pure hogwash. She also said that she didn't care whether the story was true or not. It just sounded good because it fit her own alternate reality: BBC: You claimed that President Obama spent $200 million a day on a trip to India. It's been roundly ridiculed as a quote. BACHMANN: ...
O’Reilly Attacks ‘Simpsons’ As ‘Pinheads’ After Fox “#1 With Racists” Jibe
Post Date: 2010-11-23 11:29:43 by Brian S
13 Comments
Fox News' Bill O'Reilly got his revenge on The Simpsons Monday but didn't deny the charge that his network is popular with racists. On Sunday's episode of the long-running cartoon series, a Fox News helicopter carrying a network executive reads, "Fox News: Not Racists, But #1 With Racists." After the Fox News executive steps out of the helicopter into the head of the Statue of Liberty, the aircraft goes into a tailspin and crashes. The pilot can be heard saying, "It's not fair, we're unbalanced." The executive conducts a secret meeting where his team plans a new health care scare that will send their ratings through the roof. Gawker called The ...
Bankrolling Book Tour, Murdoch Emerges As Palin’s Top 2012 Supporter
Post Date: 2010-11-22 20:26:45 by Brian S
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As she embarks on her 16-stop book tour promoting "America by Heart," former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has one person to be enormously grateful to: media baron Rupert Murdoch. Palin's publisher, HarperCollins Publishers, is part of the News Corp. media empire, and they're bankrolling her tour. It's not coincidence that her stops focus inordinately on swing-states, either. That, combined with her employment by the Fox News Channel and her show "Sarah Palin's Alaska" on TLC, means she could be a real GOP heavyweight in 2012, even as senior party officials seem to loathe her. As New York Times columnist Frank Rich noted over the weekend, it's none ...
Ratings for Palin's Alaska
Post Date: 2010-11-22 16:29:33 by Skip Intro
14 Comments
Last week at this time, the ratings for Palin's premiere show had already been reported. Today, the ratings for last night's show are nowhere to be found. If anyone has them, please post them on this thread. Thanks.
The War Party vs. Rand Paul
Post Date: 2010-11-22 14:25:48 by Brian S
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A couple of years ago, I complained to my old friend, the late Burt Blumert, that some libertarian or other was getting a bit too hot under the collar and needed to cool down a bit: I forget the exact personalities or circumstances involved, but basically I was arguing that we had to police ourselves so as not to give our enemies ammunition. Relax, he told me, it doesn’t matter what you say or do: they’re going to smear you with the same old epithets anyway! I was skeptical, but, as in so many other instances in which Burt gave me advice, I’ve since discovered he was absolutely correct. Example number one: the attack on Rand Paul launched by Sen. John McCain at a recent ...
Reporter: GOP Hates Obama More Than They Love National Security
Post Date: 2010-11-22 11:58:47 by Brian S
1 Comments
For all the Republicans' bluster during the Bush administration about national security-hating "Defeatocrats," it seems the cards have finally turned. President Obama has in recent days demanded that Congress ratify the START nuclear treaty with Russia, which would enhance America's commitment to nonproliferation and strengthen ties with former nuclear arch-rival. "Without ratification this year, the United States will have no inspectors on the ground, and no ability to verify Russian nuclear activities," Obama said in his weekly radio address. "Without ratification, we put at risk the coalition that we have built to put pressure on Iran, and the transit ...
The Rise, Then The Fall of GOP’s ‘National Rabbi’
Post Date: 2010-11-19 13:13:12 by Brian S
2 Comments
The storied career of an indomitable ultra-Orthodox political fixer appears to have entered its final phase with the conviction of Rabbi Milton Balkany, known to the press as the “Brooklyn Bundler.” STAN HONDA‘Brooklyn Bundler’: A court convicts Rabbi Milton Balkany. Balkany was found guilty November 10 of attempting to extort $4 million from Steven A. Cohen, a hedge fund manager. The rabbi is now home on $1 million bail, allowed only to see his doctor and to attend synagogue once a week as he awaits sentencing. Balkany, whose only official job is as dean of a Boro Park girls yeshiva, has been known for decades as a major donor to conservative politicians, capable of ...
Fox News Head Apologizes For Comparing Radio Execs To Nazis
Post Date: 2010-11-18 19:59:11 by Brian S
1 Comments
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Roger Ailes, chairman of News Corp.'s Fox News Channel, apologized Thursday for describing executives of National Public Radio as "Nazis," the Anti-Defamation League said. Ailes lashed out at NPR in an interview with news and opinion website The Daily Beast over its firing of a commentator, saying executives of the publicly funded radio network "have a kind of Nazi attitude." "They are the left wing of Nazism. These guys don't want any other point of view," he said. "They don?t even feel guilty using tax dollars to spout their propaganda. "They are basically Air America with government funding to keep them ...
Professional Idiot Glenn Beck Equates Veterans with Communists
Post Date: 2010-11-18 19:57:07 by Brian S
1 Comments
- Glenn Beck calls veterans “communists” for accepting gifts on Veterans Day, echoing the political view of the American Enterprise Institute and Dr. Sally Satel who have made slashing veterans’ benefits, with a particular animus towards Vietnam War veterans, a top-rate priority - Professional Idiot Glenn Beck Equates Veterans with Communists By Bill Bradley in Vanity Fair Yesterday, an Iraq veteran named Denise called in to The Glenn Beck Program to complain about the fun she had on Veterans Day. Denise, who returned from Iraq two years ago, walked with Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans for America (I.A.V.A.) in last ...
Donald Trump Considering Presidential Run, To Announce Decision In June
Post Date: 2010-11-18 18:06:19 by Brian S
5 Comments
NEW YORK (BNO NEWS) -- Business magnate and reality television star Donald Trump on Thursday said that he is seriously considering a run for the U.S. presidency. Trump said during ABC's Good Morning America show that he will announce his final decision next June. He initially considered entering the 2012 presidential run last October after the results of a telephone poll to test multiple 2012 Republican candidates in New Hampshire. The billionaire tycoon was among those listed. He also said that his main reasons of his decision were the unfair trade relationship between America and China as well as the government's inability to use American top businesses in trade negotiations. He ...
Texas Republican Lawmaker Introduces Birther Bill
Post Date: 2010-11-18 11:46:05 by Brian S
3 Comments
A Republican state representative in Texas filed a bill on Tuesday that would require any candidate for president or vice president of the United States to provide his or her birth certificate to the Texas secretary of state. "This bill is necessary because we have a president whom the American people don't know whether he was born in Kenya or some other place," Leo Berman, who has represented the 6th District of Texas since 1999, told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. "If you are running for president or vice president, you’ve got to show here in Texas that you were born in the United States and the birth certificate is your proof." The rumor that President Barack ...
AIPAC Dirty Laundry Aired As Former Staffer Sues For Defamation
Post Date: 2010-11-17 15:07:26 by Brian S
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WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Jewish community has been scandalized by details of an increasingly dirty lawsuit, brought by a former AIPAC staffer who was dismissed after he was charged with attempting to spy for Israel. Steven Rosen was sacked by the America Israel Public Affairs Committee in 2004 after he and fellow staffer Keith Weissman were charged with espionage and passing sensitive information to Israeli diplomats and journalists. The charges against the two, however, were dropped before the case reached a courtroom. The FBI claimed that it had enough evidence for convictions, but all the charges were dropped nonetheless. The controversial case made headlines again in March 200 ...
Jesse 'The President' Ventura? Former Governor Says He Could Run -- And Win -- In 2012
Post Date: 2010-11-17 14:07:50 by Brian S
28 Comments
WASHINGTON — Minnesotans are pretty sure that their current governor, Tim Pawlenty, is going to run for president — but he might have company in the race from another former governor. Former Gov. Jesse Ventura told the New Yorker that he'd like New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to run for president. If Bloomberg doesn't want to go, but would be willing to help finance his campaign, Ventura said he'd be willing to run. What's more, Ventura said if he ran he'd win. From the New Yorker: “He would probably get my support,” the former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura said of Bloomberg, or “Blomberg,” as he pronounced it, explaining that he ...
Fox Contributors Caught Trashing Palin On-Air And Off
Post Date: 2010-11-17 11:38:14 by Brian S
1 Comments
Sarah Palin's new TLC reality show Sarah Palin's Alaska is finding critics in an unlikely place: the Fox News Channel. Leaked video shows a panel of contributors taking shots at the former governor during a commercial break on the show Fox News Watch. Conservative commentator Liz Trotta brought up a recent column by The New York Times' Alessandra Stanley reviewing Palin's new show. "Alessandra Stanley had the best line," Trotta said. "She said the new show is like the Sound of Music without the Nazis, and without the romance, and without the music." Almost everyone on the panel laughed and then Fox News contributor Judy Miller piled on. ...
Palin’s Daughter Uses Homophobic Slurs To Attack Critic On Facebook
Post Date: 2010-11-17 11:00:19 by Brian S
8 Comments
In an apparent effort to defend her mother, Sarah Palin's daughter Willow labeled one critic a "faggot" and said he was "so gay" on her Facebook page after he said that her mother was "failing" on her new TV show. The comments were posted by Palin's 16-year-old daughter Willow Palin on Facebook. They came in response to a Facebook user who updated his status to read, "Sarah Palin’s Alaska is failing so hard right now." The user, Tre, is believed to be a student who went to school with Willow. He was writing in response to Palin's new Discovery Channel TV show, "Sarah Palin's Alaska." The comments were first highlighted ...
Prominent Republican (Bachmann) Says She Opposes Earmarks… Except Earmarks She Supports
Post Date: 2010-11-16 19:18:53 by Brian S
1 Comments
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) wants to ban all earmarks -- except for the ones that she supports. In a Tuesday interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Minnesota Republican explained that she wanted to "redefine" earmarks so that transportation projects are not included in a proposed ban. "Advocating for transportation projects for ones district in my mind does not equate to an earmark," she told the Star Tribune. "I don’t believe that building roads and bridges and interchanges should be considered an earmark," Bachmann said. "There’s a big difference between funding a tea pot museum and a bridge over a vital waterway." Under ...
Journalist Says He's Disappointed Bush 'Plagiarized' His Work
Post Date: 2010-11-16 14:13:30 by Brian S
17 Comments
A journalist from Pakistan says he is disappointed that his work was allegedly plagiarized by former President George W. Bush in his recently published book Decision Points. "It is never a compliment when politicians plagiarize ideas or comments from journalists without acknowledging their work," Ahmed Rashid told BBC News. "Unfortunately it happens all the time." In his book, Bush describes an incident that occurred during Afghan President Karzai's inauguration, but Bush himself was not present at the inauguration, Ryan Grim of Huffington Post reported Friday. The event appears to be lifted from an article written by Rashid and published in the New York Review of ...
Top RNC Aide Quits, Blasts Michael Steele
Post Date: 2010-11-16 13:35:56 by Brian S
6 Comments
November 16, 2010 01:06 PM EST Republican National Committee political director Gentry Collins resigned from his post Tuesday morning with a stinging indictment of Chairman Michael Steele’s two-year tenure at the committee. In a four-page letter to Steele and the RNC’s executive committee obtained by POLITICO, Collins lays out inside details, previously only whispered, about the disorganization that plagues the party. He asserts that the RNC’s financial shortcomings limited GOP gains this year and reveals that the committee is deeply in debt entering the 2012 presidential election cycle. “In the previous two non-presidential cycles, the RNC carried over $4.8 million ...
Poll: No Mandate For Republicans
Post Date: 2010-11-16 13:33:26 by Brian S
4 Comments
Fewer than a fifth of Americans saw this month’s election as giving a mandate to the Republican Party, according to a new CNN/Opinion Research poll. Asked whether the election provided a mandate for Republicans or was a rejection of Democrats, 70 percent said the midterms were a negative reaction to the governing party. Only 17 percent said the election provided the GOP with a mandate. The results are similar to a CNN/Time poll following the GOP’s win in the 1994 midterm election, when 18 percent said Republicans had a mandate and 60 percent interpreted the election as a rejection of Democrats. While Republicans aren’t perceived to have a mandate, more Americans believe ...
Grab For GOP Gavels Gets Ugly
Post Date: 2010-11-16 12:52:01 by Brian S
5 Comments
House Republicans avoided any serious bloodletting in their leadership races, but the campaigns for two powerful committee chairmanships are getting downright nasty. In scenes reminiscent of the primary fights between established lawmakers and conservative challengers, candidates are running to the right in races for the Appropriations and Energy and Commerce gavels. Outside groups are taking sides, anonymous oppo dumps are being circulated on Capitol Hill attacking members’ voting records, and Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh are taking to the airwaves. The stakes are enormous: The Appropriations Committee is ground zero for efforts to curb earmarks and federal spending, both goals of ...
GOP Senator: Palin Lacks 'Intellectual Curiosity' To Be President
Post Date: 2010-11-16 12:44:46 by Brian S
5 Comments
When a member of your own party criticizes you, it's certainly not the end of the world. But when a member of your state's own Washington delegation is about to put a verbal knife in your back, you may want to turn around. In an interview with CBS' News Katie Couric, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowki said she wouldn't back former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for president because Palin doesn't pass her smell test: she says she's short on "leadership qualities" and "intellectual curiosity." "You know, she was my governor for two years, for just about two years there, and I don't think that she enjoyed governing," Murkowski told CBS. "I ...
Suspension Gives MSNBC, Olbermann Bump In Ratings
Post Date: 2010-11-16 11:18:43 by Brian S
3 Comments
NEW YORK (AP) — A suspension is proving good business for MSNBC and Keith Olbermann — at least in the short term. The size of the combative liberal host's audience shot up in the days after his return from a two-day suspension for donating to three Democratic candidates. The Nielsen Co. said Olbermann's show reached 1.3 million viewers the first three days after his return last week, up from the 1.08 million he averaged in October. His first day back, on Tuesday, Olbermann reached 1.5 million people, Nielsen said. Olbermann's suspension, and subsequent non-apology to NBC News, has caused backstage controversy at the network. MSNBC chief executive Phil Griffin ...
Justice Thomas' Wife Quits Tea Party Group
Post Date: 2010-11-16 11:07:15 by Brian S
1 Comments
Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, is stepping down as the President and CEO of Liberty Central, a conservative organization she founded last year, according to a published report. "She'll take a back seat so that Liberty Central can continue with its mission without any of the distractions," Caitlin Carroll, a spokeswoman for the group, told the Washington Post on Monday. "After discussing it with the board, Mrs. Thomas determined that it was best for the organization." Thomas founded the organization in November of 2009 to protect the "core founding principles" of "limited government, personal responsibility, ...
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