This is a long segment but worth watching from beginning to end. After I saw the tweet from Matt Drudge declaring 2013 to be "the year of Alex Jones," I couldn't figure out what benefit could come to the right from adopting the bizarre lunacy Jones spews on a daily basis.
Maddow gets to the bottom of it. This is all about Islamophobia, the right-wing fear machine, and how they plan to capitalize on the Boston bombings in order to feed every stupid conspiracy theory on the planet. If you thought they lost their minds during health care reform, you haven't seen anything yet.
I've noticed a ramp-up of outrageous statements over the past several weeks, too. RightWingWatch's front page usually has a lot of religious righties spewing gay hate. They still do have a lot of that, but I've seen more and more front-page real estate there dedicated to the Islamophobes and nativists.
You'd think the wingers would figure out that James O'Keefe makes them look like fools every time he posts another one of his "videos." You'd think they might consider not pimping those videos like they're real when they're so easy to debunk. You'd think.
This time, it's North Carolina under fire, but O'Keefe ridiculously claims voter fraud when the only fraud is O'Keefe and his bogus claims. This time around, O'Keefe features a "dead voter" and a voter who he claims is illegally registered to vote because he was not a citizen at the time he was called for jury duty. Unfortunately for O'Keefe, he became a citizen in the 80s, a fact that was easily verifiable before publishing the video.
As for O'Keefe's dead guy, it turns out James forgot that "Jr." at the end of a guy's name means he's the son of the dead guy and also happens to be a very much alive registered voter.
Yes, as multiple obituaries for Bolton note, he was survived by, among others, his son Michael Gordon Bolton, Jr. Public records searches using the Nexis database confirm that Bolton Jr. was registered to vote at the same address given to the poll worker by the O'Keefe operative.
This isn't the only error of this sort O'Keefe made. As ThinkProgress noted, the "non-citizen" voter supposedly exposed by the video is actually a naturalized citizen.
The best screw-up of all is the one where O'Keefe punks the Daily Caller, Breitbart.com and Michelle Malkin. I love it when one of their own hangs them out to dry so thoroughly. In the opener of his ten-minute long video, O'Keefe's minions are walking up a driveway to "prove" that a non-citizen has voted in the North Carolina primary.
Via ThinkProgress Justice:
Now, it turns out that the second “non-citizen,” William Romero, is actually a citizen as well, according to his family.
The video opens with O’Keefe’s cameraman walking up Romero’s driveway and confronting a member of his family about whether he is a citizen. O’Keefe points to court records from 2010 where Romero was excused from jury duty because he was not a citizen at the time. Therefore, as O’Keefe argues, Romero’s voter registration dated December 5, 2011 is fraudulent because Romero “is not a United States citizen.”
Oops! That calendar can be a pesky thing. It turns out Romero became a citizen in early 2011, and registered to vote because that's what good citizens in this country do: they vote.
In fact, Romero’s family told ThinkProgress he became a naturalized citizen in early 2011.
What’s more, Romero’s family told ThinkProgress that they had began receiving harassing telephone calls two weeks before the incident in the video asking if Romero was a citizen. They confirmed to the caller — it’s unclear whether they were speaking with O’Keefe himself or another individual — that Romero is indeed a citizen. Nevertheless, O’Keefe proceeded to ambush the family at their home and publish this video claiming he’s not a citizen.
Remember when Andrew Breitbart swore no racist slurs were hurled at the Congressional Black Caucus the day of the health care vote? He sneered at the possibility that any teabagger had behaved in a racist or inappropriate fashion just before he promised to donate $100,000 to the United Negro College Fund if he was proven wrong.
Seems to me the video up above is pretty clear and convincing evidence of spitting, racism and hate, and it seems Breitbart thinks so, too. Now that he can't deny it happened, he's choosing to blame John Lewis et al for walking through the group of angry teabaggers.
In truly despicable fashion, Breitbart let Hannity's audience know how outraged he was at the unfairness of it all:
BREITBART: The very act of the Black Congressional Caucus, walking through the tea party people while holding all those videos was an act of provocation. They need this desperately and one last thing. The language that Nancy Pelosi is using about the civil rights movement, comparing the unpopular health care bill to the civil rights movement ties into this… They’re all on the talking points, basically telling black people that the white people are trying to take your health care from you. This is a racial, racist, racially divisive strategy that they’re playing that’s very dangerous in the United States.
The noise machine is cranked up to full volume and steaming right ahead. In classic blame-the-victim style, Breitbart suggests that John Lewis and Emanuel Cleaver should have walked around the murmuring mob of nasty white folks rather than through them, because obviously the mere presence of black Congressmen was so inflammatory as to throw all caution (and spit) to the wind.
Never mind that they were walking up stairs to the building where they work as representatives elected by the majority of voters in their districts. That doesn't matter to Andrew Breitbart, because he just cannot stand the unbearable weight of intellectual honesty.
His remarks prove how deeply racist he, and the movement he champions, truly are.
[Erick Erickson of RedState: Image courtesy of Joeff Davis at Creative Loafing.]
As if there isn't enough insanity on the airwaves, enter CNN to the fray. They're rolling out a new 7PM ET show featuring John King (John King USA), and bringing on "balance" in the form of Red State's Erick Erickson.
Under Erickson's leadership, RedState.com has become the preeminent right of center community online. Prior to leading RedState.com, Erickson practiced law for six years and managed a number of political campaigns, and he currently serves as a member of the Macon, Georgia, city council.
Wow. Right of center? Only if you're reaching around from the back with your left hand. Calling Red State right of center is a little like calling the Tea Partiers Reagan Republicans. Oh, wait.
"Erick's a perfect fit for John King, USA, because not only is he an agenda-setter whose words are closely watched in Washington, but as a person who still lives in small-town America, Erick is in touch with the very people John hopes to reach," said Sam Feist, CNN political director and vice president of Washington-based programming. "With Erick's exceptional knowledge of politics, as well as his role as a conservative opinion leader, he will add an important voice to CNN's ideologically diverse group of political contributors."
Conservative opinion leader? Agenda-setter? What demon, pray tell, has possessed Mr. Feist? Let's have a look at some of his opinions and agendas he's leading:
Make no mistake. Muslims created this atmosphere where hatred of the Jews is okay and must be "tolerated" as a legitimate point of view. The shooting today is just yet another manifestation emanating from that viewpoint--another manifestation of the welcome mat that Muslims rolled out for fellow anti-Semites of all stripes to no longer be afraid to come out of the closet.
Aren't you tired of listening to crazy, hateful people treated as normal and even credible every time you turn on your teevee news? Yeah, me too. Joan Walsh talked about this delicate subject on Hardball last night: Yes, people themselves are responsible when they pull out a gun and shoot people - but do we really need television talking heads whipping them up into a frenzy?
And why is it that the right wing is so eager to blame music and movies "from liberal Hollywood" when kids who do crazy, violent things, yet people who are indoctrinated with year after year of Fair and Balanced Wingnut Poison are somehow invulnerable to its effects? Don't think this ended with von Brunn's capture yesterday. There were far too many people sitting at home watching the news and cheering him on.
If there's a through-line between any of these acts of terrorism and the right-wing rhetoric that abets it, of course, it's the one linking Bill O'Reilly to Scott Roeder, the man who murdered Tiller. O'Reilly more than demonized Tiller; night after night he called him a baby killer, compared him to the Nazis, and suggested that he must be stopped. Roeder stopped him, all right. If I were O'Reilly I'd feel terrible for putting a private figure in my public sights night after night, simply for doing his lawful job. But O'Reilly has no conscience, so he's proud of it.
And there's clearly been an uptick in rhetoric suggesting that white men are having their rights abridged by the Obama administration, especially since his pick of Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court. In a debate with Buchanan a couple of weeks ago, he told me that what was happening to white men was exactly what happened to black men — he didn't give me any examples of lynching — and that it was open season on white men. Wealthy Sen. Lindsay Graham suggested an average white guy like himself wouldn't get a fair shake from Sotomayor, and now even the new face of the GOP, Michael Steele, has said the same thing. If I were a marginal, unemployed, angry, racist white man right now, I'd be hearing a lot of mainstream conservative support for my point of view. Can that help create a climate for more violence? I don't know. I hope not, but I don't know.
David used the new talking point now know as the Silberman-Robb commission.
Atrios has more: It's never just been the right wing media, it's long been the mainstream media providing a microphone for these dishonest hacks. It's never just been the right wing media, it's long been the mainstream media providing a microphone for these dishonest hacks.
Josh is starting a list of all the bobble heads that jump aboard the new Ken Mehlman action figure talking point.
From the frontlines of truth and justice in Crawford, Texas, Cindy Sheehan reports:
Another big story that was going on today was about my first meeting with Bush in June of 2004. For you all I would like to clarify a few things. First of all, I did meet with George, and that is not a secret. I have written about it and been interviewed about it. I will stand by my recounting of the meeting. His behavior was rude and inappropriate. My behavior in June of 2004 and is irrelevant to what is going on in 2005. I was in deep shock and deep grief. The grief is still there, but the shock has worn off and the deep anger has set in. And to remind everybody, a few things have happened since June of 2004: The 9/11 commission report; the Senate Intelligence report; the Duelfer WMD report; and most damaging and criminal: the Downing Street Memos. The VERY LAST THING I HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THIS IS: Why do the right wing media so assiduously scrutinize the words of a grief filled mother and ignore the words of a lying president?
Excellent question...
",0]);D(["ce"]);D(["ms","9b67"]);//--> Why do the right wing media so assiduously scrutinize the words of a grief filled mother and ignore the words of a lying president?
Wolcott turns his unforgiving eye to the hilarious ass kissing exchange between Bill Keller, Executive Editor of the NY Times, and Jeff Jarvis, the right wing media gadfly read on
Today over at Kos, Armando calls me a "right-wing media gadfly." Commenters then pile on, as is their sport, and say that because New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller has been hanging around me, he must be right-wing, too. What liberal media, indeed read on
I've been reading the comments section in Jarvis's blog and there are some good examples why some people on the left feel this way. I myself have posted video of Jeff seveal times because he does address important issues ie:(like uncovering the FCC/Bozell complaints scam.) How do you feel Jarvis fits into the scheme of things?
Bobo gets Rocked
