Friday, December 30, 2011
Fox's Year Of Class Warfare
"We Should Be Supporting" The "Mega-Wealthy": Fox Fiercely Defended The Rich
Throughout 2011, Fox figures obsessively defended the wealthy against any possible tax increases proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats -- even claiming that the rich should pay less in taxes while the poor should pay more. Some Fox figures claimed that "most Americans say" that "patriotism is paying less taxes," while others claimed that those making $200,000 a year are not rich and that increasing their taxes would be unfair.
Laura Ingraham Complained That Raising The Tax Rate For The Wealthy Is "Demoniz[ing] The Rich." On the April 12 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, Fox News contributor Laura Ingraham referred to a plan to raise the taxes of the wealthiest Americans as a plan that "demoni[zes] the rich." [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 4/12/11, via Media Matters]
Fox Regular Jonathan Hoenig on Cashin' In: "Wealthy Earners Should Pay Even Less. The Poor Should Pay Much More" In Taxes. On the March 5 edition of Fox News' Cashin' In, Fox News regular Jonathan Hoenig said: "Wealthy earners should pay even less. The poor should pay much more" in taxes. [Fox News, Cashin' In, 3/5/11, via Media Matters]
Peter Johnson Jr.: "Most Americans Say" That "Patriotism Is Paying Less Taxes." On the April 18 edition of Fox & Friends, Fox News legal analyst Peter Johnson Jr. said: "What we have on this tax day is a White House that says, 'If you don't pay more taxes, then you're not being patriotic.' There's a lot of other Americans, and most Americans, who say the opposite: that patriotism is paying less taxes." [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 4/18/11, via Media Matters]
Kilmeade On Taxes: "We Should Be Supporting" The "Mega-Wealthy," Not "Punish[ing] Them." On the July 22 edition of Fox & Friends, guest Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), said that "we can't ... continue to cut taxes for the mega-wealthy in this country when we have a debt and deficit problem." Co-host Brian Kilmeade replied: "The mega-wealthy are paying the majority of taxes for the entire nation, and they're the ones who are going to bring us out of this. You would think, rather than punish them, we should be supporting them." [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 7/22/11]
Fox Continued To Claim That $200,000 Per Year Income Is Not Rich. On the April 21 edition of Fox & Friends, co-host Gretchen Carlson suggested that people making $200,000 a year in income are not rich, saying of Obama's plan to let tax cuts for the wealthy expire: "It's not just billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg who may pay more taxes. ... It's the people making $200,000 and above. There's a huge disparity between that and the billionaires." Carlson's comment followed many similar remarks Fox News anchors made in 2010, when they repeatedly claimed someone making $200,000 or $250,000 per year is "not rich." [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 4/21/11, via Media Matters]
Fox Used "Misleading" Statistic To Claim The Number Of Millionaires Is Decreasing And That Obama's "Plan To Redistribute The Wealth Is Working." On the August 18 edition of Fox & Friends, Fox Business host Stuart Varney used a Wall Street Journal editorial to claim that "[t]he number of millionaires, of people making the million dollars a year, [is] down very, very sharply." The August 20 edition of Fox & Friends Saturday echoed this claim and suggested it showed that Obama's "plan to redistribute the wealth is working."
- In Fact, Economists, Experts Called WSJ Editorial "Misleading" For Using A "Narrower Measure Of Worth." Economists and experts contacted by Media Matters said the Journal's definition of "millionaire" was "misleading" because it was based on households' income, rather than using the more traditional measure of wealth or investible assets. Both the Tax Policy Center and the Center for Economic and Policy Research have pointed out that in fact the wealth of the wealthiest Americans has increased dramatically in the past few decades. [Media Matters, 8/18/11; Fox News, Fox & Friends Saturday, 8/20/11, via Media Matters]
For more, see:
They "Prefer Not To Go To Work": Fox Repeatedly Attacked Poor And Unemployed Americans
Poor and unemployed Americans were not spared from vicious attacks from Fox in 2011. Fox figures suggested that unemployed Americans are lazy, while the poor were scolded for not being suitably "ashamed" for their poverty and for lacking a "richness in spirit." Fox also seized on a Heritage Foundation report about the ownership of appliances among the poor to downplay the hardships faced by Americans in poverty.
John Stossel: People Affected By Government Shutdown "Shouldn't Be Getting Those Handouts Anyway." On the April 6 edition of Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto, while talking about a possible government shutdown, Fox Business host John Stossel claimed that "most of us" wouldn't notice a shutdown and that those "who would notice shouldn't be getting those handouts anyway." [Fox News, Your World with Neil Cavuto, 4/6/11, via Media Matters]
Ben Stein Claimed That "A Lot Of" The Unemployed "Would Not Prefer To Go To Work." On the April 30 broadcast of Fox News' Cavuto on Business, Stein said that "a lot of" unemployed Americans "would not prefer to go to work." [Fox Business, Cavuto on Business, 4/30/11, via Media Matters]
Fox Business Scolded Poor People For Not Being "Ashamed" Enough By Their Poverty. During the May 19 edition of Fox Business' Varney & Co., Varney attacked anti-poverty programs as evidence that the U.S. now has an "entitlement mentality." Fox contributor Charles Payne then scolded people in poverty for not being "embarrassed" about needing public assistance:
PAYNE: [T]here's no doubt that these are good programs. I think the real narrative here, though, is that people aren't embarrassed by it. People aren't ashamed by it. In other words, there was a time when people were embarrassed to be on food stamps. There was a time when people were embarrassed to be on unemployment for six months, let alone demanding to be on it for more than two years.I think that's what Stu is trying to say, is that when the president says Wall Street is at fault, so, you are entitled to get anything that you want from the government, because it's not really your fault, no longer is the man being told to look in the mirror and cast down a judgment on himself. It's someone else's fault. So food stamps, unemployment, all of this stuff, is something that they probably earned in some indirect way. [Fox Business, Varney & Co., 5/19/11, via Media Matters]
Steve Doocy: "The Progressive Income Tax Has Not Been So Fair." On the August 3 edition ofFox & Friends, the co-hosts repeatedly called for taxes to be raised on the lowest-income Americans. Carlson said: "Most people would say, hey, things should be fair. But what does that mean when you factor in that 50 percent of the nation doesn't even pay federal income tax? Is that fair?" Doocy later said: "You know, historically, the tax system in this country, the progressive income tax, has not been so fair." [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 8/3/11, via Media Matters]
Fox Hosts Hyped Appliance Ownership To Downplay Hardship Of Poverty In America. In July, Fox News hosts cited a Heritage Foundation report about the ownership of appliances among the poor in America to downplay the hardships of the poor in the U.S. On the July 20 edition of his Fox News show, Bill O'Reilly asked, "So, how can you be so poor and have all this stuff?" [Media Matters, 7/22/11]
Stuart Varney On Low-Income Americans: "Many Of Them Have Things -- What They Lack Is The Richness Of Spirit." During the August 25 edition of Fox Business' Varney & Co. at Night, host Stuart Varney hyped a Heritage Foundation study showing that many Americans in poverty own appliances, saying: "The image we have of poor people as starving and living in squalor really is not accurate. Many of them have things -- what they lack is the richness of spirit. That's my opinion." [Fox Business, Varney & Co. at Night, 8/25/11, via Media Matters]
For more, see:
Attacks On The Social Safety Net
Fox figures and guests repeatedly attacked spending on social safety net programs such as Social Security, food stamps, and unemployment insurance. They repeatedly claimed that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme and questioned the stimulative effect of unemployment insurance during an economic downturn.
MINIMUM WAGE
Fox Guest Peter Schiff: "One Of The Most Anti-Poor People Rules Is The Minimum Wage." On the September 21 edition of Fox & Friends, Kilmeade hosted author and businessman Peter Schiff, who claimed that minimum wage rules negatively affect employment for young and poor people. [Fox News,Fox & Friends, 9/21/11, via Media Matters]
Gary B. Smith: "It's Not Just Wrong To Say Minimum Wage Is Good ... I Think It's Irresponsible." On the September 3 edition of Fox News' Bulls & Bears, Fox News contributor Gary B. Smith claimed that "it's not just wrong to say minimum wage is good, it's -- I think it's irresponsible." [Fox News, Bulls & Bears, 9/3/11, via Media Matters]
SOCIAL SECURITY
Eric Bolling: "You Can't Disagree" That Social Security "Is A Ponzi Scheme." During the September 8 broadcast of Fox & Friends, guest host Eric Bolling and host Brian Kilmeade discussed Gov. Rick Perry's (R-TX) claim that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme. Bolling concluded that "you can't disagree that [Social Security] is a Ponzi scheme." [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 9/8/11, via Media Matters]
UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE
Steve Moore: "How Do You Put More People To Work By Giving People More Money Not To Be Working?" During the September 5 broadcast of Fox News' America's Newsroom, guest host Gregg Jarrett and The Wall Street Journal's Steve Moore dismissed the simulative effect of unemployment insurance by asking, "How do you put more people to work by giving people more money not to be working?" [Fox News, America's Newsroom, 9/5/11, via Media Matters]
For the truth on the stimulative effect of unemployment insurance, SEE HERE.
FOOD STAMPS
Glenn Beck Likened Food Stamps To "Cakes and Circuses" Used By Roman Emperors To "Control The People." During the June 7 broadcast of Fox News' Glenn Beck, which has since been canceled, host Glenn Beck claimed that food stamps were comparable to "cakes and circuses" used by Roman Emperors to "control the people." From the broadcast:
BECK: Cakes and circuses, think of this. Given the cakes, can anybody give me an example of cakes being handed out by our government? Anybody hand -- if you are the emperor of Rome you gave people cake. Well, we are not giving people cakes now, but food -- food stamps. You want to control the people, the emperor knew, give the people cake and then entertain them. Isn't it interesting how entertainment -- we're not, really, really. What difference -- what are you going to do about this? [Fox News Channel, Glenn Beck, 6/7/11, via Media Matters]
THE SOCIAL COMPACT
Bill O'Reilly: The Social Compact Is "The Government... Tak[ing] From The Wealthy And Giv[ing] To The Poor." During the April 18 broadcast of The O'Reilly Factor, O'Reilly claimed that the "social compact" or "social contract" has helped lead to the U.S. facing "ruin because it owes more than $14 trillion dollars." He further claimed the social compact means "the government must take from the wealthy and give to the poor." [Fox News Channel, The O'Reilly Factor, 4/18/11, via Media Matters]
For more, see:
Zombie Lie: 50 Percent Of Americans Don't Pay Taxes
Throughout 2011, Fox News figures repeatedly advanced the false claim that 50 percent of Americans don't pay any taxes. Fox figures regularly used the falsehood to argue it isn't "fair" that the wealthy pay the "bulk" of taxes while half the country doesn't pay "any at taxes at all." In reality, while the bottom 50 percent of wage earners pay little federal income tax, they still pay payroll and sales taxes, and in many cases, state and local taxes as well.
Neil Cavuto: "More than Half Of American Households ... Do Not Pay Any Taxes At All." During the July 27 broadcast of Your World, host Neil Cavuto claimed that "the rich already pay a lot in taxes" and said that "more than half of American households ... do not pay any taxes at all." He then asked, "Is that fair?" [Fox News, Your World, 7/27/11, via Media Matters]
Kilmeade: "Fifty-One Percent Of The Country Isn't Paying Any Taxes At All." During the July 26 broadcast of Fox & Friends, Kilmeade, in an attempt to rebut the idea that the wealthy should pay more taxes, claimed, "Fifty-one percent of the country isn't paying any taxes at all. And you have the people who are paying the bulk of the taxes being called out for not paying more." [Fox News, Fox & Friends,7/26/11, via Media Matters]
For the truth about the false claim that "51 percent of the country" doesn't pay any taxes, SEE HERE.
For more, see:
"Violent" "Angry Mob[s]": Fox's Relentless Assault On Unions
From the Wisconsin statehouse protests for collective bargaining rights to the Boeing and National Labor Relations Board conflict, Fox News figures continued their assault on unions in 2011. Fox figures called unions, union protesters, and their leaders "angry mob[s]," "violent," and "thug[s]." Others claimed unions represent "useless workers" like "kindergarten teachers" and said unions have "destroyed every company in which they've been intimately involved."
Jonathan Hoenig: "Unions Have Destroyed Every Company In Which They've Been Intimately Involved." On the November 12 edition of Fox News' Cashin' In, Hoenig claimed, "Unions have destroyed every company in which they've been involved." [Fox News, Cashin' In, 11/12/11, via Media Matters]
Peter Johnson Jr. On Video Of WI Students Protesting: "Is That Something Out Of ... Red China?" On the March 19 edition of Fox & Friends Saturday, Johnson responded to a video of chanting student protesters at the Wisconsin statehouse by saying, "Is that something out of, I don't know, red China or something?" [Fox News, Fox & Friends Saturday, 3/19/11, via Media Matters]
With Zero Evidence, Kilmeade Called Chanting WI Union Protesters "Violent"; On-Screen Text Called Them An "Angry Union Mob." On the March 3 edition of Fox & Friends, while talking about the protests in Wisconsin defending collective bargaining rights, Kilmeade claimed that a Republican lawmaker tried to find his way into the statehouse while there was "an angry mob on the outside" that got "violent." On-screen text read, "GOP lawmaker chased down by angry union mob," and, "Violent protesters corner state Republican." [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 3/3/11, via Media Matters]
Michelle Malkin Called Richard Trumka "Thug In Chief At The AFL-CIO"; Accuses Him Of A "Bloody Legacy." On the February 23 edition of Fox News' Hannity, Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin said that " 'get[ting] a little bloody' is the union way" and then referred to AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka as "the thug in chief at the AFL-CIO." She later accused Trumka of having a "bloody legacy." [Fox News, Hannity, 2/23/11, via Media Matters]
Johnson: "We Understand The Value Of Unions," But They're "Begin[ning] To Destroy A Country." During a June 20 discussion on Hannity of Boeing's conflict with the National Labor Relations Board, Johnson said: "We understand the value of unions. They've done some great things over time. But when they begin to destroy a country ... We're staggered by the numbers. We can't afford what they're asking for." [Fox News, Hannity, 6/20/11, via Media Matters]
For more, see:
Fox's All-Out Assault On The Occupy Wall Street Movement
In the fall of 2011, as the Occupy Wall Street movement -- along with its message of fighting income equality -- began to spread across the country, Fox responded by vigorously attacking and demonizing the Occupy movement and protesters. Fox portrayed protesters as violent "Communist[s]" and "Nazi[s]" and repeatedly mocked them as "dirty" and "un-American." Fox's Liz Trotta even said that the Occupy Wall Street website included the "ravings of what sound like the Unabomber."
Bolling Wore A Tinfoil Hat While Mocking Occupy Wall Street Protesters. During the October 14 broadcast of Fox News' The Five, Bolling donned a tin foil hat and held a misspelled sign reading, "Ocupy The Five," to mock Occupy Wall Street protesters. Co-host Andrea Tantaros added that the Occupy Wall Street protesters needed signs like Bolling's because "they haven't brushed their teeth in weeks. How else do they communicate?" [Fox News, The Five, 10/14/11, via Media Matters]
Kilmeade Asked If "The Biggest Nightmare For A Parent" Is Spotting Your Kid At An 'Occupy' Protest. During the November 10 broadcast of Fox & Friends, Kilmeade claimed that "the biggest nightmare for a parent" would be to see his or her child at an Occupy protest. [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 11/10/11, via Media Matters]
Doocy Promoted Anti-Occupy Wall Street Blog That Told Occupiers To "Suck It Up, You Whiners." During the October 11 broadcast of Fox & Friends, Doocy discussed CNN contributor and Red State editor Erick Erickson's countermovement to Occupy Wall Street, "We are the 53 percent." Doocy highlighted the countermovement's website directing Occupy Wall Street protesters to "suck it up, you whiners." [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 10/11/11, via Media Matters]
Bolling: Occupy Wall Street Protesters Are "Communist, Nazi ... Pot Smoking, Sex-Addicted Morons." During the October 19 broadcast of The Five, Bolling called Occupy protesters "communist, Nazi ... pot smoking, sex-addicted morons." [Fox News, The Five, 10/19/11, via Media Matters]
Malkin: Occupy Movement Protesters "Are The Spawn Of The Worst Excesses Of The Ideological Left." During the November 16 broadcast of Hannity, Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin claimed the Occupy Wall Street protesters "are the spawn of the worst excesses of the ideological left." [Fox News Channel, Hannity, 11/16/11, via Media Matters]
Fox & Friends Applauded NYPD's Eviction Of OWS Protesters: "Good Riddance." During the November 15 broadcast of Fox & Friends, text reading "Good Riddance" was aired during a tease about New York City police evicting Occupy Wall Street protesters from Zuccotti Park. [Fox News Channel,Fox & Friends, 11/15/11 via Media Matters]
Varney: It's "Un-American" For People To "Want Their Children To Grow Up And Demonstrate On Wall Street" During the October 28 broadcast of America's Newsroom, co-host Bill Hemmer read the results of a Fox poll asking, "What would you want your own child to be?" The options were "Wall Street executive," "Occupy Wall St. protester," or "neither." Twenty-six percent of respondents claimed that from the given options they would like their children to grow up and be Occupy protesters. Varney said the fact that "one quarter" of respondents had answered this way was "un-American." [Fox News,America's Newsroom, 10/28/11, via Media Matters]
For more, see:
Fox Relentlessly Accused Obama Of Inciting Class Warfare
Fox figures repeatedly reacted to any of President Obama's jobs and deficit reduction plans that included proposals to raises taxes on the wealthy by claiming Obama was inciting class warfare. During 2011, Fox relentlessly accused Obama of "soak[ing] the rich" and attempting to "divide and conquer" the country by inciting "class warfare."
Doocy: "The President Is Talking About Raising Taxes, And, You Know, Effectively Class Warfare." On the September 19 broadcast of Fox & Friends, Doocy claimed that Obama's deficit reduction plan was "effectively class warfare." [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 9/19/11, via Media Matters]
Sean Hannity: Obama "Could Not Help But Resort To Using The Same Kind Of Class Warfare" In His Speech On Jobs Bill. During the September 12 broadcast of his Fox News show, Sean Hannity said of Obama's speech about his jobs plan: "And, as usual, the president could not help but resort to using the same kind of class warfare and false choices that we've gotten used to over the past two-and-a-half years." [Fox News, Hannity, 9/12/11, via Media Matters]
Bolling: "Class Warfare" Is "Emanating Out Of The White House." During the August 22 edition ofThe Five, co-host Eric Bolling said to fellow panelist Dana Perino: "All right, Dana, what about the class warfare that seems to be, I don't know, emanating out of the White House? Is it only the White House, or is it the right, too?" [Fox News, The Five, 8/22/11]
Doocy Called Obama's Deficit Reduction Tour The "Soak The Rich Tour." On the April 18 edition of Fox & Friends, co-host Steve Doocy reacted to reports that Obama would travel to Nevada and California to promote his deficit reduction plan by saying, "Rather than the deficit reduction tour, call it the 'Soak the Rich Tour.' " [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 4/18/11]
Johnson: Obama's "Clear Strategy" Is "Divide And Conquer" With "Class Warfare." On the September 20 edition of Fox & Friends, Peter Johnson Jr. said that Obama's deficit-reduction plan, which included increasing taxes on the wealthy, was evidence of Obama's "clear strategy" to "divide and conquer" and "anger the middle ... of America" with "class warfare." [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 9/20/11, via Media Matters]
Molly Line Declared Obama "Wants To Use The Rich To Fix His Spending Problem." On the July 18 edition of Fox & Friends, guest host Molly Line claimed that Obama "wants to use the rich to fix his spending problem." [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 7/18/11, via Media Matters]
State-appointed emergency managers make six figures at local community's expense
By
FLINT, Michigan — Cash-strapped communities and school districts in Michigan are paying six-figure salaries to the governor-appointed emergency managers who are supposed to rescue them from financial ruin.
By law, the pay of Michigan’s five emergency managers — ranging from $132,000 to $250,000 — is set by the state, but the money actually is paid by the local communities they’re in charge of.
That rankles those who disagree with the law in the first place, saying the expanded powers of emergency managers go too far.
“What is the proper salary of a dictator?” asked Flint resident Paul Jordan, one of many Michigan residents who has sued the state, saying the emergency manager law overreaches. “Certainly it’s a very big job. But on the other hand, here the people who are paying his salary had no opportunity to hire him.”
Flint’s emergency manager, Michael Brown, is paid $170,000 a year, according to his contract. Managers in Ecorse and Benton Harbor each make $132,000, while the manager in Pontiac receives $150,000.
The chief of Detroit School District, Roy Roberts, was given a $250,000 salary, but took the 10 percent pay cut he ordered for all school employees.
Brown was appointed Dec. 1 to take over Flint’s finances. A state review panel recommended a takeover after finding a structural deficit, recurring cash flow shortages and other financial deficiencies.
The city ended the 2010 budget year with an estimated $15 million deficit. A $7 million deficit is projected for budget year 2011.
Mayor Dayne Walling’s was Flint’s highest-paid elected official, receiving $91,800 before Brown eliminated his pay and benefits and those of city council members.
Brown on Tuesday partially restored Walling’s pay to $55,000 and council members each will receive $7,000 a year.
“We can’t afford to get the things done we need to do, how can we pay (an emergency manager)?,” said Bishop Bernadel Jefferson, pastor of Faith Deliverance Center in Flint. “The state brought him in but we got to pay for it? The state should pay some.”
Emergency managers got more power in March when the state law was amended, but the part that dictates local communities pay their salaries dates back to the original 1990 statute.
It has been tweaked to have the state treasurer set the emergency manager pay, rather than a board of state officials.
The compensation takes into account the community’s population, geographic size and the complexity of the financial problems, said treasury spokesman Terry Stanton.
Any expenses the emergency manager incurs are also overseen by the state treasury and are required by law to be publicly posted online, he said.
Brown’s salary in Flint is the highest of any of the managers appointed to run cities. Flint, with more than 100,000 people, is also the largest city under a state takeover.
Brown’s pay is comparable to that of Detroit Mayor Dave Bing. The mayor of Michigan’s largest city reduced his pay to $158,558 from $176,000 after ordering furlough days for other city employees, according to The Detroit News.
State Rep. Woodrow Stanley, D-Flint, said emergency manager pay should be commensurate with the mayor’s pay. Stanley, a former Flint mayor, said he’s opposed to the emergency manager law in general because it interferes with voters’ rights to choose their leaders.
“I’ve never been a proponent of what appears to be exorbitant pay,” he said. “I’m sure if the state was required to pick up the tab for some of these expenses, the state would less prone to intervene.”
But a government finance expert and Michigan State University professor who has helped train emergency managers in Michigan said the managers are paid more because they often fulfill the duties of several people or departments.
“People need to think of it as a city-manager-plus,” said Eric Scorsone. “It’s what a city administrator would do, but with the responsibilities of a mayor and the responsibilities of a city council.
“It’s a pretty big job, really unusual in the scope.”
Emergency managers make decisions regarding most city operations, including finances, infrastructure and public safety, Scorsone said.
“And let’s be honest, it’s a temporary job,” Scorsone said. “An emergency manager may be in office a year or two and then that’s it. It’s a high-profile job with responsibility.”
Flint’s former emergency manager Ed Kurtz, who served during the previous 2002-04 state takeover, originally turned down the state-recommended $114,000-a-year salary in favor of $1,000 a month, according to Flint Journal files. He started taking $3,000-a-month salary in 2003, files show.
Brown said he took a pay cut to become Flint’s emergency manager. He was paid $160,000 as president of the Prima Civitas Foundation, an East Lansing-based nonprofit that focuses on economic development, but also received a retirement package he doesn’t get as emergency manager.
Brown said he expects to put in long hours and be on call 24 hours a day in the Flint job.
“I’m going in to this to do a public service,” he said. “I’m going to earn my salary. I know how challenging and tough it’s going to be.”
Former GOP city chair busted for videotaping naked boys
By David Edwards/Raw Story
A former New Jersey Republican city chair has been arrested on multiple charges of using a hidden camera to videotape naked boys using communal showers at a Catholic high school.
Patrick Lott, the 54-year-old assistant principal at Bernardsville Middle School since 2009, is facing more than 50 counts including endangering the welfare of a child and invasion of privacy at Immaculata High School in Somerville, where he volunteered as a coach.
Investigators raided Lott’s home about two weeks ago and seized computer files that included videos of naked male students in the shower. Nine or more of the students were under the age of 16, according to WABC.
Court documents indicated that there were 15 victims in all.
Before becoming assistant principal at Bernardsville Middle School in 2009, Lott had been assistant principal of Bernards High School since 2003. He also coached wrestling at Montgomery High School for about 9 years.
“I enjoyed the interaction with the kids,” Lottexplained to the Courier Journal in 2002 as he was planning to leave Montgomery High School. “You become attached to the kids you coach. There’s never a good time to move on.”
In 2010, Somerville’s Republican Committee listed Lott as their chairman in papers filed with the state’s Election Law Enforcement Commission.
He has also run as a Republican for a Somerset County freeholder seat about 20 years ago and then again for a Somerville council seat about two years ago.
Lott is being held in the Somerset County jail on $500,000 bond. Authorities have said that if released on bail, he will not be allowed to have contact with victims or staff from Immaculata High School or any child under the age of 16.
Watch this video from WABC and WPIX, uploaded Dec. 29, 2011.
REPORT: ROMNEY RAN AS PRO-CHOICE IN 1994 BECAUSE POLL SHOWED ‘IT WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE FOR A PRO-LIFE CANDIDATE TO WIN’
In a new book, Boston journalist Roland Scott reports that Mitt Romney ran on a pro-choice platform in 1994 after “polling from Richard Wirthlin, Ronald Reagan’s former pollster whom Romney had hired for the ’94 campaign, showed it would be impossible for a pro-life candidate to win statewide office in Massachusetts.” Romney is now trying to assure conservative voters he is pro-life, and has previously said his switch before running for the presidency was a moral revelation.
Ron Paul Claimed An AIDS Patient Is ‘A Victim Of His Own Lifestyle’ In 1987 Book
By Igor Volsky/Think Progress
In recent days, Ron Paul has tried to distance himself from damaging newsletters from the late 1980s and 1990s by attributing racist and anti-gay statements to ghost writers and disavowing the most incendiary sentiments. “It wasn’t a reflection of my views at all…I think it was terrible,” Paul said of the letters, which blamed AIDS on the gay community and likened black people to criminals. “It was tragic, and I had some responsibility for it, because the name went out in my letter. But I was not an editor. I (was) like a publisher.”
But despite his denials, CNN’s Peter Hamby reports that Paul included many of the controversial ideas in his 1987 book, “Freedom Under Siege: The U.S. Constitution after 200-Plus Years.” That work — published under Paul’s name — attributed AIDS to the gay “lifestyle” and suggested that victims of sexual harassment should simply quit their jobs:
In one section of the book, Paul criticized people suffering from AIDS or other contagious diseases for demanding health insurance coverage. “The individual suffering from AIDS certainly is a victim – frequently a victim of his own lifestyle – but this same individual victimizes innocent citizens by forcing them to pay for his care,” Paul wrote. [...]“Employee rights are said to be valid when employers pressure employees into sexual activity,” Paul wrote. “Why don’t they quit once the so-called harassment starts? Obviously the morals of the harasser cannot be defended, but how can the harassee escape some responsibility for the problem? Seeking protection under civil rights legislation is hardly acceptable.”
Indeed, Paul did not disavow authorship of the newsletters until 2001 and defended their contents throughout the 1990s. For instance, in 1996, “Paul said statements about the fear of black males mirror pronouncements by black leaders such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson” and explained that his comments on blacks contained in the newsletters should be viewed in the context of “current events and statistical reports of the time.”
Matt Romney Suggests His Father Won’t Release Tax Returns Until Obama ‘Releases His Grades And Birth Certificate’
By Judd Legum/Think Progress
Appearing in New Hampshire as a surrogate for his father, Matt Romney suggested to a group of voters that Mitt Romney would not release his tax returns until Barack Obama released “his grades and his birth certificate.”
Concord Patch has the video. Here’s a transcript:
Q: Will Romney eventually open his tax returns, so we can see what’s going on like most candidates will do and have done?TAGG ROMNEY: We have no idea.MATT ROMNEY: He has not said that he will not do it. He has also not said that he will. It’s a matter of time until that issue comes up because I think everyone has to get a chance to do that. So I don’t know the answer to that. I’m not sure he knows the answer to that. But he will do everything that he needs to do. He’s certainly not afraid of anything. Hiding anything. I heard someone suggest the other day that as soon as President Obama releases his grades and birth certificate and sort of a long list of things then maybe he’d do it.
Of course, responding to a cacphony of conspiracy theorists, Barack Obama has already released his birth certificate. Craig Romney can view it here.
Mitt Romney would be the first major party candidate since Watergate to refuse to release his taxes. He recently told MSNBC that “I don’t intend to release the tax returns. I don’t.”
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