Saturday, December 24, 2011
Scrooge the Musical
Merry Christmas to everyone and I'm grateful for another year support for this small blog.
Friday, December 23, 2011
Fox Celebrates Holidays With Outrageous Race-Based Attack On Obama
by Solange Uwimana/Media Matters
Fox News' animosity toward President Obama, three years into his presidency, is by now well-known. This is the network that routinely calls Obama a socialist, accuses him of being involved in all sorts of conspiratorial plots, and claims that he hates America. But, as witnessed Thursday on Hannity, Fox's attacks have taken an increasingly racially charged tone: Brent Bozell, who runs the factuallychallenged outfit of conservative misinformation known as the Media Research Center, likened Obama to "a skinny, ghetto crackhead."
Bozell appeared on Hannity as part of the show's weekly "Media Mash" segment to talk about purported mainstream media failings. After listening to a clip of MSNBC host Chris Matthews saying that Newt Gingrich "looks like a car bomber," Bozell responded:
BOZELL: How long do you think Sean Hannity's show would last if four times in one sentence, he made a comment about, say, the President of the United States, and said that he looked like a skinny, ghetto crackhead? Which, by the way, you might want to say that Barack Obama does. Everybody on the left would come forward and demand he be fired within five minutes for being so insulting towards a leader of the United States.
A few months ago, Fox's Eric Bolling came under fire for his racially charged criticisms of Obama, including his claims that Obama was "chugging 40's in IRE while tornadoes ravage MO" (which he latertried to amend), and that Obama was hosting "hoodlum[s] in the hizzouse" when he welcomed Gabon President Ali Bongo Ondimba and rapper Common to the White House.
These attacks have become a pattern at Fox News.
Since April of this year when Obama announced he would be running for reelection, attacks haveranged from false claims about the president's place of birth and religion to claiming Obama has "black nationalist sympathies." Fox's Monica Crowley, for example, derided Obama as a "committed wealth redistributionist" for the apparent benefit of African-Americans.
But this is nothing new. Fox News and its personalities have a long history of aggressive race-baiting and racially charged commentary. Moreover, Fox News' news-aggregation website, Fox Nation, has ahabit of prominently featuring race-baiting headlines and content in an apparent effort to attract and encourage racist commenters. One memorable headline read: "Obama's Hip-Hop BBQ Didn't Create Jobs."
Aside from sanctioning in-house race-baiting, Fox hasn't shied away from welcoming those who spread the same message. For example, after going on an extended, racially charged tirade about crime and "too many urban thugs, yo" in Atlanta, radio host Neal Boortz found a welcoming home on Fox News to discuss the economy.
During the Hannity segment, Bozell also blasted New York Times columnist Paul Krugman as a "little worm" for accurately describing, in a "melodramatic" fashion, Rep. Paul Ryan's proposal to end Medicare. Bozell accused Krugman of "hatemongering" and "fearmongering," then said to guest host Mark Steyn:
BOZELL: You think, Mark, about those endless lectures we've heard from the left over the years about hatemongering and fearmongering and civility, and they're always giving those lessons to Sean Hannity, to Rush Limbaugh, to Mark Levin, to Ann Coulter, but then Paul Krugman says this kind of thing and the silence is deafening. Paul Krugman is just a little worm.
One Tough Nerd. One Weak Governor
From Michigan Senate Democrats:
In the world of politics, there are always going to be disagreements. One side can view a situation one way while the other sees it very different. When those disagreements are merely over how to move us forward from point A to point B, that’s one thing. When those disagreements are focused instead on hatred without concern over how they impact our state, they become something far more dangerous.
Today, Governor Snyder proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that his pro-business “nerd” persona was nothing more than an act. By signing HB 4770, a bill that bans public employers from offering domestic partner benefits, he has shown instead that that special interests and extremists within his own party are pulling his strings. Even worse, by acknowledging that the he still isn’t even sure of the legal ramifications of this bill, in particular whether or not this bill applies to Michigan’s public universities, he has shown that he’s willing to go along with their extremist agenda without regard for the consequences.
Banning domestic partner benefits does nothing to create jobs in Michigan and will instead discourage employers from locating here and drive away many of our talented workforce. This wasn’t a decision any business leader would make, it’s a decision only someone driven blindly by party politics would make.
Governor Snyder may have come into 2011 with a tremendous amount of support from the people of Michigan, but he spent much of the year turning his back on them. Perhaps it is then fitting that one of his last acts of 2011 will put to rest any doubt that if Rick Snyder ever were “one tough nerd,” he’s now only “one weak Governor.”
White House blocks South Carolina voter ID law
By Muriel Kane/Raw Story
In a move with significant implications for the 2012 elections, the Obama administration on Fridayblocked a South Carolina voter ID law from taking effect because of concerns that it would have a disproportionate effect on minority voters.
The law, which was passed last spring by the South Carolina state legislature and signed by Governor Nikki Haley, requires voters to present some form of photo ID, such as a driver’s license, passport, or military identification, along with their voter’s registration.
According to Reuters, “The Justice Department said the requirement could harm the right to vote of tens of thousands of people, noting that just over a third of the state’s minorities who are registered voters did not have a driver’s license needed to cast a ballot.”
“The state’s data demonstrate that non-white voters are both significantly burdened … [and] disproportionately unlikely to possess the most common types of photo identification,” the head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, Thomas Perez, wrote to the state.
Perez also noted that South Carolina had not offered evidence of any type of voter fraud that could not be handle by existing laws but would be “deterred by requiring voters to present only photo identification at the polls.”
South Carolina is one of a number of states with a history of institutionalized discrimination which continue to be required under 1960′s civil rights legislation to obtain approval from the Justice Department for any redistricting or changes in state voting laws. Changes in Florida and Texas are currently under review for the same reason.
The Justice Department has indicated that its decision may be reconsidered if South Carolina provides a satisfactory plan to provide exemptions to the photo ID requirement.
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