A Red HOT Redeye Rant

Would someone please tell the LameStream Media we don't care about about Anthony Wieners' male member? I mean really. They are more concerned weather it's a picture of his male member than they are WHO sent the Tweet. While the republicans are all over TeeVee talking about "cutting out of control spending" Anthony Wiener is talking about his male member. Why? Because it's a Weapon of Mass Distraction. If the media really wanted to investigate something they would find out who was behind the prank. But nooooooo. That would be too much like right (pun intended). Psst LameStream Media, you are being Punk"d. Again. You have reached peaked stupid.

It ought to be against the law to use the public airways to promote racist, racial sterotypes. Fox Pundit Dennis Kneale Associates Public Schools With 'The Crips Or The Bloods'

While discussing the New Jersey Supreme Court decision to make Gov. Chris Christie restore $500 million to the public school system, pundit Dennis Kneale compares public schools with "the Crips or the Bloods."

Other than the obvious race baiting by Kneale, this was also another typical segment for Fox's "Cost of Freedom" block of shows from their business channel that they air on Saturday mornings where it's one lone liberal ganged up on by the rest of the panel and where they're trashing public education. One of their favorite topics right behind trashing unions and crying about any tax increases for corporations.

Most of the Forbes panel seemed to be completely oblivious of the fact that it might cost more to educate children in poor areas of the state and that most of those parents don't have the luxury of "choosing" where their children go to school.

I have to give the TeaPublicans credit for one thing. They are lockstep and on point. No Cat Herding for the gop, no siree. They are all over the airways talking about cutting out of control spending when Democrats are in office, but you don't hear a peep out of them when republicans borrow and spend like drunken sailors. Let the TeaPublicans tell it, the debt was caused by out of control government spending, but the debt was actually created by their out of control borrowing and spending on all war all the time and a tax cut for the rich. Do you hear Democrats all over the TeeVee saying If Americans Don't Want Services Cut, Then Raise Taxes on the Rich and End the Wars? Nope.

Whats that you say? Corporate lobby targets African-Americans for NC bill raising loan interest rates? I'm shocked! Shocked I tell you. NOT.

North Carolina has some of the most stringent consumer protection rules in the country against predatory lending. In 2010, lending groups ramped up campaign contributions to elect lawmakers more hospitable to their interests, and are now pushing a bill that would allow lenders to raise the interest rates they charge on consumer loans -- and reaching out to African-American voters who would be among those most affected by the measure.

RedEye Rant over and out until next time.

African American Elected Officials are Common Thugs,

and should be treated as such say the Common thugs. Sorry I couldn't resist the pun after last weeks Faux News manufactured Common Controversy and in light of the ongoing "ethical lynching" of the lone African American member of the Huntsville City Council. None dare call it stereotyping. You see the media paints all black men as thugs. Strike that, the media paints all black men that dare speak up and speak out at thugs.

The powers that be wanted to market rappers flashing cash, sporting bling, and showing off fancy cars; rappers with little real sense of what was going on in the world around them. Those powers didn’t want you to hear from conscious artists like Public Enemy, KRS-One, Nas, Dead Prez, Immortal Technique, Saul Williams, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, or even a Common. Often the Dave Chappelle Show was the only place you could find some of them.

African American elected officials are painted as the picture of corruption in three piece suits in the media, by the media, for the media. Every little thing morphs into proof they should trade their cuff link for handcuffs.

It's not just Huntsville it's all over the United States of America. Those African American elected officials who stand for something and aren't afraid to speak truth to power are eventually investigated and convicted of some kind of corruption and people like me who call it out are called racist.

Attempting to keep Common out of the White House was not about trying to censor lyrics that seemed offensive. It was about trying to silence a voice who rhymes about real issues, and speaks for the oppressed.

Don't get me wrong, you don't have to be an African American Democratic elected official to be investigated and convicted, in some cases all you have to do is be a liberal democratic elected official and off you go too.

Yep, it's open season on those African American elected officials, liberal democrats and Activist who stand for something in Sweet Home Alabama, but none dare call it racism, they prefer to call it thuggery.

This proud nation is at a crossroads.

One direction hurling towards increased economic inequality, the slashing of social safety nets, deregulation, xenophobia, discrimination of the gay community, voter suppression, and the unconscionable pollution of our environment. The other is a direction of ending poverty, protecting and helping the oppressed and unfortunate, holding Wall Street accountable, embracing immigration, and preserving our ecosystem.

What Willie Nelson said

“Rather than trying to put an end to Eminem or some other rapper, politicians should think about why they’re rapping. It’s easier to try to censor some kid who’s swearing about poverty than it is to stop the poverty.” – Willie Nelson

RedEye's translation
It's easier to investigate and convict the politicians who are not afraid to take a stand and speak out than it is to cure the reasons they stand up and speak out.

An Open Letter to Bill O'Rielly

I just had to share this letter posted on Face Book. When asked what took them so long to pen this letter the Writer said Keith Olbermann has been doing a good job making fun of him, so I never had to. It's raw. It's rude. It's on point.
Redeye

Dear Bill O the Clown,

One of my pet peeves is stupidity. Not ignorance of a fact or subject matter that one has never heard of, but complete and total foolishness on a subject that is established scientific fact is unacceptable. You attended Harvard University,not to some degree mill or Joe and Ernie's school of bull. You attended an Ivy League school and for some reason you can't scientifically explain the tides, the gravitational forces and the relational relationship they have with the moon. As a result, it can't be science, then it must be God. "Tides go in, tides go out, there's never a miscommunication. If it isn't God, then you explain it", you exclaim to a guest. Surely, your middle school teachers taught about gravitational pull of the earth, the poles, and how the moon affects the tides of the ocean. This is not the Dark Ages where something we can't explain happens and it becomes conclusive proof of Satan's work and we start burning witches or have trials by ordeal.

What am I saying? You probably have no idea what I am talking about...The Bible is not, I repeat NOT a compendium of scientific data. It's just not. If anyone seriously reads the Bible and believes that anything is scientific in there then they should join ranks with Palin and Beck right now. Tides go in, tides go out...that's what's supposed to happen. But that can be and is explained scientifically for about 500 years, there's nothing head scratching about that like curing cancer or Beck's blackboard communist conspiracy theories.

So, since you got rightly made fun of for your tides come in nonsense we get this gem. "Okay, how did the Moon get there? How'd the Moon get there? Look, you pinheads who attacked me for this, you guys are just desperate. How'd the Moon get there? How'd the Sun get there? How'd it get there? Can you explain that to me? How come we have that and Mars doesn't have it? Venus doesn't have it. How come? Why not? How'd it get here?" Well, again in most middle school science classes, we learn that the moon was formed from an impact with earth and that Venus and most of the planets have moons, several in fact. All facts that can be easily verified if you simply looked into a telescope. Who figured these things out? Galileo, Isaac Newton, Copernicus...any of these ring a bell?

We know that your show has nothing to do with logic, facts or common sense. I can get more rationality from an episode of sesame street. Next you will have an expose about how the moon is made of cheese, or that there is a homeless Acorn New Black Panther member living there getting ready to mount an attack on all the white middle aged women named Susie. Maybe Noah put the moon there, then installed rocket boosters after the flood to get the moon there. We have the tooth fairy, Santa, so maybe the moon got there from the cheese fairy. Maybe Michael Jackson put it there. Oh, here is something for you to ponder, we only see one side of the moon, is God hiding something on the other side? The average menstrual cycle is 28 days which is the lunar cycle, coincidence or conspiracy?

I don't know our origins, we can argue till we are horse about whether we came out of a primordial soup or whether the earth was formed in 6 days. However, what I do know, we as Americans and a western culture are behind the times based on the idiocy that I just described above. Religion and science cannot coexist because one operates on facts and logic, the other on faith. Is is a leap that in the Genesis story, that maybe our 6 days may not be Gods 6 days? Could his day be 2 days, 100 days, 1,000 days, 1,000 years? How do we know? We have a book that was orally dictated, handwritten and translated from Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and English and edited by Catholic Bishops who decided which gospels should be included and who should be changed a little to seem more interesting. Mathew, Mark, Luke and John recount the same story with some discrepancies.

If you have ever heard, "this strain of virus is resistant to antibiotics", then you are dealing with evolution and it can't be discounted as crap because you just want to believe in the Genesis intelligent design story. With all of all that, we are supposed to take everything in the as Bible 100% literal? I don't think so, if they did people wouldn't eat seafood or work on Sundays.

This is the 21st Century all unexplained things are not conclusive evidence of Jesus or Satan at work. The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, that should be Fox New's motto. Science is not a liberal conspiracy in order to turn people against God. Religious fundamentalism is a scourge on the planet that robs people of their ability to think and apply even the most basic level of common sense. When I hear such foolishness come from the mouth of a person that went to Harvard, get's paid millions of dollars a year and the best they can come up with is tides comes in, how does the sun get there...this is something I expect from Bachmann or Palin, but not you. You were really serious. You need to give Harvard their degree back or, they need to break in to your penthouse and steal it, because you are not representing a smart Harvard alum if you don't understand gravity.

I pray that you are pandering to the religious right because you know they disregard evolution and science. If so, you deserve a special place in hell for manipulating people based on their faith for political and economic gain. You are one of the most cynical of broadcasters, feigning the bumpkin upbringing and misunderstanding of the world so that you can goad your listeners into supporting the corporate system that feeds your own elite existence. Of course, Jimmie and Susie aren't thinking about that when they hear you talk, all they hear are those buzz words, "Jesus, patriotism, terrorism, christian, 9/11".

What horrendous sin did the people on this planet commit to be plagued with your tragic lie filled show? How many hail Mary's, confessions, sack cloth and ashes do I need to roll in end the suffering? If only I could go back and take out the person that invented the tv. While you were out sticking felafel's into hookers, you should been reading National Geographic, and taking remedial astronomy. Not astrology with Ms. Cleo, that's not the same thing. This is why Rome fell and why America is on the decline, gross ignorance that people like you perpetrate on a mass scale. Your stupidity is like a black hole, I fear it will suck all common sense, I.Q's, rationality inside and you will start watching cluster fox. All of the real journalists are in Egypt getting punched, threatened and tear gassed, but you are ok. Fox's new slogan should be: All ignorance, All the Time, You Don't Have to Feel Bad Watching Us." Bill, please stop talking out of Uranus.

Damn I miss Keith Olberbman.

The Left is NOT like the Right

I want to debunk the right wing, media enabled, rhetoric that it is illegitimate to hold the gop infused, media enabled, Tea Party responsible for the present toxic political culture. The school yard meme claiming the overzealous nature of partisanship on both sides of the aisle is straight up Bullpoo. There is a huge difference between the rhetoric on the right and the rhetoric on the left. For one thing, the right has a wider platform.

The left isn't responsible for the anger and the vitriol that produced the random acts of domestic terrorism. It's those on the right who have exploited the arguments of division, reaping political power by demonizing immigrants, or welfare recipients, or bureaucrats. The Left doesn't use Hate Speech to incite violence.

The Left is not on Talk Radio 24/7 using the public airways to misinform the uniformed to keep the bigots in line.

Where does one start in the wake of the political killing spree that occurred in Arizona on Saturday?

With John Wilkes Booth putting a bullet into the head of Abraham Lincoln?

With the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy?

With the shooting of Martin Luther King?

The right-wing culture of hate and implicit coded call to kill the enemy, as if on a mission from God, is a subset of our larger national culture of violence.

From our policy of maintaining superpower status through wars and coups to going back to the conquest of America by the slaughter of Native Americans, we have had a history of a large segment of our population that views violence as a remedy for personal and political grievances - as well as the fulfillment of ideological goals. For them, "putting down your enemy" is as American as apple pie.

MSNBC is NOT like Fox News

Listen to Rachel Maddow or Keith Olbermann, and you’ll hear a lot of caustic remarks and mockery aimed at Republicans. But you won’t hear jokes about shooting government officials or beheading a journalist at The Washington Post. Listen to Glenn Beck or Bill O’Reilly, and you will.

What if the gop infused, media enabled Tea Party were Black?

Imagine that hundreds of black protesters were to descend upon Washington DC and Northern Virginia, just a few miles from the Capitol and White House, armed with AK-47s, assorted handguns, and ammunition. And imagine that some of these protesters —the black protesters — spoke of the need for political revolution, and possibly even armed conflict in the event that laws they didn’t like were enforced by the government? Would these protesters — these black protesters with guns — be seen as brave defenders of the Second Amendment, or would they be viewed by most whites as a danger to the republic? What if they were Arab-Americans? Because, after all, that’s what happened recently when white gun enthusiasts descended upon the nation’s capital, arms in hand, and verbally announced their readiness to make war on the country’s political leaders if the need arose.

Imagine that white members of Congress, while walking to work, were surrounded by thousands of angry black people, one of whom proceeded to spit on one of those congressmen for not voting the way the black demonstrators desired. Would the protesters be seen as merely patriotic Americans voicing their opinions, or as an angry, potentially violent, and even insurrectionary mob? After all, this is what white Tea Party protesters did recently in Washington.

IMHO President Obama doesn't need to be leading a moment of silence for the Arizona Victims, he needs to be speaking out. This is another one of those teachable moments where he has the opportunity to reaffirm the belief we are not red states and blue states we are the United States of America. He should take the lead in in quieting the voices of hate and bigotry.

You won't see wall to wall, breathless coverage of the One Nation Working Together rally held in Washington D.C. today because it's not a bunch of Obama hating white folks waving their flags while they waive their rights. Nope, it's red, yellow, black and white Americans from red states and blue states coming together to reclaim The UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and demanding the CHANGE we voted for.

It's the media.

I want my @#$^ HOPE for CHANGE we can believe in back!

Two years into President Obama's historic election I'm wondering how in the world HOPE for CHANGE we can believe in got hijacked by the gop infused, media enabled, Tea Baggers? I mean, really...how and why did we (Democrats/Progressives/Liberals) let this happen? There are more of us than there are of them as proven by President Obama's landslide 2008 victory. What the hell happened???

This is what I believe happened...President Obama didn't control the message, the gop infused, media enabled Tea Party controlled the message. He who controls the information controls the outcome.

Until and unless the democratic party comes up with it's own television network like Faux News and nationally syndicated talk radio shows/hosts like Limbaugh, Hannity and Beck, the republicans are always going to control the message.

President Obama can help us help him by reinstating the Fairness Doctrine.

What has not changed since 1987 is that over-the-air broadcasting remains the most powerful force affecting public opinion, especially on local issues; as public trustees, broadcasters ought to be insuring that they inform the public, not inflame them. That's why we need a Fairness Doctrine. It's not a universal solution. It's not a substitute for reform or for diversity of ownership. It's simply a mechanism to address the most extreme kinds of broadcast abuse.

It ought to be against the law to use the public airways to diseminate hate and misinformation.

"The FCC has a responsibility to set standards, to say the public can not be offended based on their race or their gender in this country and use federally regulated airwaves that they give licenses to that are very competitive and the FCC is very selective based on standards."

Then we have the Media Lobbying Complex, distoring what we decide.

A four-month investigation into the covert corporate influence on cable news found that since 2007 at least seventy-five registered lobbyists, public relations representatives and corporate officials have repeatedly appeared on MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, CNBC and Fox Business Network with no disclosure that they are paid by corporate interests.

The passage of the the Local Community Radio Act is a start.

The Local Community Radio Act will expand the low power FM (LPFM) service created by the FCC in 2000 – a service the FCC created to address the shrinking diversity of voices on the radio dial. Over 800 LPFM stations, all locally owned and non-commercial, are already on the air. The stations are run by non-profit organizations, local governments, churches, schools, and emergency responders.

The bill repeals earlier legislation which had been backed by big broadcasters, including the National Association of Broadcasters. This legislation, the Radio Broadcast Preservation Act of 2000, limited LPFM radio to primarily rural areas. The broadcast lobby groups claimed that the new 100 watt stations could somehow create interference with their own stations, a claim disproven by a Congressionally-mandated study in 2003.

Lost Hope?

When America elected Barack Obama, cynicism seemed in retreat, beaten back by a wave of ordinary people staking their time, money, and spirit on the prospect of significant change. We seemed to have reached a major historical turning point, offering the chance finally to address our country's root crises. Now, cynicism and despair have bounced back on steroids, as if to mock any new hope that we can help create a better world. Last year's soaring expectations seem distant memories, leaving a bitter taste. Obama's campaign made grassroots participation central, and he's invited us to help him do the right thing in office. But his compromises and the failings of Senate leaders to overcome the resistance of their obstructionist colleagues have destroyed much of the grassroots enthusiasm that existed a year ago. Meanwhile, those of us whose passionate engagement helped elect Obama haven't stepped up to help define our national debates (while the Teabaggers have). Most of us have done little in the past year beyond signing online letters or petitions, and watching shell-shocked from the sidelines as the country's politics spiraled steadily downward. Yet I still believe that we can help transform America through what Nelson Mandela called "the multiplication of courage," as I explore in "Soul of a Citizen." But for that resurgence of courage to bloom, we need to get past the cynical resignation that assumes change is impossible.

When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Let's get going in 2011 and take our @#$^ HOPE for CHANGE we can believe in back!

Yes
We
Can

Tuesday Professional Left Blog Stroll

A Holiday Message from a REAL Progressive aka my kind of Progressive.

It was pride that led to Lucifer's Fall from Grace according to the Christian tradition. It is your arrogance and pride and those of your fellow travelers on the right who hate and justify wars and glorify each other for the superiority of your beliefs that are being judged by all of us and found wanting in the balance. All of you on the right who despise the poor, the meek, the diseased, the homosexuals and bisexuals and transgendered folks, and people without white skin like yours are the sinners.

There is nothing more dangerous than Arrogant Ignorance and those who enable them.

The last few years have been unnaturally kind to America's willfully ignorant. Fox News provided aid, comfort, voice and encouragement to America's once (wisely) silent-moron demographic.

Now the dumb-and-dumbers out there not only believe the unbelievable, the unverifiable and the unreal, they believe it all with prideful swagger and aggressive pushiness. Arrogant ignorance is no longer an oxymoron -- it's a growing political movement.

Thinking Americans have been complicit in this since we don't like making making anyone feel uncomfortable by challenging their cherish beliefs. And the commercial media has taken moron-coddling to a new level. When was the last time you read a story in which the reporter aggressively challenged utter nonsense and provably untrue "facts?"

As if we didn't already know, this is the GOP economic plan

Republicans continue to prove that they're willing to finish wrecking our economy for political gain and to get their dream fulfilled of busting every union we've got left in this country in the process.

Speaking of arrogant ignorance, radio boy gets the RedEye for the most arrogant ignorant comment of the day, possibly the year.

The word "lie" is the same as "racist", misuse has rendered both words meaningless.

Oh really now?

Redeye's Original Thought Blog Stroll down Memory Lane

It's time for another installment of an "original thought" blog stroll down memory lane in recognition of the first anniversary of my being booted from the front pages of Left in Alabama. Note: These are my original thoughts from my tenure at Left in Alabama, not links to other diarist at LiA, if you find any factual errors , not to be confused with typo's and grammatical errors, please let me know so I can correct them. :)

In light of the fact one of the first orders of business for the red republican legislature in the reddest state in the union is to get rid of them there gerrymandered voting districts, and the right wing outrage over State Senator Hanks Sanders' mad as hell robo call about returning to the days of Jim Crow, please read The right to vote today. The right to vote tomorrow. The right to vote forever. Posted on the 49th anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights Act.

On this day in 1965, President Lyndon Baines Johnson (D. Texas) signed the National Voting Rights Act. For my fellow Americans who've always had the right and the privilege to vote today may not be a big deal to you, but to me and mine it's a very big deal.

The right to vote is sacred to African Americans. I know it sounds cliche, but it's steeped in blood, sweat, tears, courage and sacrifice. That's why we don't think Voter Suppression with the State Seal of Approval is funny. It's why we shake our heads at The Tough Voter ID Laws. It's why we get weep silently when the real voter suppression gets a slap on the wrist and the imagined voter fraud is prosecuted to the full extent of the law. It's like pre 1965 all over again.

The republicans are coming! The republicans are coming! This is what we have to look forward to under republican rule. This is their battle cry!

Seriously, what has the present day gop ever been right (pun intended) about? Why are they constantly being rewarded for bad behavior? Why do democratic candidates pander to the wrong at the expense of what's right, and against Progressives/ liberals/democrats who btw are right (pun intended) on the issues?

Why are we treated like the no family values, culture of cronyism and corruption?

Why is Alabama a "majority republican state"?

Why do Alabama voters consistently vote against their self interest?

What is wrong with this picture?

It was the stoopid racism then and it's the stoopid racism now.

I believe most of us can/will agree that racism is stupid and that it takes power to exercise racism. Meaning, a person can have all the racial prejudice against a certain group of people in their hearts and minds they want to, but when they have the power/authority to act on those beliefs it's racism.

And we wonder why the right wing is so misinformed...

A good friend of mine told me they take their blood pressure medicine and watch Faux News every night. When I asked why they would do something stoopid like that, they replied because forewarned is forearmed and so they would know how and what righty's think (now there's an oxymoron for you). Prior to tuning in to the Faux News Talking Pundit Heads I started to pour a stiff drink of my favorite alcoholic beverage, but I didn't want my perception to be, cough, cough, impaired :). So, armed with an arsenal of sock bombs to throw at the TeeVee if needed, I settled in for an evening of watching Faux News.

Yo President Obama! I tried to tell you...

If we had wanted to keep Bush's political prisoner operation we would have voted for John Mc$ame. If we had wanted an Attorney General whose first act was to free former Senator Ted Stevens (r. Alaska) we would have voted for Mc$ame. If we had wanted to keep Don't ask don't tell we would have voted for John Mc$ame. If we had wanted to continue the same economic polices as Bush we would have voted for Mc$ame. If we didn't want the single payer option we would have voted for McSame.

Now, I won't go as far as my friend BeulahMan and call you a "lying piece of sh^!" on the front page of LiA, but I HOPE you get my drift. We the people are suffering and under siege. We are loosing HOPE.

Click on the links to read the full text and don't forget to read the comments.

Keep HOPE alive y'all. Keep HOPE alive.

When Censorship Comes to America...

I'm not buying the Keith Olbermann was suspended because he knew the terms of his contract and he knew the rules spin. Keith Olberman is a liberal but he's not stoopid. And it would be different if MSNBC didn't have a pattern of firing progressive voices in favor of go along to get alongs. Remember Phil Donahue?

Gabriel Sherman's piece in New York magazine (10/3/10) on the cable news wars includes a bit of history on MSNBC's firing of progressive host Phil Donahue in 2003; an internal memo at the time worried that the show would be "a home for the liberal anti-war agenda at the same time that our competitors are waving the flag at every opportunity." Sherman focuses on MSNBC personality Chris Matthews--who sometimes claims he was opposed to the Iraq War--and his desire to get Donahue fired:

Like LiA blogger Dragontide, I wonder if MSNBC was just looking for a reason to get rid of KO;

From the NY Times link:

"The suspension comes at a particularly tricky time for MSNBC. NBC Universal is in the midst of a change of ownership, with its potential new owner, Comcast, seeking final federal approval for the sale. It hopes to conclude the deal by the end of the year."
Maybe Comcast wants a completely different NBC. Seems to me that the proper thing to do would have been to ask Olbermann to not contribute to anymore campaigns and leave it at that. In any event, it's going to be interesting to see how this all plays out.

Then we have Rick Sanchez who was fired from CNN after giving a satellite radio interview in which he called Jon Stewart a “bigot” and suggested that Jews run CNN and the news media in general.

Keith Olbermann was suspended after POLITICO reported he made three campaign contributions to Democratic candidates. POLITICO recently hired former republican Congressman Joe Scarborough and they have a daily segment on Morning Joke, I mean Joe.

Starting on Oct. 1, Politico will run weekly opinion columns by Joe Scarborough, the MSNBC host and former United States representative, and Michael Kinsley, a columnist for The Atlantic.

I smell a rat too.

So let me get this straight; MSNBC suspends Keith Olbermann for donating money to dumbocratic candidates, and their rivals, Radio Rwanda, allows their on air personalities to run for republican office? I swear liberals are getting softer and softer by the day. You all have got to get hard core like the republiclowns. Do you think Radio Rwanda would fire one of their biggest earners over some s^&t like this? Hell News Corp gave over a million dollars to that racist- right out of central casting- Haley Barbour, and didn't even sweat it.

Still, like Aaron Goldstein, I smell a rat. You know the world is upside down when conservatives are ripping MSNBC for suspending Olbermann.

It ought to be against network policy to use the public airways to spread lies and misinformation but I digress. Did Keith Olberman actually violate NBC policy?

Check out the fine print of what NBC policy said, as of 2007, about political activities on the part of NBC employees:

"Anyone working for NBC News who takes part in civic or other outside activities may find that these activities jeopardize his or her standing as an impartial journalist because they may create the appearance of a conflict of interest. Such activities may include participation in or contributions to political campaigns or groups that espouse controversial positions. You should report any such potential conflicts in advance to, and obtain prior approval of, the President of NBC News or his designee."

Emphasis mine. This is a bit difficult to parse. But this does seem to say that those who are worried that their "standing as an impartial journalist" would be jeopardized by political activity should report it. Last time I checked, Keith Olbermann doesn't pretend to be an "impartial journalist."

So let me see if I have this right(pun intended), MSNBc employees have to ask permission from management to donate their own damn money to political candidates? What if management says no? I guess only anonymous corproations are allowed "freedom of speech".

The story behind is the story is Keith Olberman got Dan Rathered by GE. Scared of losing influence with the Republicans in Congress, GE Executives cravenly did what they do best: protect their bottom line. Suspending Olbermann had nothing to do with drawing "a distinction between the journalistic standards of their news division and the standards of Fox." GE's own record of political contributions makes that very clear.

The difference between Keith Olbermann and Juan Williams is that Olbermann is in trouble for putting his money where his mouth is. Williams was putting his mouth where his money is. h/t AllesKlaar

Psst Keith, Rick and Dan! I feel your pain. You should join forces and start your own Network.

I keep on asking: WHERE THE H.... IS THE PRO-DEMOCRATIC MEDIA? (specially radio). I can drive through Texas and listen to at least dozens of Spanish radio stations and I can't find 1 pro-democratic station (only 1 in Dallas).

As long as we don't have "Pro-democratic" (liberal) radio in every major city in the US. Republicans are going to keep on ruling this country.

President Obama needs to speak on this.

Fox News and Me, All Hate All the Time, UNfair and UNbalanced

If I ever doubted Fox News negative influence on our society I don't after today and the degree of the hate, lies and division in our country I don't after what happened to me today at a local Chevron Gas Station.

I frequent this particular Chevron station because they are one of the few full service gas stations. Meaning they pump your gas, check under your hood and wipe your windshield. Yeah you pay a little more, but when you're dressed to the nines heading to a function the last thing you want to do is pump gas. Today I decided to save a couple of pennies and pump my own gas, which meant I had to go inside to pay the attendant. Two women were inside watching television tuned to Fox News where the Talking TeeVee Pundit Heads were discussing, strike that, defending Juan William and bashing NPR for firing him because of his remarks about Muslims.

NPR has fired senior news analyst Juan Williams, who also appears as a commentator on Fox News, for comments about Muslims that Williams made in an appearance with Bill O’Reilly.

As Fox News reported it:

“I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country,” Williams told host Bill O’Reilly during a discussion on the dilemma between fighting jihadists and fears about average Muslims.

“But when I get on a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they’re identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous,” Williams said.

The woman who swiped my card said, and I quote, "I don't blame him, I wouldn't want to sit next to a rag head on an airplane either."

I looked up from signing my receipt and we silently stared at each other for some long, uncomfortable seconds. I couldn't decide if I should say something or not. If I did say something what could I say? How I wish I could have made them take every drop of gasoline out of my tank. We continued to stare at each other without blinking. I finally broke the stare, politely said "Thank you" and left vowing never to spend another penny at that Chevron station again. I don't care if it's the last gas station on earth and it's pouring down raining and I'm about to run out of gas. I've notified my off spring and other immediate family members they are not to patronize the station either. The fact the woman felt comfortable making that comment to my face then daring me to say something about it speaks volumes about the state of race relations in this city, county, state and country. I won't get into the Juan Williams controversy, but the usual suspects wasted no time chiming in;

At Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government site, the headline is “Screw Free Speech, NPR Fires Juan Williams for Muslim Remarks.” Williams’ fellow Fox News contributor, Sarah Palin, just tweeted to the effect that “NPR defends 1st Amendment Right, but will fire u if u exercise it. Juan Williams: u got taste of Left’s hypocrisy, they screwed up firing you.”

The Talking TeeVee Pundit Heads scare me. They are predicting people who think like Andrew Breitbart and Sarah Palin are going to control Congress after the midterm elections. Let the polling pollsters tell it, the majority of the American people think the country is headed in the wrong direction. If they are right (no pun) and this is true. I weep for my city, my county, my state and my country.

Meanwhile Juan Williams is laughing all the way to the bank..

Even though he was fired from NPR, Juan Williams won't have to worry about keeping a roof over his head. The Los Angeles Times reported that Fox News has signed Williams to a new, three-year, $2 million contract. He will have an expanded role on the network and will write a column for FoxNews.com.

Bill Reilly and Newt Gingrich are calling on congress to investigate NPR. Ain't that a dip?

NPR is facing a storm of criticism for its decision to fire Juan Williams after his comments about Muslims on Fox News, with several prominent conservatives calling for NPR's government funding to be cut and refusing to appear on the network anymore.

Speaking on Fox News, both Bill Reilly and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich called for Congress to investigate NPR and cut its government funding in the wake of Juan Williams' firing from the organization.

Faux News, we distort what you decide.
Lord help us.
Turn off Fox!
VOTE!

Sunday Reading List

Lost in the Tea Party obsessed, breathless, 24/7, wall to wall TeeVee coverage of the Bigots, I mean Values Summit, is the annual Congressional Black Caucus Foundation annual legislative conference. Lot's of coverage on the *ahem* Values Summit but little or no coverage of the President of the United States speaking at the Black Caucus Foundation conference. Wall to wall coverage of the Values Summit but nary a peep on the CBC annual conference. I wonder why?

In a fiery speech Saturday to the Congressional Black Caucus, Obama warned that Republicans hoping to seize control of Congress want "to do what's right politically, instead of what's right -- period."

"I need everybody here to go back to your neighborhoods, to go back to your workplaces, to go to the churches, and go to the barbershops and go to the beauty shops. And tell them we've got more work to do," Obama said to cheers from a black-tie audience at the Washington Convention Center. "Tell them we can't wait to organize. Tell them that the time for action is now."

His speech acknowledged what pollsters have been warning Democrats for months -- that blacks are among the key Democratic groups who right now seem unlikely to turn out in large numbers in November

Do democrats deserve to lose and be punished?

STEVE HILDEBRAND: The Democratic strategy right now is to run from the president, run from important proposals that help this country. If we’re not going to do something about health care, if we’re not going to do something about climate change, if we’re not going to do something about the economy, about the deficit, about the war, Washington is going to get punished. The Democrats might get punished more because they’re in power, but Washington in general is going to get punished. And you’ve seen it in Republican primaries across the country. You’ve seen it in Democratic primaries across the country. And you’re going to see it with a lot of just pure incumbents from both parties in November. They’re getting punished because they’re not dealing with the issues. They’re not dealing with the real problems that we face as a country. And they should be punished. Stand up and lead or get out of the way. And you might be replaced with someone worse, but you know, those are the options that are sometimes given to people.

Will we get what we deserve and turn the country over to the right wing bigots again? Be skeered. Be very skeered. The Tea Party is coming!

I am taking the fringe serious as they
are influencing mainstream and they are the New Dixiecrats. Be afraid of them and know they are more than fringe. They harbour the most seemingly logical racist that has been hidden for some time. Now that the black man is in charge, they have come out without the sheets and want their white country back. Not their country. Their white supreme authority back. That is the message.
Don't be fooled with the crazy messengers, be afraid of the racists and bigots who really agree with them deep down and will vote for them, excusing their behavior in exchange for the good ole days when a black knew their place. (sarcasm). These good ole boys don't just live in the south, they live everywhere and the eye candy who are channeling their message is a good reason to turn out at the polls. These women are manipulated and stupid. Look who their leader is.....Sarah Palin. That alone should scare you to the polls.

If it looks like crazy, talks like crazy, walks like crazy, it is crazy. Mission Accomplished. Faux News and hate radio made them crazy. They distorted what we decide with all spin all the time, UNfair and UNbalanced.

The rank-and-file have been indoctrinated, literally. They've consumed so much of this shit from Fox News and hate radio that they actually believe in it. And one of the things they believe is that our institutions are not trustworthy and they're not worth a damn. It's hard to argue with them about that; it's just that everything they're doing is making things worse. By making it harder for the government to function and making it harder to do the things that need to be done, the right-wing creates a self-fulfilling prophesy. We ought to close Guantanamo Bay, but the people are too frightened and, so, no one has the president's back to make that decision. Congress denies him the funds. The same is true on a host of other issues, most notably stimulus spending, climate change, and immigration reform.

Comment of the week h/t GM;

This election is NOT about President Obama. Yes, I know the Republicans and their media helpers have done a good job of making it seem otherwise, but the actual REALITY is that it is not. It is a CONGRESSIONAL, mid-term election, in which we choose senators and congresspersons and governors - NOT a frigging president.

The goal is to prevent the wacko, dangerous, Republican LUNATIC FRINGE from taking over our country.

Never underestimate the power of the fear and bigotry.

Counterspin~corrected

Oh those "pesky voters. They keep proving the Talking TeeVee Pundit heads don't know what the heck they are talking about.

It’s an anti-incumbent year, except for all the incumbents who are doing fine. Tea Party favorites fare well, except where they don’t. Candidates with establishment backing are in trouble, except when they keep winning. The candidates with more money excel, except when they’re trounced. For every narrative, there are counter-examples that render it largely useless.

The Talking TeeVee Pundit Heads have declared Florida Governor Charlie Crist(R) the winner of the Flordia Senate race. After all, it just no way Rep. Kendrick Meeks, an African American democrat, will be elected in the Sunshine state. They way I see it, white democrats have a choice, they can either vote for Meeks who will vote for the democratic agenda or they can vote for Chris who might (NOT) vote for the democratic agenda. It's two republicans (Crist/Rubio) vs one democrat in Florida. Voters who call themselves democrats should vote for the democrat regardless of race, gender or sexual orientation.

The same goes for the Alabama gubernatorial race. It's pretty safe to say Ron Sparks has the African American democratic vote tied down. African American voters are the most loyal democratic block vote, although it's often taken for granted, but I digress. On the other hand white democratic voters aren't so loyal. So, will white Alabama democrats vote for the gubernatorial candidate with a proven record of public service and forward looking innovated solutions, or the candidate with the all hat no cattle slogans? You decide.

On a national level voters will chose between so called "tax and spend" democrats and "borrow and spend" republicans. Personally I don't have a problem with taxing and spending because you get what you pay for. And isn't it funny the republicans the only care about taxing and spending when it's an African American democrat doing the taxing and the spending? They didn't say a mumbling word about Bush and Dick spending 4 Billion dollars a month on all war all the time and taxing the middle class to pay for it.

If the media would stop playing dumb and call out Faux News and the other right wing Lords of Loud whose main purpose is to scare white people the country would be better off and better served. If they continue with the all spin all the time, unfair and unbalanced we are going to go back to before.

Back to all war all the time.
Back to tax cuts for the rich.
Back to Scooter Libby InJustice.
Back to Heckuvjob Brownie incompetence.
Back to spying on the the American people.
Back to no access to affordable, quality health care.
Back to record home forclosures.
Back to bailouts.
Back to torture.
I don't want to go back to the future.

Do you?