The Media enabled #GOPChickens are ducking and dodging #DonaldTrump, but it's too little, much too late

Bigotry is "The Donald's" Trump Card

“… like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them…each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.” Senator Barak Obama April 6, 2008
“A certain segment has basically been feeding a kind of xenophobia. There’s a reason why hate crimes against Hispanic people doubled last year. If you have people like Lou Dobbs and Rush Limbaugh ginning things up, it’s not surprising that would happen.” Senator Barak Obama May 22, 2008

You reap... 

In its despair and confusion, a large segment of the American populace is prepared to believe anything it’s told, in part because we are a country less and less educated, increasingly unable to tell fact from fiction because we are so unschooled in basic essential knowledge about America and the world.

What you sow.. 

Donald Trump is standing on a platform of hate that the Republican Party built for him.
Trump’s proposal to bar Muslims from entering this country is hateful, despicable and vile. His statement is a slap in the face to the millions of peace-loving Muslims living here and to those who want to travel and live here.
This sort of racism has been prevalent in Republican politics for decades. Trump is just saying out loud what other Republicans merely suggest.

This is who and what they are. 

This is how ALL blacks were transformed into welfare recipients, a whole group of people looking for handouts, although that was a myth. Nope, I take that back it was an outright lie! Images of black women was the old “welfare queen” trick used by Ronald Reagan to drum up negative opinions and attack black women, attaching a negative stigma to them in the process. But more so Reagan used it to stir up negative sentiments towards poor people, which resulted in selfishness and cold heartedness in the charity department. Yup, they want to eliminate help for the poor. It works every time.

Is this who they will always be?  

"One of the things we can't do is, we can't let them distract from what we're all about, and what we're trying to accomplish. We're trying to keep the focus on comprehensive, universal health care reform, and they're going all over the place. They are desperate, uh, they don't have leadership, uh, they really don't know what to do, and so, I think we're going to continue to see a lot of crazy things happening, like all of the, uh, outrage that has been demonstrated at these town hall meetings, like the kind of statement that Congresswoman Jenkins made, and let them define themselves, let them reveal who they are. The American public needs to see that."~Representative Maxine Waters (D.CA)

Time will tell the truth. 

Cooper asked Sanders what evidence he had that the Republican opponents would take Alabama back to Jim Crow days. Sanders said, "Well, there's a certain mean spiritness that's out there, not only in Alabama but it's in America. And that makes this election extremely important."

You think? 

Meet the new #Segregationist, same as the old #Segregationist, now they are the #media

Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly (Credit: Reuters/Micah Walter/AP/Douglas C. Pizac)

New Rules:  Instead of standing in the school house door, the new Segregationist sit in front of cameras and microphones while using the public airways to enable media driven racial stereotypes.

It is not simply that Black people are victims of a numbers game. Rather, there has been a wholesale P.R. campaign on the part of those on the right to associate all public goods and services, from public schools to public assistance, with the bodies of undeserving people of color, particularly Blacks and Latinos.

Yep, the white, male dominated, media enables elected officials , and others in position of power and influence, to drive a false narrative.

Any discussion of welfare or public assistance in this country is rife with dog whistles from the right toward the lower elements of their base, who in Pavlovian fashion, respond to code words about welfare and public assistance by conjuring images of the undeserving Black and Brown poor.

Segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever, from sea to shining sea.

In his new book “How Propaganda Works,” Yale philosopher Jason Stanley argues that while a “liberal democratic culture… does not tolerate explicit degradation of its citizens,” there are “apparently innocent words that have the feature of slurs, namely that whenever the words occur in a sentence, they convey the problematic content. The word welfare …conveys a problematic social meaning.” I am suggesting that the word “public” in our political discourse is becoming just such a tool of political propaganda as well.

Who needs George Wallace when we have the media?

 Despite bright spots in the mainstream media for representing race and gender diversity, like Melissa Harris-Perry on MSNBC, the output of the industry largely still appears white and male. Almost 40 percent of the U.S. identifies as nonwhite and women make up more than half of the population, yet popular media outlets largely remain homogenous. Missing diverse perspectives from the media landscape can have wide-ranging detrimental effects.

Ya Think?

Hump Day Hypocrisy Diary # 2

 2000+ Comments

From DaleJackson @aol.com

To Redeyeblog.Alabama@yahoo.com

Wednesday, 

Sent Monday August 26, 2013 at 9:04 AM

You can continue to make them all day, but you will be blocked and I will not engage you on Twitter UNTIL you acknowledge you will NOT play the "I don't understand card"...

Ignore this e-mail if you want.

Dale Jackson
PD/ Host of The Dale Jackson Show 6AM-9AMThe Attack Machine Blog
NewsTalk 770 AM/92.5 FM WVNN
Cumulus Media - Huntsville , ALdale.jackson@cumulus.com
Office:  (256) 216-0165
Fax: (256) 232-6842

This is a copy of an email I received this morning from conservative radio talk show host, and Rush Limbaugh wannabe, Dale "Jackson" informing me he is still standing in the Blogosphere Door and preventing me from commenting unless I bow down to his demand and admit I will NOT play the "I don't understand card"...  In other words, it's my way or the highway.  

 What exactly is playing  the "I don't understand card" you ask?   It's when a person dares ask Dale to clarify, explain or justify, his comments/point of view. You know, that thingy that usually happens during the course of a civilized, respectful, mature,  debate/discussion.

Either Dale thinks I can read his mind, knows when he's joking, or, what he's trying to say, or, he feels as if he is one who can not be questioned.

Yes, the same Dale Jackson who is accusing Huntsville City Council member Will Culver of running away from his questions,  demanding answers from high profile city officials,  and, who filed a freedom of information request with the City of Huntsville regarding the hiring of Kenneth Anderson as the Multicultural Affairs head.

What's amazing to me is the fact Dale doesn't see the gross hypocrisy of his actions. He can dish it out, because he's not government..

RT @RedEyesPage: @TheDaleJackson you can't complain about the 1st amend when you don't practice the first amend // DJ: I am not government.
— Dale Jackson (@TheDaleJackson) August 23, 2013

He can't take it because according to him,  he's press but not a journalist. Huh?

RT @RedEyesPage: @TheDaleJackson And according to you, you are "free press" // DJ: I never said I wasn't press, I am NOT a journalist.
— Dale Jackson (@TheDaleJackson) August 23, 2013

There is more than a whiff of hypocrisy.  

 Yeah! (0.00 / 0)

Figure it out...
Downrating coming in 3...2...1...
Squash dissent!

Do better. Dale, I have to say you were right - mooncat You're an entertainer son! -Parker Griffith

 This is how Dale Jackson responds to people he doesn't agree with.

Again,  I don't know Jeff Mosley, but I wish he'd spoken up for himself at the City Council Meeting, or at least had someone to speak on his behalf that doesn't censor liberal comments on his blog, screen liberal callers to his radio show,  and resort to name calling, personal attacks, and insults when the substance of his arguments fail.

"Keep in mind, this little game has a victim" and it's not Dale "Jackson"

I’m the news, I should not be….

If there was ever any doubt about the power of the press, and I don't mean the printing press, I mean the people who report the news, look no further than the latest media enabled, faux, right wing outrage, starring none other than conservative talk radio host, and Rush Limbaugh wanna be, Dale Jackson.

During the public comment portion of Thursday's Huntsville City Council meeting, Jackson, host of a conservative talk show on WVNN, alleged that Calhoun wanted a powerful African-American elected official on the faculty to help push through its plans for a larger Huntsville campus. Jackson contends that Calhoun dismissed Jeff Mosely, an instructor with "excellent" personnel evaluations, to make room for Culver.

Click and read the full timeline, much of which was complied with the "help of folks who wish to remain anonymous", complete with a copy of a letter written by Jeff Mosley, "sent to many in the 2-year college chain of command, up to the Governor", without a response.

Actually there are some valid questions and concerns surrounding this issue, however, the media has made this about conservative talk show host Dale Jackson, instead of Jeff Mosley, the expansion of Calhoun Community College into Huntsville, and the  hiring of the Director of Multicultural Affairs.  Was this a quid pro quo?

We have to question the motives and the agenda of folks who wish to remain anonymous, and conservative talk radio host......who probably just added 10% to his ratings.

I don't know Jeff Mosley, but I wish he'd spoken up for himself at the City Council Meeting, or at least had someone to speak on his behalf that doesn't censor liberal comments on his blog, screen liberal callers to his radio show,  and resort to name calling, personal attacks, and insults when the substance of his arguments fail.

Keep in mind, this is not a little game, it's about real people.  The real victims are the truth and the taxpayers.

RedEye's Week In Review

Republicans fabricated evidence on Benghazi to win a political battle with the black man in the White House

 Instead of following Rush Limbaugh’s lead and his hatred for that “negro in the White House”, Republicans should try embracing diversity, stop the obstructionism, and get back to work. President Obama is not that “Kenyan, socialist, secret Muslim, dictator” in the White House. He’s our President, elected by a majority of us Americans; one of only 6 presidents to have been elected twice with at least 51% of the popular vote. Its the will of the American people. Its time to accept it and move on. Or, you could continue down your wrong-headed path and be the best fundraisers the Democratic Party ever had. By the time you’re through, the 2014 election will look like 2006.

Over half of U.S. Households Have an Inadequate income but the media enabled, Confederacy of Dunces are focused on umbrellagate, and turning the IRS controversy into a scandal of epic proportions, instead of telling we the public what we need to know instead of what they don't want us to know.

Today's Must Read
In the South, a love a guns and a loss of life, gun violence in black and white

Between 2001 and 2010, 4,519 people were killed by guns here, more than a thousand more losses than U.S. combat troops suffered during the Iraq War. More than 75% of those victims were African-American. Haunted by the losses, members of the Black Caucus try again and again to introduce some measure of gun control legislation.
But their efforts are always thwarted while a far more powerful group of Republicans and white Democrats stokes Louisiana’s love affair with guns.

What I'm working on
With an Alabama Democratic Majority like this who needs an Alabama Republican Majority?

Stay tuned.

I Wish Y'all Compassionate, Conservative, Christians, Would Make Up Y'all's Doggone Minds!

Obama's Pastor:  God Damn America, U.S. to Blame for 9/11 ABC News

Either President Obama is a Christian who sat in Reverend Jeremiah Wrights' Trinity United Church of Christ for 20 years, or he is a Muslim who sat in Reverend Jeremiah Wrights Trinity United Church of Christ for 20 years.    Y'all can't have it both ways.

If then candidate Obama was made to denounce, repudiate and reject, Minister Louis Farrakhan's endorsement , shouldn't the republican Presidential candidates, and other high profile republicans,  be made to renounce,repudiate and reject Rush Limbaugh and others??   I'm just asking....

Psst!  Everybody knows Aborigines, I mean,  Muslim is The New "N" Word.

Most Alabama/Mississippi Voters refuse to believe President Obama is a Christian

I wonder why? 

Maybe it's because they ride around in their pick up trucks listening to a steady stream of News Talk all day, then go home and watch Faux News all night.

Maybe it's because elected officials haven't seen his birth certificate.

Maybe it's because Ronald Regan repealed the Fairness Doctrine.

Maybe it's because Bill Clinton signed the Media Consolidation Act.

Maybe it's because the media is liberal.

Maybe it's because Alabama is # 1 in education.

Maybe it's because the public airways are being used to mis inform the uninformed.

Maybe it's because of the lack of diversity in the mainstream media.

Maybe it's  the Media  making us Stupid Part II.

If it's Sunday it's time to Meet the Pest

H/T Keith Olberman Fan Page

Stop Questioning the Faith of the President just because he's an African American.  Just stop!

Game Change.  McCain's Unforgivable  Desperate Hail Mary Pass.  It was a Game Change all right (pun intended).

The Road from Selma.

Putting a Black Face on Racist Racism Redux

Heather at Crooks and Liars ask:

So what does a Republican politician do when they can't give a good answer on why they think it's acceptable to disenfranchise millions of people with a voter ID law they just sponsored? Why blame it all on a Democratic sell out and Blue Dog, Artur Davis, who was rejected by the electorate in 2010, naturally.

Putting a black face on racist, racism,  Sweet Home Alabama Style!

RICH: Well, let me just quote Artur Davis. That`s the former black congressman from Alabama. He represented Selma, represented a portion of Montgomery and a good man. But, anyway, he said I have changed my mind on voter I.D. laws. He said, I think Alabama did the right thing passing one. He went on to say he said when I was congressman, I took the path of least resistance on this subject. And without any evidence to back it up. What this is about is it`s about protecting people`s vote. If you look at our law, our law is patterned almost identical to the Georgia law. The Georgia law has already been approved by the U.S. Justice Department. There`s also been laws in Indiana and also in Rhode Island. Southern states are not the only states that are passing these laws.

Alabama Voter ID h/t Tax the Rich
Alabama voter ID registration:

Are you white?

Do you vote GOP?

Are you a racist?

Are you a bigot?
Do you listen to Rush Limbaugh or Fox news at least 10 times a week?

Do you got to an evangelical church?

Are you conservative?

If you answered NO to any of the above; you must have birth certificates of all ancestors going back 4 generations, pay a $10,000 registration fee, pick up a parking sticker that will enable you to park no closer than 6 miles from your voting precinct, and prove you are not a member of any unpatriotic organization; at which time you will be allowed to cast your vote between 3:00 a.m. and 4:15 a.m., on the day before the first Tuesday in November.

Sweet Home Alabama Media Standing with Rush

Rush Limbaugh also supports child abduction, brainwashing and war criminal Joseph Kony.  Do you?

Republican Speaker of the House and owner of WANI NewsTalk 1400  Mike Hubbard supports Rush.  Do you?

Stand for some body's daughter , grand daughter, sister,  aunt, niece, cousin, neighbor, church member, student, friend instead.  Stand with someone who wasn't afraid to speak up and speak out.

Everybody knows it's the job of Rush and Company to keep the dumb, bigots dumb.  They are doing a good job.

Conservative values=standing with Ru$h?


Let's Face It;  Rush Limbaugh is a Misogynist.

Ru$h Roundup

The fallout behind Ru$h Limbaugh's nasty, mean spirited,  personal attack against Sandra Fluke continues, despite his half a$$, post advertiser bailout apology.

"My choice of words was not the best, and in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir. I sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for the insulting word choices."

Isn't it funny how the right wing, Lords of Loud, always resort to the I was just kidding, I am an entertainer line when they resort to personal attacks, name calling and insults to attack the messenger because they can't attack the message?  Pun intended.

Speaking of attacking the messenger, local radio boy and Ru$h Wanna Be, gets the award for the headline of the week:  Kathy Peterson tried to punish WVNN for nailing her.  Be sure and check out the sidebar for a list of WVNN's  advertisers and sponsors. Ru$h to the exits. Pun intended.

Why Ru$h thought he could get away with calling a young, white woman a slut and a prostitute is beyond me.  Now if he had called Shirley Sherrod, Sonia Sotomayor and President Obama racist, criticized Michelle Obama's weight,  or, mocked Malia Obama  that would have been all right.  Snark intended.

File this under "Let them reveal who they are"

"One of the things we can't do is, we can't let them distract from what we're all about, and what we're trying to accomplish. We're trying to keep the focus on comprehensive, universal health care reform, and they're going all over the place. They are desperate, uh, they don't have leadership, uh, they really don't know what to do, and so, I think we're going to continue to see a lot of crazy things happening, like all of the, uh, outrage that has been demonstrated at these town hall meetings, like the kind of statement that Congresswoman Jenkins made, and let them define themselves, let them reveal who they are. The American public needs to see that."~Representative Maxine Waters (D.CA)

Rush Limbaugh is the face of the republican party

"I still want Obama to fail"

Rush Limbaugh said he hopes the country fails?  I hope his kidneys fail.  How bout that?

Rush Limbaugh's Dominican Stag Party

Is Sandra Fluke the republican party's Monica Lewinsky?

Rush can dish it out the jokes, but he and his Minions can't take them.  Yep, they believe we the people are stuck on stoopid.   Look for a whole lot of embarrassed republicans to start calling themselves independents and moderates, claiming purity is not the goal. Snark

Has Rush met his Waterloo?

I HOPE so.

UPDATED: Limbaugh Sponsor Contact List & Petition

Rush Limbaugh called a woman who tried to testify before an all-male congressional panel a "slut" and a "prostitute." Neera Tanden of American Progress Action wrote, "He even demanded that Fluke post sex tapes online so he could watch."
Sign White House petition demanding that Rush Limbaugh be taken off Armed Forces Radio. Military rape is a huge problem. Limbaugh's misogynist tirades against women undermines military discipline and esprit de corps by influencing young men to view women in the military as sex objects instead of as their fellow unit members.
Sign the petition that you stand with this young woman being slandered by elRushBlubber.
But what did Sandra Fluke REALLY say? Read Ms. Fluke's testimony to Congress.
File a complaint with the FCC for Rush Limbaugh violating decency standards by slander and soliciting pornographic materials over the airways.
Georgetown President Calls Limbaugh "Misogynistic, Vitriolic," Supports Sandra Fluke.
Watch Sandra Fluke's interview with MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell after President Obama's call to Sandra.
Statement of Support by 250 of the faculty of Georgetown University Law Center.
Limbaugh Sponsors Contact Information:
Why? Read about it: http://bit.ly/zxLnuZ
Contact information for Limbaugh sponsors, the radio station that carries his program, and the owner of the radio station, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
Left Leaning Liberal Lady: EXPANDED List of Rush Limbaugh Show Sponsors: BOYCOTT NOW!
1.) Quicken Loans
Call (800) 610-5499
Quicken Loans Click to Chat
Quicken Loans - Main Office - Compuware 1050 Woodward Avenue Detroit, MI 48226 Client Relations - (800) 863-4332
2.) Century21
Century 21 Contact Form
Century 21 Real Estate LLC
International Headquarters
1 Campus Drive
Parsippany, NJ 07054
3.) LegalZoom
Legal Zoom Contact Form
Corporate Headquarters Address:
101 N. Brand Blvd., 11th Floor
Glendale, CA 91203
Corporate Headquarters Phone: (323) 962-8600 | Customer Support (800) 773-0888
4.) Sleep Number
Bill McLaughlin, President and CEO
Sleep Number Contact Form
Select Comfort Corporation
9800 59th Avenue North
Minneapolis, MN 55442
5.) Clear Channel Radio (radio channel Limbaugh broadcasts on):
email: publicrelations@clearchannel.com
Clear Channel Radio Contact Form: http://www.clearchannel.com/Corporate/PressRelease.aspx?PressReleaseID=1169&p=hidden
Chief Executive Officer - Bob Pittman
Chief Executive Officer, Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc. - William Eccleshare
President and CEO, Clear Channel Media and Entertainment - John Hogan
Address: 200 East Basse Road, San Antonio, TX 78209
Public Relations: (210) 822-2828 | email: publicrelations@clearchannel.com
Investor Relations: (210) 822-2828 Website email: webmaster@clearchannel.com
6.) Bain Capital (Mitt Romney's company, it owns Clear Channel Radio):
Bain Capital Contact Us
For media inquiries, please email: email: MediaPR@baincapital.com
Use the contact form to tell Mitt Romney you're outraged by Limbaugh's slanderous remarks supporting pornography.

Catching Up on the News

In case regular readers haven't noticed I didn't post a diary last week. Don't blame me. Blame Direct TV. I'm here to tell you moving with Direct TV is so NOT easy. Customers are at the mercy of under staffed Installers, who contract with Direct TV. Without Direct TV there is no cable television and no Internet, so you are basically at cut off from the outside world.

Being cut off cable television wasn't so bad, but being without the Internet was torture. I'm still playing catch up to see what's been happening in the world. I see the Talking TeeVee Pundit Heads are still talking up Rick Perry and distorting what we decide,while ignoring the right wing terrorist threat.

Gooberner Rick might want to get off the campaign trail and head on home to Texas Burning.

A very strong, cool norther blew into Texas yesterday finally bringing relief from scorching all time record triple digit temps. But it did not bring desperately needed rain and the entire state is a tinder box waiting to ignite. Well it ignited in a big way in Central Texas yesterday in and around Austin, destroying HUNDREDS of homes (at least 400 in the county of Bastrop alone), with fires still completely out of control in many areas. Evacuations are extensive.

You know we are in trouble when Democrats start referring to Social Security and Medicare as Entitlements.

"Entitlement" has a negative sound in colloquial English: somebody who is "entitled" selfishly claims something he doesn't really deserve. Why not call them "earned benefits," which is what they are because we all contribute payroll taxes to fund them? That would never occur to the Democrats. Republicans don't make that mistake; they are relentlessly on message: it is never the "estate tax," it is the "death tax."

Talking about biting off your nose to spite your face, 8 out of the 10 states with the worst economies are red, republican, confederate, slave states. Sweet Home Alabama is #5. Three out of three red, republican states almost made the cut. Maybe if democrats stopped pandering to the right and tell them like it is, voters would stop voting against their self interest.

Republicans will do whatever it takes, by any means necessary, to win. When faced with the same situation, Democrats will agonize, wring their hands, rack themselves with guilt, and seek "fairness" and "compromise." Maybe, just maybe, that's why Republicans seem to win most of the battles, while Democrats lose them.

Which brings me President Obama's upcoming address to congress, which thanks to Ru$h Limbaugh will competes with the NFL season opener. I HOPE I have Direct TV by Thursday night so I can TIVO the game. If not, I'll watch POTUS until he starts talking about compromise and bipartisanship. Here is a prep for the speech.

I will be listening to Obama’s speech. I love his use of mixed metaphors, his attempt at dazzling you with brilliance while baffling you all the while with baloney…which BTW is about the most Americans can afford nowadays. I can not wait for him to use FDR’s acronym “they hate me and I welcome that hatred” and then he will be launching his “tour” to sell his jobs program. More “change we can believe in” …we have no where to go but up….now that the August jobs report is a big fat ZERO. I can picture this… “next month I will create 1000 new jobs and every month there after”…”oops I mean 100,000 new jobs”…I think, maybe let’s hope.
“God bless America…EAT YOUR PEAS NOW!” “Oh…BTW Don’t forget to enter the drawing for dinner with the President along with a donation to my campaign”

I wonder if Florida Guverner Rick Scott is going to apologize to the welfare recipients he made undergo drug testing after he reimburses them? Naah! That would be too much like right (pun intended).

Since the state began testing welfare applicants for drugs in July, about 2 percent have tested positive, preliminary data shows.

Ninety-six percent proved to be drug free -- leaving the state on the hook to reimburse the cost of their tests.

To be continued.

The Base has left the building

President Obama's base is deserting him faster than rats leaving the Titanic. I want to blame the Presidents' staff/advisers, but in all honesty I can't because after all, he's the one who hired them.

From a press secretary who sneeringly referred to us as The Professional Left, to a Chief of Staff who called us F*cking Retards. From an Education Secretary who is against public schools and public school teachers, to advisers who made him into a their version of what the first African American President should be. A token, with no real power. Someone to make them feel good, so they could pretend we are a post racial America. Someone to lecture black folks about personal responsibility.

I'm going to assume President Obama honestly thought he would allowed to govern when he took the oath of office on that January day in 2009. I also assume he thought republicans would work with him. Little did he know Rush Limbaugh and Company were already planning his failure. Mission Accomplished. The first African American President is a failure, so we don't have to worry about this little social experiment again. I fear after President Obama, there will never be another African American President.

White people are truly scared of Obama. On one hand they are scared he might enact policies that might improve conditions for African American and be the black President for black people only. and on the other hand, they are scared he's going to exact some kind of revenge for the way blacks have been treated by the white power structure.

There is a divide within the black community regarding President Obama. Recent polling indicate his approval has dropped from 95% to 85%. During the campaign blacks were discouraged from asking about issues that affect their community.

Liberal/Progressive whites who supported the President are through too.

Ronald Reagan famously quipped that the Democratic Party left him before he left the party. Like many progressive supporters of Barack Obama, I'm beginning to have the same feeling about this president.

Consider what we've seen since the shellacking Democrats took in the fall elections.

I thought President Obama was smart and was going to surround himself with smart people. I didn't know he would be so busy trying to keep his JOB he would forget to do his job.

It's not wise to throw your base under the bus. As the young people say, you better recognize.

I've said it once and I'll say it again. President Obama needs to get control of the message. He who controls the message controls the outcome.

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

We the People can't win for the Media

If the media were liberal we wouldn't be in this mess. What liberal media do we have? Other than 1 hour each of Ed Shultz, Keith Olberman and Rachael Maddow when are true liberal voices seen or heard? Three hours out of 24 is not fair or balanced.

The majority of the Talking TeeVee Chatter Heads push the gop talking points. Example;

Howard Dean was just being interviewed on MSNBC about the tax cut package and long term deficits. He was making the basic point that upper income tax cuts do little to stimulate the economy and do add to the deficit and long term national debt. He was knocking it around with MSNBC's Chris Jansing when all of a sudden, Jansing exclaimed: Wait, since when are progressives the ones who believe in fiscal discipline and deficits?

Then we have Leslie Stall's soft ball interview of the Rep. John Bohner on 60 Minutes.

It's a shame CBS didn't show the famous video of Boehner tap-dancing around the time he was caught handing out tobacco bribes on the House floor. He may not have been compromising his principles, but what he did was far more egregious than what they're lynching Charlie Rangel for... FAR MORE EGREGIOUS. Even if it is the ultimate in DC common ground.

We can thank the Media Consolidation Act for the sad, sorry state of today's media and for our sons and daughters being sent to war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The media is used to scare the American people, or as Faux News says, distort what we decide. The media promotes selective amnesia.

People on Madison Avenue make a boatload of money figuring out how to sell crap to a bunch of people who don’t need it. I mean really do you need a 500.00 cell phone? The wing-nuts have brought those same tactics to politics and the media. They have used branding to not make the country completely conservative, just more conservative than it was 30 years ago. So now the center is no longer the center. You now have Dems espousing former wing-nut positions as if they were now mainstream and rational.

Is the Obama compromise a setup?

I think this White House has underestimated the wrath of a scorned base. I think what this White House and President failed to realize is that while he is the President of those who didn’t vote for him, he owed it to those who did vote for him to stand up for the issues they elected him to stand up for. Those who did not vote for him will never vote for him. Does he think that if he passed all of the Republican agenda that they would not run a challenger against him in 2012? The progressives have for the last two years been waiting for this White House to fight for something. It began with the stimulus package that was too small and loaded with concessions to the wing-nuts and still did not get a single wing-nut vote. Then we had health-care reform where everything was bargained away before the negotiations even begun and progressives thought at least they would fight for the public option which didn’t happen. And of course we had financial reform and again no fight.

Is President Obama afraid the media will portray him as an angry black man like they did Rev. Jeremiah Wright and scare the Bejeezus out of white folks? You know, I could understand white folks being scared of black folks if black folks had enslaved white folks for hundreds of years and had a documented history of violence towards white folks, but the truth of the matter, it's the other way around, so what are white folks scared of? They have all the privilege and the power.

Where is the diversity in the mainstream media? And NO, so called black conservatives don't count because all they do is say publicly what whites say privately. Rush, Beck and the other right wing Lords of Loud flood the public airways with misinformation.

The mainstream media yawned and marginalized Senator Bernie Sander's moment of truth.

The infamous White House/GOP tax cut deal will likely pass both the Senate and House next week and then become law. But Bernie Sanders has opened a Pandora's box of illumination that will vex the feckless, ever-retreating White House and the grossly hypocritical Republicans for some time to come.

The past is prologue.

As we pass the 10th anniversary of the Bush v. Gore decision—technically yesterday, December 12—it is interesting to note how much of our current political predicament can be discerned in the events of those days. The Bush-Gore election illustrates three key points about today’s political and media environment:

* Conservatives fight harder and dirtier for what they want than progressives.

* The mainstream media gives conservatives a pass for acting and speaking in their own political interest while criticizing progressives for the same thing.

* Conservative commentators recognize few if any boundaries in their willingness to demonize progressives, with virtually no corollary of any kind among progressives.

Quoting Democratic Alabama State Senator Hank Sanders

We see things and think they are unfair. We think they are easy to correct. We try to correct the injustice but one thing leads to another and another. Sometimes other injustices occur in the process. If it’s not one thing, it’s another.

It's the media, I won't say stupid, because we aren't stupid, the media must think we are stupid.