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lapel pins 2012

Two years I quoted several conservative talking heads who were making noise about how President Obama hadn’t been wearing a flag lapel pin during the 2008 campaign, Sean Hannity said, “Why do we wear pins? Because our country was under attack…And to politicize once again the war to this extent. Well, who cares about the war? Are you proud of your country? Do you believe in America? Do you believe that America has been, continues to be the greatest force for good in this world?”

“I think it’s, you know, the greatest gift God gave us and continues to be a force for good.”

Bill O’Reilly also chimed in on this “controversy”, saying about Candidate Obama, “I didn’t take Obama’s lack of the lapel pin as anything other than he’s either too lazy … to put it on, or he doesn’t want to put it on.”

Not to be left wanting, Neal Boortz said, “I think that maybe the reason he doesn’t wear a U.S. flag on his lapel is because the U.S. flag — regardless of what he thinks — the flag of this country irritates a lot of Democrat [sic] voters.”

So, based on these conservative pundits’ views of the sacred lapel pin, what does it say about four of the Republican Tea Party (GOTP) presidential hopefuls during the last presidential debate who chose not to wear a flag?


Do they not believe in America?

Are they too lazy?


Don’t they want to wear a flag?

Did they choose not to wear a pin because they didn’t want to – in Neal Boortz’s limited opinion – “irritate a lot of Democratic [sic] voters”?

Or does the lack of a flag lapel pin only apply to someone if they’re a Democrat?

 
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Posted by on June 30, 2011 in 2012 Election

 

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Any Republican running against Obama can beat him?

So, Sean Hannity said yesterday (19 May 11) on his radio show, that “any of the Republicans” running, or thinking about running, against Obama can beat him … spit take – clean off computer keyboard and screen. Look, I know Hannity has a “special” audience dynamic to play to, but really? How about some kind of “real” analysis Sean?

There is not a single GOP candidate who has said they’re running or who might run – today – who has a snow ball’s chance.

Romney and Huntsman will never win the nomination because the far-right “God fearing Christian” side of the GOTP will never nominate a Mormon.

Newt is a joke and has zero chance.

Santorum and Pawlenty are not electable … especially after Santorum’s claim that John McCain doesn’t understand “enhanced interrogation”. It’s slips like that which show how unready some of these people are for the big leagues.

Would love to see Palin or Bachmann jump into the race just because it would make it very “interesting” – both would be adored by the same far-right groups opposed to Romney and Huntsman – but please, these two are the best and the brightest women in the Republican party? Palin can’t name a single Supreme Court case she disagrees with, and Bachmann thinks humans and dinosaurs coexisted together? Neither is remotely electable.

Whoever runs for the GOTP in 2012 is little more than a sacrificial lamb – which is why Huckabee dropped out, and shows he’s a lot smarter than I ever gave him credit …

The latest polling numbers against GOTP contenders shows the President ahead by double digits against everyone one of the GOTP contenders:

Obama 52 Romney 40

Obama 53 Gingrich 35

Obama 52 Pawlenty 38

Obama 51 Daniels 33

Obama 54 Palin 35

Obama 54 Bachmann 33

Obama 51 Huntsman 31

Even in polling by Rasmussen, none of the current crop even comes close, and when Ron Paul is running around talking about legalizing heroin and prostitution, yeah he’ll play well in Peoria …

 
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Posted by on May 20, 2011 in 2012 Election, Polls

 

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Rasmussen screws up another poll?

Latest poll numbers for the President show he’s doing a good job, except for one poll; anyone care to guess which polling group shows the exact polar opposite of five other major polling organizations? That’s right; it’s Rasmussen, the pollsters of FOX PAC!

Of polls conducted in the last week on the President’s approval:

Bloomberg = 51 approve – 43 disapprove

ABC/Washington Post = 51 approve – 45 disapprove

CNN = 50 approve – 47 disapprove

Gallup = 48 approve – 44 disapprove

Rasmussen = 42 approve – 56 disapprove

Come on guys, really? You’re going to be this transparent?

Of course, Rasmussen almost always polls significantly to the right of center. This means you can’t ever really trust Rasmussen’s polling numbers. And since Rasmussen is the exclusive poll of choice for FOX PAC, and FOX-type personalities, Rush, Hannity, O’Reilly et al, this means those viewers – or listeners – are being fed daily exactly the numbers they always want to hear; and it also means Rasmussen is never going to conduct legitimate polling because it’s never going to shoot the goose laying the golden eggs.

With the exception of the FOX PAC bought and paid for Rasmussen polling, which is so absurdly opposite everyone else numbers it’s laughable, President Obama is in very good shape midway through his first term, much better shape than Ronald Reagan was at the same midterm point when his numbers had fallen to around 40%. President Obama’s positive numbers are currently anywhere from 47% to 52%.

Sorry Rasmussen, sorry Rush, sorry FOX, perhaps you need to look at a broader demographic than polling mainly middle age to elderly, angry, white, male FOX PAC viewers.

 

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Palin Broke State Election Laws, and Won’t Prostitute Herself?

So, former Alaskan governor Palin broke state election laws in her 2006 gubernatorial campaign and was consumed by petty grievances up until she resigned?

Wow, who would’ve ever guessed any of that?

These accusations come from one of Palin’s closest former aides Frank Bailey who is writing a book about his time with the Ice Queen, the contents of which were leaked to the media and widely circulated on Friday.

The whole, sordid, nasty, open and revealing conglomeration opens with an account of Palin sending Bailey a message saying “I hate this damn job” shortly before she resigned as Alaska’s governor in July 2009, less than three years into her four-year term.

She hated her job? I find that hard to believe. What she hated was having her hind parts handed to her by the likes of Katie Couric, and then being sent back to the oblivion of the Great White North after an embarrassing run as McCain’s VP choice.

Bailey, who joined Palin’s 2006 campaign for governor and became part of her inner circle, has never before told his version of the Palin story. He wrote in the book that he and his co-authors put together the manuscript with the help of more than 60,000 e-mails he sent or received while working for Palin. In his writing, he reveals Palin, as a candidate for governor, penning letters-to-the-editor in praise of herself, to be sent under other names. It blames the candidate for inflaming, rather than ignoring, scurrilous rumors. And it quotes her pledging to avoid appearing on any network other than FOX PAC, referring to the rest as “the bad guys.”

Writing letters to the editor, by Palin, about Palin; no real surprise here, after all Queen Sarah is her biggest and most adoring fan; and choosing FOX PAC as her only outlet? Well those “bad guys” sure made her look bad didn’t they? That nefarious gang of journalistic thugs, how could you Katie? What were thinking asking a Vice-Presidential candidate to reveal what she reads, or which Supreme Court decisions she disagrees with?

According to Bailey, in a June 2009 e-mail, nearly a year after her disastrous interview with CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric, Palin is portrayed as still holding a grudge toward the broadcaster.

“She SUCKED in ratings before she stumbled upon her little gig mocking me,” Palin wrote, “She did almost lose her job before that VP interview …”

And she had to work so hard to trip you up Sarah. After all she gave you those really hard questions.

And what was the “hard” learned lesson Palin took away from her introduction to the national media? It was simple; ignore all television networks except for FOX PAC, which would later sign her as a contributor.

In announcing to aides her decision to speak only to FOX PAC, Palin described all the competing networks as “the bad guys.”

“Every time we participate with the bad guys we are telling viewers/readers: ‘go watch them! Tune in to what they have to say to bash us today!’ I can’t do that anymore,” Palin wrote. I am through with the idiots who use and abuse us — we can NOT win them over, I hate giving them ratings boosts.”

Palin concluded, “Lesson learned. Final one. Networks are not our friends. Talking to them harms my family, admin, record, reputation, Tripp, etc. No more.”

One chapter asserts Palin broke election law by coordinating with the Republican Governors Association during her 2006 campaign for governor. State candidates can’t team up with soft-money groups such as the Republican Governors Association, which paid for TV commercials and mailers in Alaska during the election in a purported “independent” effort, and Bailey swears the allegation was true. Palin and her aides marched along the block in front of the hotel again and again in order to allow a camera operator to capture footage for the ad, he said. “(Palin aide) Kris Perry, when orchestrating that nutty- parade at the hotel, was following the directions of the RGA cameraman and/or whomever he was working for,” Bailey wrote.

“Far worse, Sarah conducted multiple takes and knew exactly what was happening. She had, I suddenly believed, broken the law,” Bailey wrote.

Really? Queen Sarah went after “soft” money “illegally”? Was a “poser” for a commercial, with multiple takes? Palin seems to think she, and her family, are outside the rules the rest of us are hemmed in by. Is it because she sees herself in some kind of role like a Joan of Arc?

Bailey has said that her highness is an extremely paranoid individual who trusts no one, not the media, not the Democratic Party, but more especially, not even her fellow Republicans whom she attacked in a scathing e-mail in June 2009.

It seems when the GOTP couldn’t confirm that her majesty would attend a fund raising event, the TPGOP congressional campaign committees rescinded its invitation for her to speak in favor of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Palin reacted by typing a contemptuous assessment of the former speaker and the national party to her team in which she credited God for keeping her away from the Washington fundraiser.

“Yes, (Newt/GOP) are egotistical, narrow-minded machine goons … but all the more reason God protected me from getting up on stage in front of ,5000 political and media ‘elites’ to praise him, then it be shown across the nation.” Palin wrote in the e-mail.

“At some point Newt would have shown his true colors anyway and we would have been devastated having known we’d earlier prostituted ourselves up in front of the country introducing him and acting like that good ol’ rich white guy is the savior of the party,” she continued.

Palin went on to express another reason she was thankful to the Almighty that she wasn’t attending the fundraising gala.

“Plus, I had nothing to wear, and God knew that too. Party machinery sucks. I can’t tell you how much I hate it — nothing ever changes — we went through it before and after the VP campaign,” she wrote. “I’ve gone through it all my career. We just don’t fit into it, and maybe we should thank God for that.”

What kind of mean girl nonsense is this? She thinks she’s ready to be the President of the United States and she rants about how poor Cinderella had nothing to wear to the ball, and how since she was no longer the VP candidate, she had no fairy god mother to go out and buy her some more new threads? And, besides all that, God wanted to protect her from “prostituting” herself to the party elites? Too late! You walked on to that street corner when you accepted McCain’s “invitation” to be his running mate. But wait, perhaps I was too hasty in that assessment? Maybe she’s only “prostituted” herself to FOX PAC.

Pam Pryor, a spokeswoman for Palin’s political action committee, said she didn’t expect Palin to react. “Doubt she will respond to this kind of untruth,” Pryor said in an e-mail.

Yeah, right. She’ll respond to it alright, because her ego won’t allow her to sit quietly. She shouldn’t have responded to things that were said about the Tucson shooting, but she couldn’t resist. What makes any right minded person think she’ll keep mum on this? She’ll respond because it will put her mug back in front of the camera, and besides, when Sean Hannity calls she’ll run down the hall to her private FOX PAC studio screaming “Make up”!

 
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Posted by on February 25, 2011 in 2012 Election

 

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Attack in Arizona Result of Glib Political Speech?

This is what happens when candidates like Sharon Angle glibly talk about using “2nd Amendment remedies”, or Sarah Palin speaks about “taking aim at Democratic Members of Congress”, or “reloading”. Words have consequences, and candidates, and talk show personalities, need to remember that.

Oh look, Congresswoman Giffords has a gun site on her in this Sarah Palin poster … go figure why these kind of people pull guns and shoot members of Congress.

“Republicans don’t retreat, they reload,” Palin glibly spews at countless TPGOP rallies.

“Americans (Republicans) are going to have to start using 2nd Amendment remedies if the voters don’t get it right,” former TPGOP senate candidate Sharron Angle told a crowd at a campaign stop last fall.

This kind of speech breeds violent acts …

The attack on Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and those who were with her last month might be the work of “a single nut,” said Democratic Rep. Raul Grijalva, whose Arizona district shares Tucson with Giffords’ district. But he said the nation must assess the fallout of “an atmosphere where the political discourse is about hate, anger and bitterness.”

People like former TPGOP Congressional candidate  Jesse Kelly among them. During his campaign effort to unseat Giffords in November, Kelly held fundraisers where he urged supporters to help remove Giffords from office by joining him to shoot a fully loaded M-16 rifle. Kelly is a Marine who served in Iraq and was pictured on his website in military gear holding his automatic weapon and promoting the event. But of course Jessie Kelly doesn’t want to accept that “targeting” your opponents plays into people like this. His “honor code” as a Marine only goes so far.

Sadly one of the victims killed in the attack refused to press charges people who had threatened his life.  In 2009, Judge Roll ruled that the case Vicente v. Barnett could go forward. The $32 million lawsuit brought by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) against Arizona rancher Roger Barnett (one of those good old white, god fearing christian fellas) on behalf of 16 Mexican plaintiffs charged that the plaintiffs were assaulted, threatened, and held at gunpoint by Barnett and members of his family. After Roll’s ruling – and prompted by several talk-radio programs – he was the subject of hundreds of complaining phone calls and death threats and he and his family were under the protection of the U.S. Marshals Service for a month. Roll declined to press charges when some of those who made threats were identified.

Funny how people like Sarah Palin think its just savey political speech to “target” opponents, and to portray them as “enemies” of freedom and democracy, but those who are “targeted” as a result, men like Judge Roll, choose the higher ground and don’t press charges, and then ultimately pay for it in the end.

‎It was Giffords father, 75-year-old Spencer Giffords, who wept when asked if his 40-year-old daughter had any enemies, and answered, “Yeah,” to The New York Post, “The whole tea party.”

 
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Posted by on February 20, 2011 in Lunatics, Politics, Right Wing Radio, Tea Party

 

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FOX PAC Suddenly Silent on Reported GOTP Plans to Use “Cowardly” “Demon Pass” Rule?

With all the extensive FOX PAC coverage of the new Republican Tea Party (GOTP) House majority, isn’t it interesting that it has so far ignored the fact that Herr Boehner and company are reportedly embracing the use of the self-executing rule — commonly referred to as “deem and pass” — to mandate federal budget limits. By comparison, FOX PAC “talking heads” repeatedly attacked Democrats for even considering using the rule during the health care debate, dubbing it “demon pass” and questioning its constitutionality.

Talking Points Memo (TPM) reported that the self-executing rule, also known as “deem and pass,” was “scheduled to make its return to the Capitol Hill on January 5.” According to TPM’s Brian Beutler, “Because Democrats didn’t pass a budget, and because spending authority expires in early March, there’s a strong chance that the government will run out of money before the House and Senate agree to new spending levels. When that happens, under the new House rules, spending will continue — but at levels no higher than those chosen by the House Budget Committee chairman, Paul Ryan.

“As soon as those rules are adopted on Wednesday, Ryan’s spending levels will be considered — or “deemed” — adopted by the full House as if they’d passed a budget with a floor vote. The legislative language in the rules package holds that Ryan’s spending limits, “shall be considered as contained in a concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2011 and the submission thereof into the Congressional Record shall be considered as the completion of congressional action on a concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2011.” [Talking Points Memo, 1/4/11]

But if we travel back to the days of the great health care debate, when Democratic leaders were merely considering using it, Talking Points Memo also reported, “House Democrats were toying with using a similar process to pass health care reform. They were considering the Senate health care package, which they hated, and a package of amendments to that bill, which they liked. To square those views, they wanted to set up a procedural vote, which, if agreed to, would “deem” both bills passed at once. “Deem” and “pass.”

“This quickly became known as “Demon Pass,” or the “Slaughter Solution,” named after House Rules Chair Louise Slaughter. Republicans rebelled, and conservatives went off the deep end. Radio talk show host Mark Levin called it ‘100 times worse than Watergate.’

“Democrats eventually bowed to that pressure and decide not to use the process — known technically as “deeming,” or a “self-executing.” [Talking Points Memo, 1/4/11]”

Discussing the self-executing rule on the 16 Mar 10 edition of his show, Professor Glenn Beck asked, “How is this even constitutional?” He later wrote in his newsletter that Democrats are “slaughtering the Constitution” and that “the Constitution is being thwarted” if the health care reform legislation passes using the self-executing rule. [FOX PACs’ Glenn Beck, 3/16/11]

During the 11 Mar 10 edition of his FOX PAC show, Sean Hannity said, “The desperation among Democrats to pass this health care bill has reached new heights. Now they lacked the votes in the House to jam this bill through. So their latest solution, don’t vote at all. Now that’s what House rules chairwoman Louise Slaughter is proposing. Now she wants to create a rule that would consider the Senate bill passed and once and for all by passing a minor bill that makes corrections to the Senate bill.” [FOX PACs’ Hannity, 3/11/10 (accessed via Nexis)]

On the 17 Mar 10 edition of FOX PACs’ On the Record, host Greta Van Susteren asked Fox News contributor Dana Perino, “[T]his is a way so that the — in a sense, that the House can go back to the districts and say, Look, I didn’t vote for it because it’s just been deemed passed, right?” and later claimed, “[I]f I were a Democratic member of Congress … the last thing I would want to do is say I sort of cowardly did this deemer — this ‘deem scheme’ thing.” [FOX PACs’ On the Record, 3/17/10, via Nexis]

During an interview with former Republican Sen. Trent Lott, Neil Cavuto compared Democrats who vote for the self-executing rule as “a nefarious car salesman who says, well, yes, you bought this and you paid for this, when, in fact, you didn`t buy this and you didn’t think you paid for this, right?” [FOX PACs’ Your World, 3/15/10, via Nexis]

On 18 Mar 10, FOX PAC leprechaun Hannity criticized then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her support of “deem and pass,” calling it “unconstitutional” and suggesting that House Democrats are “bribing people.” From Hannity:

That same day’s edition of his FOX PAC show, the Beckster called for “the political game surrounding the health care bill” to be “addressed”, “The health care bill is merely a battle. And it is a huge battle. I think it may be Normandy, but it’s part of a bigger war,” Beck said.

“And the war is the fundamental transformation, or restoration of our country. That is the game that they’re playing. And while everybody is going to focus on the political game surrounding the health care bill, the Slaughter Rule, the secrecy, the arm-twisting, the bribes, the lies — these things should be addressed.” [Glenn Beck, 3/18/10, via Nexis]

On the 17 Mar 10 edition of his show, Hannity questioned the “constitutionality” of the “Slaughter rule”, “[I]f this Slaughter rule is used, they have prepared — I’ve put it up on my Web site. They have prepared a court challenge as to the constitutionality of it. There’s also been talk about the constitutionality of mandates.” [Hannity, 3/17/10, via Nexis]

On the 19 Mar 10 edition of his show, Professor Beck said, “The [health care reform] process that the president doesn’t seem to care about has been so abused the average person in America has absolutely no idea what is even happening. What has happened to our country? Is there no honor anymore?
“Yes, let’s just — let’s forget about that whole Constitution thing where it has to pass both the House and the Senate, you know, no. Let’s just instead deem that it has been passed in the House.” [Glenn Beck, 3/19/10, via Nexis]

So far, primetime FOX PAC shows have failed to cover the GOP use of the self-executing rule. A Nexis search of January programs showed no mention of the self-executing rule on any Fox News shows. Media Matters searched FOX PAC transcripts from the networks’ primetime shows from January 1 to January 7 using the search term (deem! w/5 pass! OR self-execut! OR slaughter OR without w/5 vot!). Media Matters search turned up nothing.

So, just to recap, the talking heads at FOX PAC repeatedly attacked the Democrats for simply thinking of using this. But, suddenly (cue the sound of crickets chirping) they are very silent. The GOP House is a den of hypocrites, as is FOX PAC. FOX should just change its motto to “We decide what to report, and you just listen and regurgitate it.”

(Our thanks, as always, to Media Matters for all of its awesome research)

 
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Posted by on January 8, 2011 in Constitution

 

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Some People Are Just Born to Be Slaves?


Today (8 Oct 10) I heard Rush say, and I’m not making this up, “Some people are just born to be slaves.”

I would love to be able to ask, “And who would that be Mr. Limbaugh?”

And Rush, would huff and puff for a minute, maybe smack his lips a little, and probably say something like, “Well, you know … like the Jews and the Blacks.”

I mean, what other groups could Rush be referring to? Maybe the illegal aliens working for Meg Whitman and Lou Dobbs?

Today Rush also said, “We ( meaning men) should acknowledge the “role of attractive women to bring us beer and wear sexy clothes while we watch” the NFL.

Seriously? Republican women listen to this and think it’s OK? This is talk straight out of, oh I don’t know? Straight out of some small town in the middle of Missouri? This isn’t comedy folks. This isn’t some act Rush puts on. He is a small town southern  racist and sexist.

Rush further claimed,  “I don’t know of any Republican attacks” on President Obama.

Again, seriously?

My only conclusion is Rush needs his Oxycontin induced ocular implants checked.

He – Limbaugh – regularly – as in daily – attacks the President. Hannity does it daily. Boehner does it constantly. Palin does it every time she opens her mouth. Newt, McCain, shall I go on? Rush is a liar, and unfortunately there are great groups of uneducated, unwashed masses of Tea Party far right conservatives who hang on his every word. But, fortunately, they account for a far smaller sampling of the GOP than Limbaugh will ever admit. Let’s see, on a good day, 12 million listeners out of roughly 55 million Republicans = 21%.  Less than 1/4.

 
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Posted by on October 8, 2010 in Lunatics, Politics

 

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Sean Hannity’s Show dropped after Possible Accusations of Incivility?

It’s been reported that KSL, a radio station in Utah run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, will no longer air the nationally syndicated Sean Hannity Show beginning this October, and a local ABC affiliate is reporting that people at the station had begun questioning the host’s civility recently before the programming change had been made.

ABC4 Salt Lake City reported the announcement came in light of speculation that the program was “not in line with Deseret Media Company’s mission statement that calls for civility and other ethical stances.”

While all overt signs point to it being a decision based on the desire for more local content, the Salt Lake Tribune has run a story, to which it is sticking, that Hannity’s content was a little too hot for KSL to handle: “Hannity got the ax because his mean-spirited banter was out of step with a new mission statement at LDS Church-owned media that demands its programming bring “light” and knowledge to listeners.”

Bottom line? Hannity has become so unscrupulous, and shameful, in his fact less based programming that KSL decided to drop him. You don’t drop the #1 rated show in the market simply because of a desire to run more local shows. Hannity has pushed too far to the right and too far in his incivility. The downfall of right wing radio noise won’t come from any presidential edict. It’s going to come from within.

 
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Posted by on July 5, 2010 in Right Wing Radio

 

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Numerous conservatives have approvingly cited Mao’s and other communists’ tactics too?

Recently, conservative gabsters have been falling all over themselves in their ever higher spiraling rhetoric concerning White House Communications Director Anita Dunn for stating that Chinese Communist Mao Zedong was one of her “favorite political philosophers”, but what Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, et al, have not been telling you is that numerous conservatives have also approvingly cited Mao’s and other communists’ tactics too.

During one of his recent radio programs Rush Limbaugh said, “Can you think of anybody…who would run around and start praising Mao Zedong as a role model, as a philosopher to follow? Can you think of any…who would have previously cited Stalin or Lenin or Castro? This administration idolizes all these people. I’m not suggesting they’re mass-murderers; I’m saying they envy the total control, the tyrannical control that Mao Zedong had.”

Well, yes Rush, and Virginia, I can think of numerous conservatives who have also approvingly cited Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong. Who? Which conservatives would ever quote someone like Mao?

How about GOP Candidate, decorated war hero, Arizona Senator John McCain?

During last year’s presidential campaign McCain was answering blogger’s questions, and he was asked how he was doing. “You know, in the words of Chairman Mao, it’s always darkest before it’s totally black…(laughing)…” McCain answered.

So, a GOP presidential candidate quoted Mao?

Yep, but that’s not all, former Speaker of the House, current FOX News contributor, 2012 GOP presidential hopeful and Sean Hannity political hack, Newt Gingrich quoted Mao in a May 1995 Roll Call profile saying “War is politics with blood; politics is war without blood.” Mr. Speaker, that sounds like you’re a student of a communist Chinese leader, a man responsible for killing millions.

In a 1964 essay, “The Paranoid Style in American Politics,” Richard Hofstadter wrote that Stephen C. Shadegg, adviser to Sen. Barry Goldwater during his senatorial and presidential campaigns, approvingly cited Mao and quoted him, saying that he “followed the advice of Mao” while working for Goldwater and in his other campaign work. In its obituary of Shadegg, The New York Times described him as “a political campaign manager who was regarded as the alter ego of Senator Barry Goldwater in the Senator’s unsuccessful quest for the Presidency in 1964.” The Times also reported that Shadegg “for three years wrote a nationally syndicated newspaper column that carried Senator Goldwater’s byline,” “served as Western regional director of the Goldwater forces” during his 1964 presidential campaign, and “was acknowledged as the person closest to the Senator in philosophy and as the craftsman of the Goldwater image as a staunch conservative.” (The New York Times, 5/24/90)

The man acknowledged as “the person closest to the Senator (Goldwater) in philosophy and as the craftsman of the Goldwater image as a staunch conservative” said he “followed the advice of Mao”? No one is more conservative than Barry Goldwater, and his closest advisor, even the man described as “the craftsman” of Goldwater’s “image as a staunch conservative” said he “followed the advice of Mao”? He didn’t just say he admired Mao. Nor, did he say that Mao was one of his “favorite political philosophers” but that he “followed the advice of Mao”.

But there are more conservatives who have quoted Mao.

A 1992 Seattle Times article reported that Republican strategist and former Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed said in an “interview with The Phoenix Gazette” that “Mao Tse-Tung said politics is war without bloodshed. Clearly, there are some metaphors that sit nicely with politics.”

The former head of the Christian Coalition too? Say it ain’t so! Oh yes, it’s so, and Reed also admitted to admiring the tactics of the Viet Cong as well. In The Art of Political Warfare, John J. Pitney Jr., a contributing editor to the libertarian journal Reason, wrote that Reed explained the Christian Coalition’s strategy of sometimes backing ” ‘stealth candidates’ for local office who would downplay their affiliations in order to attract broader support” by saying, “It’s like guerrilla warfare. If you reveal your location, all it does is allow your opponent to improve his artillery bearings. It’s better to move quietly, with stealth, under cover of night. … It comes down to whether you want to be the British army in the Revolutionary War or the Viet Cong. History tells us which tactic was more effective.” So, Reed quotes not only Chairman Mao, but the VC too?

Hold on to your cigar with those formerly nicotine stained fingers Rush. In his December 26, 2008, Wall Street Journal column, GOP strategists and FOX contributor Karl (spelled with a K, like Soviet spelling of Kommunism) Rove wrote that he and President Bush “recommended volumes to each other (for example, he encouraged me to read a Mao biography; I suggested a book on Reconstruction’s unhappy end.) We discussed the books and wrote thank-you notes to some authors.”

Let me get this straight, former Republican President George W. Bush suggested a biography on Mao? Not a biography of George Washington, nor of Lincoln, but of Mao? Doubtless this book was chock full of not only Mao quotes, but Mao philosophical ideas as well; but I thought that no other administration?

So, Virginia, and Rush, Sean and Glenn, not only is there a Santa Claus, but yes, conservatives have also approvingly cited Mao’s and other communists’ tactics too.

 
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Posted by on November 18, 2009 in Politics

 

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Right Wing Radio/TV Host Impotent in Congressional Race

Right-wing media types, you know, Beck, Hannity, Limbaugh, etc., tripped all over themselves endorsing and boosting the failed Conservative Party candidacy of Doug Hoffman in the race to fill a vacant seat in New York’s 23rd Congressional District, with several of them hosting Hoffman on their radio or television shows. They were all there to lend their “support”. But, with friends like these can a conservative party, much less the GOP really survive?

The whole gang was there pulling for carpet bagger Hoffman,  Glenn Beck, Lou Dobbs, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, Mike Huckabee, Michelle Malkin, and Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com. It was a rogue’s gallery. But when all is said and done, it didn’t help. The conservative, ultra ring-wing candidate lost a seat which has not been held by a member from the Democratic Party since Abraham Lincoln was President. Just as ring-wing media didn’t sway the 2006 Congressional elections, nor the 2008 Presidential election, it didn’t prove to have what it takes in the 2009 Congressional elections. Doesn’t bode well for a GOP right-wing take over of Congress next year.

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The little leprechaun Sean Hannity told Hoffman on his Fox News Television program, the night before the election, “I think this is a referendum on a lot of what’s been going on in the country, which is moving radically to the left. And I think this election is going to be watched. I hope I’m on the air this time tomorrow night and I’ll be able to declare you the winner.”

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Hosting Hoffman on the radio on November 2, Glenn “McCarthy” Beck said: “I like you. You seem like a normal guy. You seem like a nice guy. You seem like the kind of person that we need in Washington, which is just a regular person.”

dobbs-lou

On November 2, Mr. News himself Lou Dobbs said to Hoffman, “You know what’s the great — what the great thing is about the Dem — the Conservative candidate running for Congress, Doug Hoffman? He’s neither a professional politician; he’s a guy who’s just disgusted with the system, turns out he’s an accountant.” Moments later, Dobbs added: “It’s hard to believe, but it looks like he just might win. Now this is change I can believe in. If we can get some accountants, and teachers, and carpenters, and some plumbers, and some electricians, some truck drivers, some people who know how to work for a living in this country, I think I’m going to be one of the happiest guys in the entire nation.”

rush_limbaughOf course, who can forget Rush Limbaugh’s tasteful take on the NY 23rd race, and former GOP candidates Dede Scozzafava’s endorsement of Hoffman’s opponent, Bill Owens, “Scozzafava has screwed every RINO [Republican in Name Only] in the coun — we can say that she’s guilty of widespread bestiality. She has screwed every RINO in the country. Everyone can see just see how phony and dangerous they are. You know, 2010 might be a nightmare for PETA. Two animals may become extinct; RINOs and Blue Dog Democrats. Pelosi’s gonna kill off the Blue Dogs, and the conservatives are gonna finally get rid of RINOs. The American people have had enough.”

Two things are apparent now. First, the right-wing media folks don’t know near as much about politics in today’s America as they collectively think they do. Second, their endorsement appears to be the kiss of death. Whose praises were they all singing just over a year ago? Sarah somebody or other?

 
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Posted by on November 8, 2009 in Politics

 

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