Daily Archives: August 19, 2010

August 19, 2010 · 5:51 PM

Evening Roundup

Chris Hayes Calls Out the ‘Wingnut Alchemy’ of Pam Geller
While most of the media is doing their best to help t..

Will Astroturf Supplant the Mosque?
Is astroturf taking over the blessed garden of anti-mosque activism? Islam – Gardens..

Rep. Blunt pulls down campaign ad using graphic 9/11 imagery to attack..
Last night, Senate candidate Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO) posted a YouTube video to his cam..

Franken calls opposition to mosque near Ground Zero ‘one of the ..
As conservatives continue their hateful campaign against building the proposed Park ..

O’Reilly doesn’t take the DGA challenge
It will come as no surprise to learn that Bill O’Reilly was the first Fox News on-ai..

Look at the surnames
CNN profiled seven Silver Star recipients in Afghanistan — the third highest milita..

Right-wing freakout over NYC Islamic center generates flood of absurd..
In their escalating attacks on an Islamic community center in lower Manhattan, conse..

Attention TV networks: Pam Geller is lying to your viewers
Right-wing blogger Pamela Gelller has been a frequent guest on television news progr..

Shirley Sherrod Interview: Fired USDA Official Describes Her Ordeal, B..
Despite being fired by the Obama administration, condemned by the media and targeted..

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· 5:41 PM

Dave Weigel:Today in Journalism

Note the caption under the picture of Obama on the monitor at CNN’s “Situation Room”.   Weigel suggests they shouldn’t have stopped there…

Salon – Weigel

This CNN screenshot comes via Arthur Delaney:

I’m just not sure why CNN’s reporting team stopped there. They’re missing all of these potential headlines:

- W.H.: PRES. OBAMA NOT BEATING HIS WIFE

- W.H.: PRES. OBAMA ISN’T SHAPE-SHIFTING LIZARD

- W.H.: PRES. OBAMA DID NOT WRITE SEX & CITY 2 SCREENPLAY

- W.H.: PRES. OBAMA ISN’T RELATED TO WILLIE HORTON

- W.H.: PRES. OBAMA ISN’T GIVING NUCLEAR LAUNCH CODES TO KENYA

- W.H.: PRES. OBAMA DID NOT SHOOT MAN IN RENO, WATCH HIM DIE

- W.H.: PRES. OBAMA ISN’T POISONING YOUR EGGS ON PURPOSE

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· 5:11 PM

Sharron Angle Campaigned Against Black Football Jerseys On Religious Grounds: Color is ‘Thoroughly Evil’

Ok, I’m running out of patience with this woman…

The question is who’s more batshit crazy…Angle, Taitz, Bachmann or Palin?

Huffington Post

Nevada Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle once partook in a campaign against a local high school’s use of black football jerseys, arguing that the dark color was ungodly and wicked, Bill Roberts of Nevada’s Pahrump Valley Times recently reported.

It was Homecoming of 1992 and Nevada’s Tonopah High School football was seeking to depart from their school colors, specifically in wearing black jerseys instead of the usual red and white. The uniform change was meant to be a display of solidarity; the year before, the team had suffered an embarrassing loss at the hands of a rival that had, up to that point, been winless. The Homecoming game in 1992 was their chance to make up for that plaguing defeat in front of the whole school, and they wanted to do something special to build the team’s spirits.

Enter Sharron Angle and her color-crusading cohort.

While some detractors made the argument that adopting the new color was unacceptable simply as a breach of tradition, Angle — who was in the midst of an eventually successful campaign for school board — and others argued that wearing black jerseys was closer to sacrilege.

“I cannot quote scripture as they did to justify their point but the gist of their argument was that black as a color was thoroughly evil, invoking the supernatural and especially the devil,” Roberts reports. “Whichever argument prevailed, school administrators caved in and prohibited the Muckers from wearing the black apparel.”

The black uniforms were then confiscated and held under “lock and key” by the administration, which refused to compensate the team for the money they had spent acquiring the jerseys.

Though Sharron Angle sought to downplay the nearly 20-year old incident at a press conference Wednesday, claiming that she had “no recollection of the controversy or any position she may have taken,” such a stance would not be entirely uncharacteristic of the deeply religious Senate candidate that Angle has shown herself to be since capturing her primary victory in June.

From the “the beginning,” Angle has described her campaign as divinely inspired, and said in July that she believed God had called on her to run for the U.S. Senate. She has also repeatedly made clear her positions on abortion — that it shouldn’t be accepted even in the cases of rape or incest — and has expressed skepticism over the true necessity for a separation of church and state. Earlier this month, Angle painted the Democratic agenda as a “violation of the First Commandment,” because it supposedly created idolatry in making the “government our God” with entitlement programs. Just a day later, she filled out a questionnaire of her religious views that uncovered her dislike of gay adoption, her support for the clergy taking part in politics, and a promise not to take money from any PAC or corporation that supported gay rights.

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· 4:56 PM

While Demanding Muslims Be Sensitive To 9/11 Victims, Sarah Palin Defends Dr. Laura’s Racial Insensitivity

This is the woman who chooses to defend Laura Schlessinger’s ”right” to use the “n” word, by invoking Schlessinger’s First Amendment right, while in the same breath denies Muslims their fundamental First Amendment right of “freedom of religion”.

It seems the basic talking point of the right is:  “No one denies that the building project is protected by the First Amendment, the question is, having the courage to address the families of 9/11′s sensibilities…“, or words to that effect.

Juan Cole of Informed Comment breaks it down succinctly:

The right wing argues that Muslims and gays should give up their rights in deference to the moral sensibilities and emotional sensitivities of the majority. This is called a ‘tyranny of the majority’ and it is an evil of which Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and the other Founding Generation of Americans were well aware.

Think Progress

As the right-wing hysteria over the proposed Islamic center in New York gathered strength, conservative maven Sarah Palin lent her own Shakespearean creativity to the effort last month by asking the Park51 developers to “refudiate” their plans, citing the “catastrophic pain” caused by the 9/11 attacks as “too raw, too real” for an Islamic center. On Fox’s On the Record Monday, Palin reprised that sentiment in admonishing President Obama for his stance, saying the center “is an insensitive move” that “feels like a stab in the heart to, collectively, Americans who still have that lingering pain from 9/11.”

In echoing the right-wing talking point, Palin insists that sensitivity should supersede the freedoms established by the 1st Amendment. It is curious, then, that Palin should completely forget that principle when defending Dr. Laura Schlessinger’s racist rant on the N-word directed at a black woman caller last week. Taking again to her Twitter followers, Palin blamed “Constitutional obstructionists” for unfairly silencing Dr. Laura, thus removing her 1st Amendment rights. She told Dr. Laura, “don’t retreat…reload!”:

As the American Prospect’s Jamelle Bouie points out, Dr. Laura’s entire tirade this week “drip[ped] with racial animus.” Not only does Dr. Laura use the N-Word 11 times in five minutes to dismiss a caller’s concerns about the word, she uses a racist joke to prove she’s not racist, resents that only “black guys” can use the N-Word, and admonishes her caller for being “hypersensitive about color” and lacking “a sense of humor.” As Bouie says, “Dr. Laura isn’t known for her sensitivity, but this is an impressive display of raw racial resentment.”

So, in asking Dr. Laura to “reload” on such vitriol, Palin is “refudiating” the social sensitivity banner she continues to wave at Ground Zero Islamic center supporters.

 

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· 4:15 PM

A 21st Century Twist on Old Standbys: The Islamophobic Southern Strategy

A tried and true method…

Crooks & Liars

Yes. One in five Americans believes the untrue but persistent myth that President Obama is a ‘secret Muslim’. And because it’s “let’s be stupid because Congress is on recess and we like jumping over a cliff” month, the story actually gets some traction, because it was reported by the ever-vigilant Washington Post.

That the question was polled at all lends legitimacy to it. That it was reported simply offers the cynical and the stupid cover to believe what is just simply not true, not relevant, and not an issue.

Among those who say Obama is a Muslim, 60 percent say they learned about his religion from the media, suggesting that their opinions are fueled by misinformation.

That could possibly be the understatement of the century, and we’re only ten years in. The very lethal combination of Fox News, talk radio, and a timid press with no stomach to actually speak truth without some form of “balance” is whipping up a toxic bacteria which has the potential to resist any cure.

When do we stand up and say “enough”? I loved this:

Palin could post a new amendment on Twitter: “Our God is red hot; your God ain’t doodley squat.”

Via digby, Will Bunch paints a grim picture of just how dangerous this slippery slope is:

[T]he bottom line was that for many, reports that whites will be a minority of Americans by the year 2050 carried the shrill ring of an alarm bell. But this concern about the submersion of a dominant white culture in America spiked prematurely in 2008 with the political rise of Obama. In researching the book, I spoke with many conservative voters who talked of their “discomfort” the first time they watched Obama speak on television, who said that in particular they were alarmed at the future president’s use of the specific word “transformation.” These voters were egged on by political “leaders” like vice presidential candidate Palin, who didn’t just voice traditional policies differences with the Democrat but accused him of “palling around with terrorists.”

And this:

These rank-and-file citizens were often echoing what they heard in a 24/7 right-wing media bubble of ratings-driven irresponsibility — outlandish neo-McCarthyite allegations that Obama had Commies and Maoists working in the West Wing, Glenn Beck’s notorious claim that the president has “a deep-seated hatred of white people” and, perhaps more tellingly, of “white culture,” and most recently radio’s Rush Limbaugh’s bizarre charge that Obama is probably the “best anti-American president the country’s ever had.“

Continue reading…

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· 4:03 PM

Coulter claims 14th Amendment doesn’t guarantee citizenship as a birthright. A little later, Ken Starr corrects her.

Crooks & Liars 

It seems that back in 1993, Sen. Harry Reid attacked birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants, a position he later renounced and now stands thoroughly opposed to. 

But the change in position gave Ann Coulter and Bill O’Reilly a chance not just to whack Reid last night on Fox, but for Coulter — that self-described “constitutional attorney” — to claim that the 14th Amendment doesn’t really create birthright citizenship: 

 

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· 4:01 PM

Shot fired at Al Franken’s condo

Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) appears to have been a target today…

Politico

Minneapolis and Capitol Hill police are investigating a shot that was fired at the condo of Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.).

Nobody was home at the time of the incident, which was not reported until after the senator and his wife returned home  to Minneapolis after a two-day trip out of town on Tuesday and discovered the damage to their window facing the street.

Franken’s wife reported the incident to police.

“Right now it’s under investigation by the Minneapolis Police and the Capitol Hill Police,” Franken spokesman Marc Kimball told POLITICO.

Kimball said that “there was some damage to one of the window panes” in a double-paned window.

Kimball added that “nothing like this” has ever happened to the senator’s residence.

Minneapolis police have not said whether they have a suspect or if they believe Sen. Franken was specifically being targeted

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· 3:50 PM

Orly Taitz Claims That Obama Is Undermining Her Birther Case

She just doesn’t want to let go of that “fifteen minutes”…

TPM Muckraker

Birther extraordinaire Orly Taitz is still trying to have the Supreme Court reverse a $20,000 fine imposed on her by a lower judge, even after the court denied her appeal earlier this week.

Taitz has filed a “motion for reconsideration” with the court, according to documents posted on her web site, claiming that she has new evidence that President Obama is not an American citizen.

According to Taitz, there’s new evidence in the latest edition of “West Wing Week,” a lighthearted weekly video produced by the White House. In the latest edition, posted on Aug. 12, an aide shows viewers the president’s passport to answer a question about whether he gets stamps when he travels.

Taitz claims the footage proves the passport is doctored.

Further, she claims that the White House forged the passport and made the video in order to sabotage her case and “improperly influence this honorable court.”

“Obama attempted to influence the decision of this Honorable court as well as the decision of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and further persecute political dissident Attorney Dr. Orly Taitz and cause her to pay $20,000 of sanctions, endanger her law license and cause her severe emotional distress,” Taitz writes.

Taitz is fighting a $20,000 fine imposed on her last fall by a federal judge in Ohio, a judge who was frustrated with her constant frivolous lawsuits claiming Obama is not a legitimate president.

She is also asking the court to hold hearings on the president’s legitimacy and to order payment for her personal suffering.

As for the fine she has thus far refused to pay, she appealed it first to the circuit court and then to the Supreme Court. She first applied to Justice Clarence Thomas, who refused to even hear the case, then Justice Samuel Alito, who — as is standard practice at the court — forwarded it to the full court. The court denied it without comment.

Read the motion (copies of which Taitz sent to the Civil Rights Commission, the Solicitor General, and the international criminal court at The Hague):

Orly Taitz’s Motion To Reconsider

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· 3:18 PM

Jon Stewart Imitates Glenn Beck: Follow The Money…Directly From Fox To The GOP (VIDEO) | TPM LiveWire

TPM

Jon Stewart brought back his Glenn Beck impression last night to show people the connection between Fox News and Republicans. “This is going to get a little tricky,” he said, “but alright.”

 

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· 10:32 AM

More Than 30% Of Republicans Falsely Believe Obama Is Muslim (POLL)

First and foremost, this article is not intended to denigrate Islam in anyway.  Islam is a peaceful religion but has it’s extreme radicals just as most religions have.  Having said that…

I was listening to the talking heads of MSNBC this morning, discussing the latest poll that says 30% of Republicans believe Barack Obama is a Muslim.  Chuck Todd pointed out a couple of good points.

1.    The Obama/Wright controversy established that Obama and his family were Christians and attended church regularly for over 20 years.

2.   Secondly, Todd felt the media wasn’t doing enough to dispel the rumors of Obama being a Muslim.

Some others were discussing the fact that he hasn’t gone to church very regularly, while president.  In fact Matt Lauer recently did an interview with the President and asked him why he doesn’t go to church more often?  Obama answered that going to church causes too much attention and disruption, hence his hesitation.

I recalled that when Ronald Reagan was president, there was a slight brouhaha about him not attending church, also.  I researched it and found this:

President Reagan almost never left the White House to go to church, and he seldom invited a chaplain in to give services (though he attended church occasionally upon leaving office). Reagan defended religion against those who sought to purge it from public life, but he hardly wished to see Americans submit themselves to an ecclesiastical establishment.

Huffington Post

WASHINGTON — Americans increasingly are convinced – incorrectly – that President Barack Obama is a Muslim, and a growing number are thoroughly confused about his religion.

Nearly one in five people, or 18 percent, said they think Obama is Muslim, up from the 11 percent who said so in March 2009, according to a poll released Thursday. The proportion who correctly say he is a Christian is down to just 34 percent.

The largest share of people, 43 percent, said they don’t know his religion, an increase from the 34 percent who said that in early 2009.

The survey, conducted by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center and its affiliated Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, is based on interviews conducted before the controversy over whether Muslims should be permitted to construct a mosque near the World Trade Center site. Obama has said he believes Muslims have the right to build an Islamic center there, though he’s also said he won’t take a position on whether they should actually build it.

In a separate poll by Time magazine/ABT SRBI conducted Monday and Tuesday – after Obama’s comments about the mosque – 24 percent said they think he is Muslim, 47 percent said they think he is Christian and 24 percent didn’t know or didn’t respond.

In addition, 61 percent opposed building the Muslim center near the Trade Center site and 26 percent said they favor it.

The Pew poll found that about three in 10 of Obama’s fiercest political rivals, Republicans and conservatives, say he is a Muslim. That is up significantly from last year and far higher than the share of Democrats and liberals who say so. But even among his supporters, the number saying he is a Christian has fallen since 2009, with just 43 percent of blacks and 46 percent of Democrats saying he is Christian.

Among independents, 18 percent say Obama is Muslim – up from 10 percent last year.

Pew analysts attribute the findings to attacks by his opponents and Obama’s limited attendance at religious services, particularly in contrast with Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, whose worship was more public.   Continue reading…

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