It’s D-Day for pat-down protests and so far it looks like most people just want to get where they’re going. AP reports that waits at major airports Wednesday morning were surprisingly short—the TSA estimates 20 minutes or less. Right now the outrage over body scans and pat-downs is looking like just another media exaggeration. Unless, of course, the outraged just stayed away.
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By David Coleman What has emerged from the TSA pat-down kerfuffle is recognition that it is psychologically demeaning to be subjected to physical touching of private areas of the body by someone not invited to do so. Now, the psychological treatment of men of color is being brought home to middle American men. Related Entries November 23, 2010 While You Were Sleeping, California Made New Election Laws November 22, 2010 President Mama Grizzly?
Continue reading …Gay Censorship Update: Sex Columnist Berates CNN (on CNN) for Letting Conservatives Speak
November 24, 2010 No CommentCNN has demonstrated strongly and repeatedly that it does not believe in objectivity or fairness in reporting on homosexuality. On Tuesday's Newsroom, CNN anchor Kyra Phillips touted a new study from the leftist Southern Poverty Law Center that added some of the nation's leading social conservative groups — including the Family Research Council, Concerned Women for America, the National Organization for Marriage, the American Family Association, and the Traditional Values Coalition — to its registry of “hate groups” like the Ku Klux Klan. Phillips skipped that part, but hyped the SPLC's reading of 'hate crime' statistics with no liberal label for the group. She also invited on radical gay activist and sex columnist Dan Savage — who delighted the Left by attacking CNN (on CNN) for allowing any conservatives to speak at all on gay issues. Savage touted the new SPLC “hate” designation as a reason for CNN to ban them and their “dehumanizing rhetoric” from their network. Phillips began like she was doing an infomercial: read more
Continue reading …What Tea Party mandate? Most Americans want to keep the health care law — and expand it
November 24, 2010 No Comment
enlarge Credit: Courtesy McClatchy News Here’s a poll you won’t hear a word about at Fox News : A majority of Americans want the Congress to keep the new health care law or actually expand it, despite Republican claims that they have a mandate from the people to kill it, according to a new McClatchy-Marist poll. The post-election survey showed that 51 percent of registered voters want to keep the law or change it to do more, while 44 percent want to change it to do less or repeal it altogether. Driving support for the law: Voters by margins of 2-1 or greater want to keep some of its best-known benefits, such as barring insurers from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions. One thing they don’t like: the mandate that everyone must buy insurance. At the same time, the survey showed that a majority of voters side with the Democrats on another hot-button issue, extending the Bush era tax cuts that are set to expire Dec. 31 only for those making less than $250,000. The poll also showed the country split over ending the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy prohibiting gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military, with 47 percent favoring its repeal and 48 percent opposing it. The results signal a more complicated and challenging political landscape for Republicans in Congress than their sweeping midterm wins suggested. Party leaders call the election a mandate, and vow votes to repeal the health care law and to block an extension of middle-class tax cuts unless tax cuts for the wealthy also are extended. That kind of rubs up against the prevailing Fox narrative, to wit, “Republicans won the last election and thus everything the Tea Parties want is what Democrats and President Obama should obediently follow.” They keep claiming a mandate for the Tea Parties — whose candidates couldn’t even win most of their elections — when the evidence keeps piling up that, um, no, there’s no such mandate. Not that it will make any difference. Have you noticed how, if it isn’t on Fox, the other networks don’t cover it? Once upon a time, that was the function of the New York Times. Now Fox — an outright propaganda mill — is setting the daily news agendas. No wonder we’re in the deep kimchee.
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Click here to view this media During today’s Glenn Beck radio show Sarah had to be corrected by the host on the current hostilities between the two Koreas. CO-HOST: How would you handle a situation like the one that just developed in North Korea? PALIN: But obviously, we’ve got to stand with our North Korean allies. We’re bound to by treaty – CO-HOST: South Korean. PALIN: Eh, Yeah. And we’re also bound by prudence to stand with our South Korean allies, yes. A slip of the tongue? Maybe, maybe not. But in John Heilemann & Mark Halperin’s Game Change there was this telling point which suggests otherwise. She knew nothing. She had to be taken through World War I, World War II, the Cold War, and Palin was not aware there was a difference between North and South Korea. She continued to insist that Iraq was behind 9/11; and when her son was being sent off to Iraq, she couldn’t describe who we were fighting.
Continue reading …The DCCC has a systemic problem: I can’t believe Steve Israel is going to run the place
November 24, 2010 No CommentOur Blue America buddy Howie Klein just wrote a great investigative piece on the DCCC’s pay to play scam, which uses campaign consultants tied into members of the group: Have Contributions From Donors Been Finding Their Way Into DCCC Officials’ Pockets? Howie has the goods on the DCCC. It’s not a partisan problem, by the way; I wouldn’t doubt that this happens on the other side of the aisle too. And it might be the way that things work in Washington, but it’s just not right. I gather the Beltway media don’t have a problem with this corrupt form of government either and are comfortable with it — because, you know, that’s the way things are done in the Village — but they should. There are relationships between members of Congress and consultants that really should be outlawed in our political system. Please read the entire article . Outside of the corrupt relationships, we now also find that a Blue Dog will be heading the DCCC and not Debbie Wasserman Schultz. She was not very good overall, but she was much better than a Blue Dog will ever be. Friday Nancy Pelosi didn’t pick supposed front runner Debbie Wasserman Schultz as the next chair of the DCCC. She picked someone just as bad, Steve Israel. In fact, he’s actually worse that Wasserman Schultz in one key way. She at least supports progressive legislation. Until 2 years ago the conservative Suffolk County congressman was a member of the Blue Dog Caucus. He’s the epitome of the DLC/Third Way hack. The Washington Post describes him as someone who “joined the Blue Dog Democrats in the House and crossed party lines to support President George W. Bush on a number of key issues, most notably Bush’s 2001 tax cut package [one of only 28 mostly right wing Democrats who did] and the GOP prescription drug bill the following year. He has also espoused more hawkish views on foreign policy, voting to authorize military force in Iraq.”… read on Isn’t that just charming? There weren’t many people looking to replace Chris Van Hollen, so Israel wasn’t picked over a Progressive. I believe only three people applied for the job, but it’s still frustrating to see a Blue Dog at the helm. Especially because we need a DCCC that understands we don’t need a repeat of the failed Blue Dog experiment; we need to support candidates who will actually stand up for the party banner they got elected under. How will Israel treat Progressive members in the House in 2012? We’ll be keeping an eye out and let you know for sure.
Continue reading …ABC, CBS Inaccurately Report Pope’s Condom Remarks as ‘Change in Policy’
November 24, 2010 No CommentOn Tuesday evening, ABC and CBS furthered the mainstream media's largely inaccurate reporting on Pope Benedict XVI's recent remarks on the morality of condom use. While the pontiff stated that condoms are ” not really the way to deal with the evil of HIV infection ,” World News anchor Diane Sawyer stated that ” the Pope shifts his rules on condom use .” Evening News anchor Katie Couric labeled Benedict XVI's comment a ” historic statement ,” and trumpeted how supposedly, ” Pope Benedict says, for the first time, that condoms are okay to protect against HIV and other diseases .” Sawyer included her misleading “Pope shifts his rules on condom use” phrase as she teased the lead stories at the beginning of World News. Sixteen minutes into the half hour program, the ABC anchor introduced correspondent Dan Harris's report, who began by giving a false impression of Benedict's remarks during an interview published in book form given by German journalist Peter Seewald. An on-screen graphic proclaimed, ” A Change in Policy :” read more
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Image credit: White House As Brian has noted, In Ohio, the new Governor says “Passenger rail is not in Ohio’s future, That train is dead.” High speed rail is under attack by Republicans across the country. As people line up to get irradiated by the pornoscatter machines, or felt up by the TSA inspectors, perhaps they should give a thought to writing to the leaders they just elect… Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …Media Mostly Ignore Gore Admitting He Only Supported Ethanol Mandates to Help His Presidential Ambitions
November 24, 2010 No CommentOn Monday, NewsBusters was the first American media outlet to report Nobel laureate Al Gore's admission that he only supported ethanol mandates in the '90s because he thought it would help his presidential ambitions. As it turns out, with very few exceptions, no major news divisions thought this was at all important: read more
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Click here to view this media In an interview set to air Friday, ABC’s Barbara Walters tried and failed to pull President Barack Obama into a debate with Sarah Palin. “You may have heard that Sarah Palin told me just last week that she could beat you if she ran,” Walters told Obama . “Could she?” “You know, I don’t speculate on what’s going to happen two years from now,” Obama replied. “You will not tell me that you can beat Sarah Palin?” Walters pressed. “What I’m saying is I don’t think about Sarah Palin,” the president confessed. “Obviously Sarah Palin has a strong base of support in the Republican Party and I respect those skills,” Obama continued. “But I spend most of my time right now on how I can be the best possible president. And my attitude has always been, from the day I started this job that if I do a good job and if I’m delivering for the American people the politics will take care of itself.” “If I falter and the American people are dissatisfied, then I’ll have problems,” he said. But Obama didn’t convince Good Morning America host George Stephanopoulos. “I don’t think the president’s telling the entire truth there,” Stephanopoulos told ABC’s Robin Roberts following a clip of the Obama interview. “He thinks a little bit about Sarah Palin.” Walters had gotten the debate started in an interview with Palin that aired earlier in the week. “If you ran for president, could you beat Barack Obama?” Walters asked Palin. “I believe so,” Palin admitted. While Palin told Walters she was undecided about whether to run in 2012, the British newspaper Guardian reported Sunday that her staff has been scouting for office space in Iowa. “In the course of making arrangements for that tour, two aides organising Palin’s visit to Des Moines on November 27 told locals they were looking into office space and other logistical needs for the coming year,” the Guardian observed.
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