Click here to view this media Bill O’Reilly has been using his own Big Lie theories ever since the Arizona shootings to try and promote the nonsense that it’s the left that actually uses excessive and vile rhetoric much more than the right. You see up is down and red is green in the No Spin Zone. Here’s his TPM from the other day. President Obama’s approval ratings are going up, eight points in the last few weeks, according to a new Wall Street Journal poll that says 53 percent of Americans now say the president is doing a good job. Some of that improvement at least can be traced to the president’s speech last week calling for more civility in the public debate. Americans like that, but apparently the committed left has not gotten the message. On Wednesday, the House voted 245 to 189 to repeal Obamacare. The debate was intense, as it should be. But some far-left people got nasty, defying their leader, Mr. Obama: (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. ANTHONY WEINER, D-N.Y.: I want to just advise people watching at home playing that now-popular drinking game of you take a shot whenever Republicans say something that’s not true, please assign a designated driver. This is going to be a long afternoon. REP. SHEILA JACKSON LEE, D-TEXAS: This bill is constitutional and it protects the constitutional rights of those who ask the question, “Must I die? Must my child die because I am now disallowed from getting insurance.” ED SCHULTZ, MSNBC HOST: The Republicans basically, as I see it, have a pre-civil rights attitude when it comes to health care. They want to openly discriminate against people because they are sick. REP. STEVE COHEN, D-TENN.: They say it’s a government takeover of health care, a big lie, just like Goebbels. You say it enough, you repeat the lie, you repeat the lie, you repeat the lie and eventually people believe it, like blood libel. That’s the same kind of thing. The Germans said enough about the Jews and the people believed it and you had the Holocaust. (END VIDEO CLIP) “Talking Points” submits that most Americans, including Democrats, do not respect rhetoric like that. We’ve been studying the right-wing opposition to Obamacare and basically it is policy driven, that government-run health care is an intrusion on freedom, will run up the debt and will be chaotic . That’s pretty much what the Republican Party is putting out there. Once in a while, a far-right bomb-thrower in the media will make the health care debate personal, but that’s not very common. So what is President Obama to do with his left flank? He needs them in 2012, as many independent voters have abandoned him. The far left can also raise a lot of money for Mr. Obama. But there is no question that uber-liberals have been marginalized in this country, largely because of their hateful talk. The Arizona murder case proved that beyond a reasonable doubt. The question is: Can President Obama control the far left? So far he hasn’t even tried to, as far as we can see. Cindy Adams in the New York Post reported that the president did bring in some far-left people for a secret meeting in the White House, so maybe that was on the agenda, but who knows? I do, however, know this: In the end, the far left will hurt Barack Obama. And that’s “The Memo.” You’d have to have watched him all week to know how he’s set up his Big Lies, but in essence it’s that the left is to blame for the polluting the political discourse in America and the left that uses much more violent rhetoric than the right. Also, right-wing opposition to Obamacare is policy driven, that government-run health care is an intrusion on freedom, will run up the debt and will be chaotic. That’s pretty much what the Republican Party is putting out there. Once in a while, a far-right bomb-thrower in the media will make the health care debate personal, but that’s not very common. Lies don’t count like “death panels” and IRS agents coming to your door to throw you in jail if you don’t buy health insurance. Since Bill kept off the air all the insane things that were being spewed by the right from his network and from GOP politicians, how would his audience know? And Bill tells his peeps that it’s only the result of Obama’s well received Arizona speech that has his poll numbers rising when that also false. His rise started after the midterms and has continued every since. His speech obviously helped. Gallop Nov, 8th: At 47%, his latest approval rating is also near the top of the 41% to 48% range within which it has varied since August . Here’s more polling results from Real Clear Politics. The right is trying to make Rep. Cohen out to be an incessant flame thrower, but how many of you have ever even heard of the man before this week? Bill is also trying to make the case that the base of the Democratic Party is hurting Obama because they refuse to move to the right. Laura Ingraham came on next and brought up the immigration battle under George Bush between the right wing talkers, Malkinites and moderate politicians of the GOP. Bill promotes another Big Lie when he says Americans didn’t hold any animus towards Mexicans during the heated immigration debate, they just didn’t like the bill. if one thing was certain it was that the conservative movement didn’t like the bill because they didn’t like Mexicans all that much. Karl Rove tried to woo them with immigration reform, but Conservatives wouldn’t go for it.
Continue reading …Memo to NPR: This is Why We Have to Help Species Adapt to Climate Change (Audio)
January 21, 2011 No Comment
Photo: Tara and Karina Why is an NPR Host Laughing at a Pledge to Help Species Adapt to Climate Change? Because he clearly doesn’t understand the concept. This should help give us an idea of how poorly climate change and its far-reaching impacts are understood by the media. And not just the right-wing media, whose ideological opposition to policy solutions proposed thus far gives them a reason (though not justification) to dismiss global warming. No, as this clip demonstrates, even the supposedly left-leaning, scary-socialist NPR encour… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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The one, the only Next Media TV tackles the Comcast/NBC Universal merger… and MSNBC’s Hardball, Countdown, and The Rachel Maddow Show: Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : The Political Carnival Discovery Date : 21/01/2011 19:21 Number of articles : 3
Continue reading …Christiane Amanpour Spins JFK Assassination as ‘Relevant’ to ‘Political Atmosphere’ of Today
January 21, 2011 No Comment
According to ABC's Christiane Amanpour, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy is “eerily relevant” to the attempted killing of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords less than two weeks ago. Talking to President Kennedy's sister on Thursday's Nightline, she wondered if the “political atmosphere” between the two acts of violence was the same. Amanpour, the host of This Week, was highlighting the 50th anniversary of JFK's inaugural address and offered the standard liberal praise for Kennedy, asserting that his “face still has a powerful grip on the American psyche.” Interviewing Jean Kennedy Smith, the journalist connected, ” It's an episode eerily relevant today in the wake of the assassination attempt against Gabrielle Giffords less than two weeks ago .” Like many other journalists, Amanpour indicated that even if gunman Jared Loughner wasn't motivated by politics, a connection could still be made: “A congresswoman was targeted. No matter what the reason, how would you describe the atmosphere, the political atmosphere today in the country?” [See video below. MP3 audio here .]
Continue reading …Couric Frets ‘Damage’ and ‘Threat’ to ObamaCare, Relies on Ex-Clinton Accolade Cloaked as Health Expert
January 21, 2011 No Comment
In the guise of a status report on ObamaCare, Katie Couric on Thursday night derided Republican efforts to repeal it just as it’s “starting to kick in.” She pleaded for viewers to give it a chance as she rationalized “the law is vulnerable because of the complex way it tries to fold 30 million uninsured people into the system,” fretting “ damage could be inflicted by choking off funding for programs that support the law, but a greater threat is the legal storm that's brewing.” Her only expert, Dr. Atul Gawande , touted ObamaCare as “a toolbox.” Couric disingenuously described Gawande as merely “a surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and an influential voice on health care policy.” In fact, Gawande, who toiled on Gary Hart’s 1984 presidential bid and then for Al Gore’s quest in 1988 before working in Bill Clinton’s 1992 effort, oversaw a team of 75 toiling on the Clinton administration’s health care task force in 1993-94. Last year, he penned a piece for The New Yorker , “ Watching the Health-Care Vote ,” on how he brought his “fourteen-year-old son to see the vote on health reform” since it meant “hope has arrived.” Gawande revealed: “I realized I was — for just this one day — jealous of the politicians swirling in and out of the chambers,” because: [T]hey were going to take a final up or down vote on whether to embrace the principle in our country that if you are in medical need, you should be able to get quality health care without bankrupting yourself. And I was jealous of those who got to step onto the House floor, slide their identification cards into the electronic voting boxes, and, either way the tally went, make history. The bill was not remotely the kind of socialist, government take over of medicine its opponents accused it of being… The CBS Evening News story ended with Gawande’s assurance of ObamaCare’s potential if not ruined by opponents: “I have no question that we will discover ways that can control costs, improve quality of care for people. Whether we're going to take those lessons depends entirely on politics, and that's scary. That's the reality.” (The CBSNews.com online version also failed to identify Gawande’s political work and belief in ObamaCare.) Couric began by deriding the GOP/Tea Party agenda: “A move by House Republicans to repeal the law is going nowhere. Even so, they passed a resolution today directing House committees to get to work on new health reform legislation.” After one reporter expressed despair at how many supposedly can’t afford health care, another CBS reporter benignly explained how HHS is now formulating a huge regulatory regime: “The job of implementing health care reform belongs to HHS, the Department of Health and Human Services, and they have an entire new division now to do that.” Citing a poll, Couric relayed how “just 13 percent say they have seen any benefit, even though,” Couric stressed, “the most vulnerable are now protected.” But, she told viewers in pleading for them to give the law time, “it will take six more years to phase in all 91 of the law's major components.” Couric soon worried “the law is vulnerable because of the complex way it tries to fold 30 million uninsured people into the system while getting a handle on costs. By 2019,” she seriously asserted, “the law is expected to save the economy $143 billion.” Reporter Nancy Cordes described the GOP strategy: “One congressional expert that I spoke to put it this way: He said, ‘They're not going to be able to kill this bill. The best they can do right now is a series of flesh wounds.’” To which, Couric flailed: “That damage could be inflicted by choking off funding for programs that support the law, but a greater threat is the legal storm that's brewing.” “Threat,” not “opportunity.” From the Thursday, January 20 CBS Evening News , transcript provided by the MRC’s Brad Wilmouth: KATIE COURIC: And about the hot issue in Congress this week, 40 percent of Americans say the health care reform law should be repealed. That's down from 45 percent in November. A move by House Republicans to repeal the law is going nowhere. Even so, they passed a resolution today directing House committees to get to work on new health reform legislation. The vote was 253-175, with 14 Democrats joining the majority. In the meantime, the reform plan the President signed into law last year is starting to kick in. Where do things stand? Tonight we put that “In Focus.”
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enlarge LBJ – ushering in the Great Society. Click here to view this media Having won a landslide victory in the 1964 Presidential election, Lyndon Johnson was riding the crest of a very popular wave, and despite persistent and ominous signs from Vietnam, The Great Society was ready and poised to take center stage – at least for a while . And so his State of The Union on that January 4, 1965 was a message filled with promise, promises and optimism. President Johnson: “Most Americans enjoy a good life. But far too many are still trapped in poverty and idleness and fear. Let a just nation throw open to them the city of promise: –to the elderly, by providing hospital care under social security and by raising benefit payments to those struggling to maintain the dignity of their later years; –to the poor and the unfortunate, through doubling the war against poverty this year; –to Negro Americans, through enforcement of the civil rights law and elimination of barriers to the right to vote; –to those in other lands that are seeking the promise of America, through an immigration law based on the work a man can do and not where he was born or how he spells his name.” There was Medicare, Medicaid and The War on Poverty. The Civil Rights Bill was signed in June and LBJ’s popularity continued. But as successful as he was with Domestic policy, his Achilles Heel came in the area of Foreign Policy. Vietnam would eventually take over and as domestic programs were being implemented, the draft would suck most of the life out of the country in a very short time. But in January 1965 no one was really thinking about that.
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We were politely asked to keep quiet about this until today, but here’s the truth: XBMC now runs on the Apple A4, period. As in, there’s no reason why you can’t install that shiny new Apple TV 2 version of the media center software on your jailbroken iPad or iPhone 4 too. Find instructions at our more coverage link… then give the hackers and developers a cheer. XBMC comes to the iPad originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Jan 2011 21:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Following a segment on American school children learning Chinese as a second language at the end of Wednesday's CBS Evening News, anchor Katie Couric tried her hand at reciting part of her sign off in Mandarin, telling viewers, “m
Continue reading …Hmmm. Elisabeth Hasselbeck seems to have forgotten that she called Palin’s crosshairs ad ‘despicable’
January 20, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Here’s Elisabeth Hasselbeck last night on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show, making excuses for Sarah Palin and her inexcusable “crosshairs” ads after the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords, one of the ad’s targets: HANNITY: You know, I fear we are getting to the point, you can’t say anything — you can’t say war room, you can’t say targeting. You can’t, you know, say, we are going to put a bull’s-eye on a map. HASSELBECK: Yes we can say that. And I will use yes we can. And this is why I believe and I think the more that we link and say, we cannot say anything — I mean, look, I grew up in a family that was based on speak kind words as much as possible and if you don’t, apologize. Work hard and operate with integrity. That goes without saying. I think most civil people in the United States of America agree that you shouldn’t go outside of those boundaries. Right now to even say that we have to curb what we’re saying only links any rhetoric to what happened in Tucson. There’s no link. We haven’t found a link. There’s no evidence that man even watched cable news. That he heard Sarah Palin say anything or saw the map with crosshairs. None. So the more that this conversation continues, in my opinion, it is a weak link that is trying to be strengthened by the left to Sarah and this man again. And here’s Hasselbeck last March, when she agreed with her colleagues at The View that the ads were outrageous and dangerous: Click here to view this media “This hasn’t been a great week in terms of, I think, the Constitution and where it says that you’re supposed to, you know, everybody is, has a mandate to have insurance. But I think the way some Republicans are handling this is nothing more than purely despicable,” Hasselbeck said. “The names that are next to and being highlighted by those crosshairs — I think it’s an abuse of the Second Amendment. I also feel as though every single person on here is a mother, a father, a friend, a brother, a sister, and to take it to this level is — it’s disappointing to see this come from the Party, and I would hope that leaders like Sarah Palin would end this.” Joy Behar thanked her for it, shaking her hand. “Republicans are not speaking out against this and you may be the first one to do it, and I salute you, my girl.” Whoopi Goldberg would say “Republicans, whatever comes from this it’s on your heads.” Something else Hasselbeck said was just flat-out bats–t crazy: HANNITY: It is very sinister to me because I think there’s an effort here to silence opposition voices. And, you know, to exploit a tragedy within two hours the way Paul Krugman did. Now, you really point out, this guy worshipped skulls, he is an atheist, he read Mein Kampf, The Communist Manifesto and smoked dope, and never listen to talk radio according to friends and never watch political debate and hated George Bush. But the narrative has been blame conservatives. HASSELBECK: But we never heard any of that for the first four days. You know, the left wing media, unfortunately Sean, and I’ve been trying not to have to blame anybody in this situation for, you know, wrecking the American people heard by unfortunately, they were so drunk on this cocktail of trying to convict Sarah Palin, that they neglected — when I say neglect, that is with a huge bet that I will say that, neglected to give the American people information because they weren’t searching for it. They had already found their killer. They had already given a man total justification for taking a gun and taking the lives of several human beings and then trying to take the lives of more. Awful, I mean, today we are blessed with the news, right? We have great news about Giffords. And I think that that should have been their first priority, giving us the news, making sure that we understood that the rest were safe. They had the killer. But if you are a crazy person out there, and you know that you have an automatic out to blame it on a politician, what do you think you are going to do? They are lucky that not one more person went out on a spree that day. What? Excuse me? Did I hear this right? Is Hasselbeck actually claiming that the people who warned against the potential for violence being inspired by Palin’s ads were actually giving an excuse to the killer? Not only is that more outrageously speculative than anything written yet about Loughner, it points the finger right back at herself — since at the time, she was one of the people criticizing Palin for the ads. I guess Hasselbeck is blaming herself for Jared Loughner. Who’da thunk?
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On Wednesday's CBS Evening News, anchor Katie Couric was dismissive of a vote by House Republicans to repeal ObamaCare as she asked congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes: “There is no chance this repeal will succeed, it's a largely symbolic measure. So what's the point?” Cordes described it as “the first step in their long-term effort to wipe this health care law off the books.” Cordes proclaimed that “The party line vote capped a vigorous debate….In which Republicans vilified the health care law , and Democrats exalted it.” However, only seconds earlier in the report, an image appeared on screen of the House of Representatives vote tally, showing that three Democratic members of Congress joined Republicans in voting for repeal. No sound bites of those three Democrats were featured. In a brief moment of balance, Cordes noted a particularly vicious attack by Democrat Steve Cohen of Tennessee during the floor debate: “A tentative agreement to tone down the rhetoric was shattered when one Democrat likened Republican claims about the law to Nazi propaganda.” What Cordes left out was the fact that Cohen also used the phrase “blood libel” in his rant, something which CBS attacked Sarah Palin for just days earlier. On the January 13 Evening News , correspondent Chip Reid claimed that Palin “ignited a new controversy by using the term” in her Facebook video response to the Tucson shooting. As NewsBusters' Scott Whitlock reported earlier , Wednesday's NBC Nightly News skipped Cohen's outrageous comments completely. Cordes quickly went back to focusing on the tone of Republicans: “The most vocal critics of the law were the dozens of new Republican members who made repeal a top campaign promise.” She added that “Democrats called the repeal vote pure politics.” Concluding the segment, Cordes asserted the futility of the repeal effort: “House Republicans say that the law is just too flawed, that tweeks aren't enough, and that they want to draft legislation to replace it. But as long as Democrats control the Senate, neither the repeal nor the replacement have any chance of becoming law.” Here is a full transcript of the segment: 6:35PM ET KATIE COURIC: Now to a different issue involving big money. Late today, the new Republican-controlled House voted to repeal health care reform. Congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes is on Capitol Hill tonight. Nancy, there is no chance this repeal will succeed, it's a largely symbolic measure. So what's the point? NANCY CORDES: Well, Katie, Republicans will contend that this was absolutely not for show, that it was just the first step in their long-term effort to wipe this health care law off the books. UNIDENTIFIED MAN [REPUBLICAN MEMBER OF CONGRESS]: On this vote, the yeas are 245, the nos 189. The bill is passed. CORDES: The party line vote capped a vigorous debate. MICHELE BACHMANN [REP. R-MN]: ObamaCare, as we know, is the crown jewel of socialism. CORDES: In which Republicans vilified the health care law, and Democrats exalted it. MIKE PENCE [REP. R-IN]: When you order every American to buy health insurance, whether they want it or need it or not, that's a government takeover of health care. ANTHONY WEINER [REP. D-NY]: Really? Who's taking over what health care plan? Who? We're offering people tax incentives – small businesses tax incentives to go buy private insurance plans. CORDES: A tentative agreement to tone down the rhetoric was shattered when one Democrat likened Republican claims about the law to Nazi propaganda. STEVE COHEN [REP. D-TN]: You say it enough, you repeat the lie, you repeat the lie, you repeat the lie, and eventually people believe it. The Germans said enough about the Jews, and the people believed it, and you had the Holocaust. CORDES: The most vocal critics of the law were the dozens of new Republican members who made repeal a top campaign promise. TODD ROKITA [REP. R-IN]: The people of Indiana sent me to Washington D.C. with very specific instructions – get the government out of our lives. CORDES: Democrats called the repeal vote pure politics. ELIOT ENGEL [REP. D-NY]: The American people want us to work together. This is not the way to do it. If there's a problem with the bill, we should tweak it. CORDES: House Republicans say that the law is just too flawed, that tweeks aren't enough, and that they want to draft legislation to replace it. But as long as Democrats control the Senate, neither the repeal nor the replacement have any chance of becoming law. Katie. COURIC: Nancy Cordes on Capitol Hill tonight. Nancy, thank you. — Kyle Drennen is a news analyst at the Media Research Center. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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