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Pat Buchanan Defends Tax Cuts for Private Jets and Pretends Poor People Don’t Pay Any Taxes

Click here to view this media MSNBC finally took Mark Halperin off the air for all the wrong reasons this week after he said President Obama acted like a “dick” because he dared to call out the Republicans for acting like spoiled children during these debt ceiling talks. I wonder what it would take to get this racist relic Pat Buchanan to finally leave their airways as well? The mild mannered Martin Bashir, who actually did a good job of calling out Mitch McConnell the previous day with his revisionist history on who’s to blame for our deficit skyrocketing, found himself outgunned by the volatile and aggressive Pat Buchanan during this segment where Buchanan was brought on to discuss the negotiations over raising the debt ceiling, and where Buchanan insisted that Republicans should stick to their guns no matter what and force Democrats and President Obama to accept massive budget cuts with absolutely no increases in taxes, even if those taxes are on a privileged few, like private jet owners. Here’s how that interview went down. BASHIR: Well, let’s focus for a moment on those tax hikes. The president said he wants to get rid of tax breaks for millionaires, billionaires, corporate jets, only, okay? Republicans say they’re not the only ones with so-called sacred cows that are being protected and we know that. Meanwhile it’s the everyday American that’s suffering while both sides are as it were pointing fingers at each other. So how does this situation resolve itself? Tell me. BUCHANAN: First you’re… Obama is engaged and the president I should say is engaged in class warfare in some little form of demagoguery. Now I know corporate jets are fine to make fun of. I don’t ride around on one. I’m a successful individual. If Pat Buchanan thinks getting rid of tax cuts for jet owners is class warfare, maybe someone should ask him to go read this post at Think Progress where it shows just who is actually winning that war — Since 2009, 88 Percent Of Income Growth Went To Corporate Profits, Just One Percent Went To Wages . BASHIR: We’re talking about two billion dollars, or actually around between two and three billion dollars. BUCHANAN: Let me tell you what Martin. I went down, you know when we had the famous luxury tax, I went to a boat factory in Georgia where they had working class guys who built luxury sort of big yachts, big boats for rich people. They used to build eight a year, twelve a year, they were building one. Because the luxury tax meant they moved the building to Mexico. These taxes have an impact. But let me ask you this. Is it fair? Is it just that fifty one percent of all American wage earners don’t pay a nickel, in federal income taxes. And half the nation of free loaders pays not a nickel in federal income tax. And twenty three million of them get checks, earned income tax credits they call them, from the government. You can’t carry half the nation, the one percent, you know, Morton Zuckermann can’t carry the nation on his back. If Pat Buchanan has ever spent one minute actually talking to anyone that has worked in a factory, I’d like to hear from those people he supposedly talked to. It’s really disgusting to hear him defending tax cuts for the richest among us while claiming that there are poor lazy slackers out there that don’t pay any taxes just because they don’t pay federal income tax. I already addressed this issue when Republican Jim DeMint told that same lie on Hannity’s show here — Jim DeMint Repeats the ‘Half of Americans Pay No Federal Income Tax’ Big Lie About Taxes . As I noted there, Joshua Holland wrote a great post on just how much most Americans pay in taxes and how we’ve basically got a flat tax in America right now when you look at all of the taxes Americans pay. Pat Buchanan would like to pretend that the least among us are lazy, no good, slackers that don’t want to do their share to contribute to our tax base. Shame on him and shame on MSNBC for keeping this racist liar on the air. He’s as harmful to our democracy and to what should be a press that tells us the truth instead of lying and demagoguing as anyone on our airways and if MSNBC thinks Mark Halperin should be pulled off the air for giving what might be an honest opinion of President Obama and heaven forbid using the word “dick”, it would be nice if they took another look at their pundits who regularly do a greater disservice to the American public, and that is lying to them on a daily basis. Whether it’s the likes of Buchanan and his ilk still being allowed to come on the air and lie daily or a great deal of the rest of them either playing the all sides are equal game with pundits who have little use for the truth, but political spin instead, or lies of omission where they ignore stories daily that are of national importance to viewers and fill it up with bullshit like some murder trial no one gives a damn about, MSNBC and CNN and Fox do the public a great disservice on a daily basis by calling the majority of their coverage “news.” Maybe if we somehow manage to break these companies up that are monopolizing our airways with garbage about 80 or 90% of the time plus, we’ll break that cycle, but I’ve pretty much lost hope of that happening any time soon. In the mean time, we get treated to the likes of Pat Buchanan being considered anyone the public should take seriously or listen to when this relic of a racist should have been booted off the air a long time ago and their “polite” pundit Bashir giving him a chance to repeat a whole lot of conservative talking points that go unchallenged. Shameful, just shameful. When Pat Buchanan is allowed to pretend like Mort Zuckermann of all people is carrying the weight of our tax burden on his back and he’s not immediately called out for that nonsense, you’re not watching news. You’re watching right wing propaganda. Heaven forbid the rich S.O.B. should be asked to be paying a few more dollars in taxes instead of taking it out of the hides of seniors, or in Pat’s mind, those lazy, listless tax avoiding poor who haven’t quite given enough yet so Mort Zuckermann can get his tax break to make it to The McLaughlin Group to pretend like he’s a liberal on one of their panels where Eleanore Clift gets gets beaten up on four to one by Buchanan and his friends.

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Pat Buchanan Defends Tax Cuts for Private Jets and Pretends Poor People Don’t Pay Any Taxes

Click here to view this media MSNBC finally took Mark Halperin off the air for all the wrong reasons this week after he said President Obama acted like a “dick” because he dared to call out the Republicans for acting like spoiled children during these debt ceiling talks. I wonder what it would take to get this racist relic Pat Buchanan to finally leave their airways as well? The mild mannered Martin Bashir, who actually did a good job of calling out Mitch McConnell the previous day with his revisionist history on who’s to blame for our deficit skyrocketing, found himself outgunned by the volatile and aggressive Pat Buchanan during this segment where Buchanan was brought on to discuss the negotiations over raising the debt ceiling, and where Buchanan insisted that Republicans should stick to their guns no matter what and force Democrats and President Obama to accept massive budget cuts with absolutely no increases in taxes, even if those taxes are on a privileged few, like private jet owners. Here’s how that interview went down. BASHIR: Well, let’s focus for a moment on those tax hikes. The president said he wants to get rid of tax breaks for millionaires, billionaires, corporate jets, only, okay? Republicans say they’re not the only ones with so-called sacred cows that are being protected and we know that. Meanwhile it’s the everyday American that’s suffering while both sides are as it were pointing fingers at each other. So how does this situation resolve itself? Tell me. BUCHANAN: First you’re… Obama is engaged and the president I should say is engaged in class warfare in some little form of demagoguery. Now I know corporate jets are fine to make fun of. I don’t ride around on one. I’m a successful individual. If Pat Buchanan thinks getting rid of tax cuts for jet owners is class warfare, maybe someone should ask him to go read this post at Think Progress where it shows just who is actually winning that war — Since 2009, 88 Percent Of Income Growth Went To Corporate Profits, Just One Percent Went To Wages . BASHIR: We’re talking about two billion dollars, or actually around between two and three billion dollars. BUCHANAN: Let me tell you what Martin. I went down, you know when we had the famous luxury tax, I went to a boat factory in Georgia where they had working class guys who built luxury sort of big yachts, big boats for rich people. They used to build eight a year, twelve a year, they were building one. Because the luxury tax meant they moved the building to Mexico. These taxes have an impact. But let me ask you this. Is it fair? Is it just that fifty one percent of all American wage earners don’t pay a nickel, in federal income taxes. And half the nation of free loaders pays not a nickel in federal income tax. And twenty three million of them get checks, earned income tax credits they call them, from the government. You can’t carry half the nation, the one percent, you know, Morton Zuckermann can’t carry the nation on his back. If Pat Buchanan has ever spent one minute actually talking to anyone that has worked in a factory, I’d like to hear from those people he supposedly talked to. It’s really disgusting to hear him defending tax cuts for the richest among us while claiming that there are poor lazy slackers out there that don’t pay any taxes just because they don’t pay federal income tax. I already addressed this issue when Republican Jim DeMint told that same lie on Hannity’s show here — Jim DeMint Repeats the ‘Half of Americans Pay No Federal Income Tax’ Big Lie About Taxes . As I noted there, Joshua Holland wrote a great post on just how much most Americans pay in taxes and how we’ve basically got a flat tax in America right now when you look at all of the taxes Americans pay. Pat Buchanan would like to pretend that the least among us are lazy, no good, slackers that don’t want to do their share to contribute to our tax base. Shame on him and shame on MSNBC for keeping this racist liar on the air. He’s as harmful to our democracy and to what should be a press that tells us the truth instead of lying and demagoguing as anyone on our airways and if MSNBC thinks Mark Halperin should be pulled off the air for giving what might be an honest opinion of President Obama and heaven forbid using the word “dick”, it would be nice if they took another look at their pundits who regularly do a greater disservice to the American public, and that is lying to them on a daily basis. Whether it’s the likes of Buchanan and his ilk still being allowed to come on the air and lie daily or a great deal of the rest of them either playing the all sides are equal game with pundits who have little use for the truth, but political spin instead, or lies of omission where they ignore stories daily that are of national importance to viewers and fill it up with bullshit like some murder trial no one gives a damn about, MSNBC and CNN and Fox do the public a great disservice on a daily basis by calling the majority of their coverage “news.” Maybe if we somehow manage to break these companies up that are monopolizing our airways with garbage about 80 or 90% of the time plus, we’ll break that cycle, but I’ve pretty much lost hope of that happening any time soon. In the mean time, we get treated to the likes of Pat Buchanan being considered anyone the public should take seriously or listen to when this relic of a racist should have been booted off the air a long time ago and their “polite” pundit Bashir giving him a chance to repeat a whole lot of conservative talking points that go unchallenged. Shameful, just shameful. When Pat Buchanan is allowed to pretend like Mort Zuckermann of all people is carrying the weight of our tax burden on his back and he’s not immediately called out for that nonsense, you’re not watching news. You’re watching right wing propaganda. Heaven forbid the rich S.O.B. should be asked to be paying a few more dollars in taxes instead of taking it out of the hides of seniors, or in Pat’s mind, those lazy, listless tax avoiding poor who haven’t quite given enough yet so Mort Zuckermann can get his tax break to make it to The McLaughlin Group to pretend like he’s a liberal on one of their panels where Eleanore Clift gets gets beaten up on four to one by Buchanan and his friends.

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Man Boards Flight with Someone Else’s Expired Boarding Pass and a Student ID

FBI agents arrested Nigerian man Olajide Oluwaseun Noibi Wednesday after he attempted to board a flight from Los Angeles to Atlanta after having already flown from New York to Los Angeles using an old boarding pass in someone else’s name. Noibi began his journey on June 24 at JFK International Airport in New York, where

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Just what the Doctor ordered: family theatre at its scary, exhilarating best

Punchdrunk’s new Doctor Who production at the Manchester International Festival is already the hottest ticket in town There are startled looks, anxious screams and by the end of the new, nerve-jangling Doctor Who theatre experience there will doubtless be a few sweating wrecks. The kids, however, appear to be fine. Exhilarated, smiling and fine. The theatre company Punchdrunk has opened an event that fits perfectly within the cliched bracket of “highly anticipated” and “hot ticket”; indeed demand for The Crash of the Elysium has been so high extra performances for over-13s have already been scheduled during its run at the Manchester International Festival . But this is an experience primarily aimed at the Doctor’s younger fans. Grown-ups are allowed into this performance only if accompanied by a six to 12-year-old. And thanks to an excitable party from Bridgewater primary in Little Hulton, Salford, the Guardian managed to smuggle itself into one of the previews. Punchdrunk has already established a reputation for immersive theatre with shows such as The Masque of the Red death and this Doctor Who production, a collaboration with the BBC, continues in a similar vein. Groups of 25 start their journey in a museum gallery where a kindly, beige-jacketed man called Mr Willard, the sort who always has boiled sweets in his pocket, tells us the history of the Elysium, a ship that sank mysteriously in 1888. Within minutes soldiers storm in. There’s a crisis – only we can help. Everyone is made to run outside as fast as they can, which is the moment you discover just how breathtakingly fast year six children can move. From there it’s a quick change into biohazard suits and full pelt to an exhilarating adventure that sends us back in time to save the Doctor. As in previous Punchdrunk productions, the attention to detail is impressive. The kids here are really living the experience. They are empowered: solving puzzles, guarding doors and taking decisions. One of the scariest scenes sees us trapped in a darkened corridor as a weeping angel appears to be getting ever closer. Afterwards 11-year-olds Jack, Naomi and Zoe and Luke, 10, gave their unanimous verdict – they loved it. “It was a little bit scary but cool, a good adventure,” said Jack. “I would definitely go back,” said Luke. “It was fantastic.” Even teacher Karen Pickard – who alongside a colleague and myself were berated by Captain Solomon and Corporal Albright for not being quick enough – was full of praise for the experience. “They will be talking about it for days,” she said with no discernible hint of alarm. There are undoubtedly scares but they are good scares, followed by something completely different. After a scare there might come the magic and wonder of, for example, a Victorian fairground. “We have done a lot of work to gauge the right level of scariness,” said producer Gabby Vautier. “One parent rang to say she couldn’t get her kids to sleep after they saw it but only in that they couldn’t stop talking about it.” The Crash of the Elysium has been scripted by Tom MacRae, a writer so young that “his” Doctor was Sylvester McCoy. “It is a huge logistical achievement which has meant endless refinements to get it where it is now,” he said. “It is a story for children, it’s their story. It’s about their experience of Doctor Who and how they would engage with it if they were playing in the playground or in their bedroom with their toys. Except we throw them into something so real and immersive that it’s like being in a television show, one you can touch and smell and bang on the walls. “Any kid who goes will have a day they will never, ever forget,” said MacRae. “I wish I was six.” The show is at MediaCityUK in Salford as part of the third biennial Manchester Festival, of which the Guardian is a media partner. The festival kicked off on Thursday night with the world premiere of Bjork’s new show, Biophilia, and will feature Damon Albarn’s opera Dr Dee and a new work by Victoria Wood, That Day We Sang. The Crash of the Elysium will travel to London next year as part of London 2012, the cultural festival celebrating the Olympics. Doctor Who Punchdrunk Theatre Manchester Television Science fiction Mark Brown guardian.co.uk

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8 Fascinating Facts You Probably Don’t Know About Famous Authors (PHOTOS, VIDEO))

Curiosity about great novelists has inspired me to read dozens of author biographies. I got hooked by the odd things I could discover in those books and on the web about the writers I love. I turned my obsession into this slideshow in which I collected trivia, anecdotes, oddities, coincidences, and trivial anecdotes that can be oddly coincidental. I couldn’t believe who lived next to Mark Twain or what I found out about Herman Melville. Go ahead. Click. There’s plenty in the slideshow below.

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‘The Playboy Club’ Anti-Porn Groups Boycott: Pink Cross, Morality In Media Protest NBC Show

NBC thought they’d be getting a major hit with this coming fall’s new stylized 60s drama, “The Playboy Club.” So far, the early returns have mostly involved some major controversy. Of course, when it comes to TV, the latter often leads to the former. Starring Eddie Cibrian as a shady yet charming lawyer and Amber Heard as a new employee at the original Chicago Playboy Club, the show is an hourlong drama meant to mimic the style and feel of “Mad Men.” Having already weathered the storm of KSL, a Church of Latter-day Saints-owned Salt Lake City affiliate refusing to air the show (it was eventually picked up by a MyNetworkTV affiliate in the city), NBC has been hit with concurrent protests by two religious, anti-porn groups, who are calling for viewers to sign petitions against the show’s broadcast, and promising to boycott advertising sponsors. Pink Cross, “a faith-based IRS approved 501(c)(3) public charity dedicated to reaching out to adult industry workers offering emotional, financial and transitional support,” which was founded by former adult star-turned-religiously rehabbed anti-porn crusader Shelley Lubben, is participating in an online petition against the show. “What’s shown in ‘The Playboy Club’ is not real–Playboy definitely damages people. It’s pornography, it’s sex trafficking and it exploits women,” Lubben told Fox411.com. “The series looks like it’s all cute, taking place back in the old days — it seems harmless, but then they show a quick clip of three people going at it in the bathroom. NBC is breaking the law with this show — they’re not meeting FCC standards.” Of course, NBC has released a pilot for the show and very little else, meaning that the quick clip — and the Playboy brand — is probably all Pink Cross has to go on when it comes to basing their allegations. That’s something that Morality In Media, another religious group joining Pink Cross in its protest, seemed to acknowledge in a statement. “Since the 50s, sleazy Hugh Hefner and his Playboy Magazine has pushed a philosophy which dictated that, to the ‘sophisticated man,’ the female is a mere toy to be used, abused and discarded. That philosophy has inflicted unimaginable harm to our society, now documented by years of research. The harms of pornography include addiction of children and adults, violence against women, sexual trafficking, increased child pornography, destruction of marriages, and so much more,” the group’s president, Patrick A. Trueman, said. Morality in Media is leading the War Against Illegal Pornography protest, of which Pink Cross is a part. Later in their statement, Morality in Media alleges that Playboy used to be considered “soft-core porn,” while the FCC forbids the broadcast of hardcore porn. How they expect the hardcore guideline to regulate the soft-core issue remains to be seen, though Scott Pierce, a Salt Lake City TV critic, in his response to the NBC affiliate’s refusal to air the show in that city, insisted that there is far more objectionable content on broadcast television. I can say without hesitation that every episode of “Law & Order: SVU” is more “adult” than the pilot of “The Playboy Club.” And KSL has aired almost 300 episodes of that show. … The obvious message KSL is sending is – we don’t care if a show is adult as long as it doesn’t have the word “Playboy” in the title. And if this one had been called, “The Gentleman’s Club” and didn’t have the bunny ears and tails, it would be airing on Ch. 5 this fall. Advocacy protests against television shows are a time-honored tradition, of course; it seems that each year, new shows are chosen for boycotting for their allegedly offensive material. Last season, it was an MTV adaptation of a British show, the racy, teen sex-laden “Skins,” that drew the ire of protestors, though “The Playboy Club,” with its public airwave chasteness and age of consent actors, shares little in common with that show. Still, after withering criticism and the significant loss of advertisers, MTV opted to not bring that show back for a second season. What has been left unsaid in the protests, but could be fueling the issue from within, is the “Playboy Club” cast. The show stars Eddie Cibrian, who famously had an affair with LeAnn Rimes before divorcing his wife to marry the country singer, and Amber Heard, who recently came out as a lesbian. WATCH:

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“From now until Election Day 2012 it's going to be scorched earth against any Republican who gets in the way of Barack Obama,” NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told Fox News's Molly Line on the July 1 “Fox & Friends.” This past week found Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) the target of the liberal media's attacks in part because she just formally announced her 2012 presidential candidacy but more importantly because “She's a conservative woman and that goes against the narrative of the enlightened liberal.” [see the video embedded below the page break] “Look at the coverage of Hillary Clinton,” for comparison, the Media Research Center founder noted, or how the media treated liberal African-American Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall with the savage attacks the media have gotten away with on conservative Justice Clarence Thomas. Bozell also slammed MSNBC's Chris Matthews for smearing Michele Bachmann as being pro-slavery because she is a constitutional originalist. “That the kind of low-brow MSNBC kind of coverage you get now which is just not worth our time, frankly,” he argued.

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Samsung refreshes 13-inch Series 9 laptop, adds two 11-inchers to the mix

It’s only been three months since we drooled over the thin, powerful, expertly built — and expensive! — Samsung Series 9 . Of course, that’s dog years in the world of consumer electronics — the company has just refreshed its premium 13-incher, adding a Core i7 processor option, a 256GB SSD (up from 128GB), and 6GB of RAM to the highest-end model. While Samsung was at it, it pulled an Apple, expanding its line of MacBook Air competitors to include an 11-inch model, which starts with a Core i3 processor, 64GB SSD, and 2GB of RAM. All told, you’ll find two 11-inchers and three 13-inch models, ranging in price between $1,049 and $2,049, leaving the one we reviewed three months ago $300 cheaper. Full PR and a list of basic specs after the break. Continue reading Samsung refreshes 13-inch Series 9 laptop, adds two 11-inchers to the mix Samsung refreshes 13-inch Series 9 laptop, adds two 11-inchers to the mix originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Jul 2011 15:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

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Just days before southern Sudan is poised to break away and form a new country, ending decades of civil war and bloodshed, new fighting is breaking out in the north’s Nuba Mountains along the north-south border, reports the New York Times . The Sudan government is desperate to keep the oil-rich…

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Where did Roger Ailes get the idea for Fox News? Maybe from a Nixon-era memo aptly titled “A Plan For Putting the GOP on TV,” that envisioned a kind of proto-Fox News delivering “pro-administration” news to stations around the country. The 1970 memo, which Gawker found buried in the Richard…

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