Tag Archives: pennsylvania

McCarthyism By Email: Fomenting Fear Of Environmentalists and Tea Partiers Alike

Posted on September 18, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

“McCarthy brandishing one of his infamous lists,” Image credit: Knowledge Rush Environmentalists in Pennsylvania may have more in common with the “Tea Party” crowd than they might like to admit. Both have been similarly spied on and reported to PA authorities as ‘security risks,’ simply because they expressed their Constitutional rights to free speech and/or to peaceful public assembly. Brian recently covered the absurd-sounding story of a Philadelphia-based ‘ security company ‘ contract with Pennsylvania’s Department of Homeland Security – prov… Read the full story on TreeHugger

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What Republicans Don’t Want Voters To Know About Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

Posted on September 14, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

When Bush pushed CAFTA through Congress, it was a very close win for the GOP's Big Business allies. The final vote was 217-215( http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2005/roll443.xml ). Although 187 Democrats voted against it– only 15 joining the Republicans in favor– Boehner, Blunt, Cantor, Ryan delivered for their corporate masters once again. For the last month Boehner has been running around the country like a bright orange chicken without a head squawking, “Where are the jobs, Mr. President?” It's an ironic question coming from one of the engineers responsible for passing trade policies that have systematically decimated the basis of America's manufacturing base. Boehner and his cronies– their wallets fat with gargantuan payoffs from outsourcers– have voted for every single bad trade bill that has ever promised to ship American jobs overseas. For Boehner to publicly ask where the jobs are is a slap in the face to every American worker and an insult to the intelligence of every Ohio voter. In the Senate, Obama looked at the exact same CAFTA bill Boehner and the Republicans did. Then-Senator Obama voted against it. ( http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?con… ) Several conservative Senate Republicans voted NO as well (John Thune, Lindsey Graham, David Vitter, Mike Enzi, Richard Shelby…) but voting to send American jobs to slave wage economies: Jim DeMint, Richard Burr, Mike DeWine, Chuck Grassley, Blanche Lincoln, John McCain, Ben Nelson and, of course Miss McConnell. All the Democrats voted against it with the exception of a small handful of corporate whores who habitually vote with the GOP against working families. But let's go back to the House for a moment, where every member has to face the voters in November. Why are Ohio voters thinking of reelecting John Boehner, who has screwed them on WTO, screwed them on CAFTA, screwed them on NAFTA and has the temerity to be boosting plans for more unbalanced trade legislation with a handful of more low-wage countries. I know he wants to destroy the standard of living of American workers and make them into serfs but who does he think will be buying American goods and services to keep our consumer-driven economy afloat if there are no decent jobs? Not everyone can be a caddy or bartender! Instead of asking Justin Coussoule for another quote about Boehner's record on jobs and how it has devastated businesses and the economy from Butler County up through Darke, Miami and Mercer, we took a look at a perfectly framed ad by Rob Miller, the former marine running against Joe “You Lie” Wilson. Although South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham warned that CAFTA would be disastrous for South Carolina's textile industry and small businesses (and voted NO), at the last minute Wilson was persuaded by Boehner's slick blandishments and voted YES, along with Gresham Barrett and Bob Inglis, both of whom have been disposed of by tea party activists. Miller's TV ad should leave Wilson reeling: ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUWs7IlR020 ) We caught up with Rob this morning and asked him if Wilson, just one Member of Congress, really hurt South Carolina with his vote. We knew the answer but we wanted to see how Rob would put it. He put it well: > When Joe Wilson went to Congress in December 2001, South Carolina’s > unemployment rate was 5.7 percent. Today, 10.8 percent of > South Carolinians are without jobs, including 112,500 people who > have lost their manufacturing jobs. > Manufacturing was the backbone of South Carolina’s economy, until > unfair trade deals like CAFTA went into effect. CAFTA sent thousands > of our jobs overseas, and people all across the state knew that > would happen before the first vote was cast. > But that didn’t stop Joe Wilson. Joe Wilson voted for CAFTA and broke > his promise to protect South Carolina’s workers, sending their jobs to > Central America. The real insult is that Joe Wilson cast the deciding > vote for CAFTA. If Wilson voted “No” CAFTA would not have passed. > It was that simple, and Joe Wilson didn’t have the courage to do what’s > right. South Carolina towns are dying– people are struggling to put > food on the table– and it all comes down to Joe Wilson turning his back > on South Carolina’s workers by voting “Yes” for CAFTA. I hope lots of Democrats watch Rob's ad. Similar ones would be especially effective against Roy Blunt (R-MO), Mike Castle (R-DE), Mark Kirk (R-IL), and John Boozman (R-AR) four particularly corrupt Wall Street darlings who are all trying to upgrade from the House to the Senate. It may also be useful for Democrats in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and New Mexico to keep in mind as Charlie Bass, Mike Fitzpatrick and Steve Pearce try to slip back into office without letting voters know they were major players in the battles to pass CAFTA and similarly toxic trade bills. added by: toyotabedzrock

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Bozell Column: A Conservative Movie Initiative

Posted on September 7, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

The midterm elections this fall will feature young people born in 1992 – in other words, four years after Ronald Reagan left office. What do they know about this man? It’s quite likely that many of them have been told of Reagan’s firm resolve to win the Cold War. But it’s also likely they haven’t learned about the Reagan budget policies that led to a historic economic recovery. Instead, liberal revisionists are working overtime to assign to the Gipper’s tax cut policies the blame for deficits on his watch. Given the disastrous performance of Barack Obama, it’s time to give this man a serious look once again. Young Hollywood director and producer Ray Griggs has made a breezy and yet substantive documentary titled “I Want Your Money” that can educate young voters on the differences between Reaganomics and Obamanomics. Some might say that Griggs is trying to become the conservative Michael Moore, but that would be unfair, since Moore’s documentaries often depart from the classification of “nonfiction.” When Moore claims health care is better in Cuba than America, or that Iraq before the Iraq war was a placid kite-flying paradise under Saddam Hussein, serious filmmakers run from him. Griggs is talking about a real, gripping American disaster: our trillion-dollar deficits under Obama and the ever-increasing weight of the national debt. Conservatives in this film are appalled by the loose spending of George W. Bush and Congress over the last decade, and correctly so. But they know Obama is making those deficit years look like a nursery-school exercise in overspending. What’s emerging now is Tea Party anger, of conservatives who’ve been pushed too hard for too long. “I Want Your Money” is stuffed with weighty conservative experts – Steve Moore, Steve Forbes, Newt Gingrich, Ed Meese, Ken Blackwell, and more. But perhaps the most affecting visuals are the old clips of Ronald Reagan, speaking so clearly about the perils of liberal profligacy. There is Reagan at the convention in Dallas in 1984 joking “We could say they spend money like drunken sailors, but that would be unfair to drunken sailors…because the sailors are spending their own money.” It also has a “BS meter” which goes berserk when Speaker Nancy Pelosi claims that the Democrats will pass the Obama agenda, including ObamaCare, with “no new deficit spending.” The film not only discusses green-eyeshade budgeting, but the larger philosophical debate between capitalism and socialism. In an animated segment, the Reagan character lectures “Obama” about what kind of productivity you would get in a classroom if everyone was awarded the same grade, no matter how serious the effort: a dramatically reduced work effort from the productive people, while the lazy students would forever be lazy. It exposes a real contrast between presidents. As experts point out in the film, Ronald Reagan used clarity to teach you about the real world. Barack Obama uses eloquence to hide what he’s doing, because if his real agenda became clear, as it did with ObamaCare, it would be opposed by the majority. Griggs found a very nice film clip of the late Nobel Prize-winning capitalist economist Milton Friedman speaking to a dark-haired Phil Donahue in 1979. Donahue proclaimed that capitalism was all about greed. Why, Friedman wondered, was it that political self-interest was so much nobler than economic self-interest? A voter born in 1992 has probably never witnessed Milton Friedman’s television work, especially his “Free to Choose” documentary series (also in those paper-stuffed things called books). This kind of exposure could cause a rediscovery, just like this year’s new interest in Friedrich Hayek’s book “Road to Serfdom.” So how will this film get into theaters, since it’s not one of those left-wing documentaries? A national effort is being organized by Motive Entertainment, the company that promoted the grassroots campaigns for “The Passion of the Christ” and the first “Chronicles of Narnia” movie. In mid-September, they’ll begin organizing private screenings to celebrate Constitution Day on September 17. From there, organizers will prepare for an October 15 theatrical launch in more than 500 theaters from coast to coast. But this campaign to show box-office appeal won’t be successful without the same grass-roots energy that mobilized the Tea Party protests. The movie trailer on YouTube has more than two million page views. If everyone who watched the trailer would turn out for the whole movie, then theater owners would have no choice but to take notice. Perhaps, then, Americans will laugh when news anchors (like CNN’s Rick Sanchez) try to describe Obama’s campaign speeches as “Reaganesque.” We can’t even find a Republican who has fully earned that grand adjective, and it certainly doesn’t fit the socialist blather of the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

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Bozell Column: A Conservative Movie Initiative

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Bozell Column: Teens and ‘Sextortion’

Posted on September 4, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Children today are often so voracious and versed in the latest communications technology that they make their parents feel like Miles Standish and Betsy Ross. Three-fourths of young people between 12 and 17 now own cell phones, reports the Pew Internet and American Life Project.  And get this: 87 percent of those who send text messages told researchers that they sleep with or next to their phones. Half of teens send 50 or more text messages a day, and one in three send more than 100, or more than 3,000 texts a month. By contrast, only 30 percent of teenagers talk on those caveman “land line” phones. But all this cell-phone (not to mention Internet) usage carries new risks – even new crimes. Last year, the hot trend was sexting – teenagers sending each other lascivious messages (and often nude or semi-nude photographs). If a teenaged boy received a nude photo of a friend and e-mailed it to buddies or posted it on a Facebook or MySpace page, there was the very real possibility of being prosecuted for distributing child pornography. Now there’s a new and related crime in the court houses. It’s called “sextortion.” Federal prosecutors and child safety advocates are warning of an upswing in online sexual blackmail. Associated Press cited a case in Indianapolis where three teenage girls with a webcam yielded to online peer pressure to flash their breasts. A week later, one Indiana girl started getting threatening e-mails that her topless image would be sent to her friends on MySpace unless she posed for more explicit photos – and even videos – for him. This girl complied with his blackmail threats twice – and then the police and federal officials stepped in and indicted a 19-year-old male in Maryland. The victims might not even be in high school yet. The New Haven Register reported police received a complaint last November involving topless photos taken via webcam of a Conneticut girl “under 15 years old.” A 17-year-old Canadian boy was arrested in Montreal for threatening to post pictures he took over a webcam connection, demanding the young girl perform sex acts in front of the camera or he would post her topless picture on Facebook. Young men are now facing years in prison for this “sextortion.” In Alabama, Jonathan Vance, 24, was sentenced to 18 years in prison in April after he confessed to sending threatening e-mails extorting nude photos from more than 50 young women in Alabama, Pennsylvania and Missouri. In Wisconsin, 18-year-old Anthony Stancl deceitfully posed as a girl on Facebook to trick high school classmates into sending him nude photos, which he then used to extort girls for sex. He received a 15-year sentence. In California, federal officials say one 31-year-old man even stooped to remotely activating some girls’ webcams without their knowledge and recorded them undressing or having sex. Teenagers are obviously more vulnerable to blackmail because most parents would be shocked to learn their children are flashing their private parts on cell phones or Internet sites. One survey found 20 percent of teenagers and 33 percent of young adults aged 20 to 26 said they had sent or posted nude or semi-nude photos of themselves. AP quoted attorney Parry Aftab to sum it all up about this growing trend of online exhibitionism: “Kids are putting their head in the lion’s mouth every time they do this.” How sad it is for teens today. Innocence is gone. It’s impossible to avoid the omnipresence of sex in our popular culture, especially youth culture. It’s one thing for teenagers to feel like they’re sexually hyperactive. It’s another for every executive making TV shows, movies, and pop songs to multiply that thought endlessly to enrich themselves.  Even sexting is a trendy TV topic. Last season on the hit Fox show “Glee,” one cheerleader boasted to another that her sex texts were impossibly hot, as if this kind of cellular titillation is what every cool cheerleader should be doing.  The entertainment industry – including the social-media websites – are forcing parents to develop a whole new sophistication, telling children that they should never submit to posing for anything that they wouldn’t want parents, teachers, and ministers to see on the Internet.  This “sextortion” trend is nastier than mere sexting, because one momentary mistake by an otherwise moral child can lead her down a path from bending to peer pressure to involuntarily becoming an online sex slave. One mistake.

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Bozell Column: Teens and ‘Sextortion’

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CNN’s Sanchez Hesitant to Blame Left for Discovery Channel Terrorist, Says ‘Most’ Think He Went ‘Too Far’

Posted on September 2, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

CNN’s Rick Sanchez, who was quick to blame Fox News for the 2009 murders of three police officers in Pennsylvania , treaded much more carefully on Wednesday’s Rick’s List as he covered the eco-terrorist who brought guns, explosives, and took hostages at Discovery Channel’s headquarters. Sanchez stated that Lee may have been ” well-meaning ,” but ” most watching this would argue he may have taken [his cause] way too far on this day ” . Most? The breaking news about James Lee’s standoff at the educational channel’s Silver Spring, Maryland dominated Sanchez’s broadcast. Twenty-five minutes into the 3 pm Eastern hour, during an interview of former hostage negotiator Tom Fuentes, the anchor summarized Lee’s manifesto: “He apparently wants the Discovery Channel…[to] broadcast certain commitments to save the planet…He’s apparently anti-war….He’s concerned about global warming, talks about Malthusian sciences, continues to come back to saving the planet.” He then asked Fuentes, “So…if you get my drift, Tom, he’s very concerned. He’s an activist, may be very well-meaning, but he’s now put himself in a situation where he, the police officers and his hostages’ lives are endangered . What do you do?” Later that hour, Sanchez again described the eco-terrorist as a mere “activist” but also added that he was a ” very dangerous man .” He also asked correspondent Josh Levs, ” How can a man claim to be for saving the planet, apparently a peace activist, so to speak, while at the same time be threatening to blow himself and other people up and carrying a handgun? ” Nine minutes into the 4 pm Eastern hour, the CNN anchor skirted giving a definitive statement on the criminality of Lee’s actions: “For those of you just now joining us, we’ve got a pretty good bead on who this guy is. We understand what his concerns have been for some time. He’s a bit of an activist, a guy who truly believes, seemingly, in his heart that he needs to do all he can to save the planet. Most watching this would argue he may have taken it way too far on this day by endangering the lives of people in this building, as he seems to be doing right now .” Eleven minutes later, Sanchez did go so far to give a negative label of the eco-terrorist’s views: SANCHEZ: You have a right to believe whatever it is you want to believe, no matter how strange. There’s people who still say that they believe that there’s all kinds of stuff going on out there that may not be true. That doesn’t lead one to believe that any- on any given day, they’re going to take a gun or explosives and walk into a building and threaten the lives of people- although, I guess you must admit that even back then, you must have been taken aback. I mean, those theories seem- I’ll just say it- weird . Just before the bottom of the hour, the anchor went even further about Lee’s manifesto: “Police are trying to talk the guy out of the building by negotiating with him, by trying to reach some conclusion with him- that he’s achieved his goal of letting the world know what his concerns are about saving the planet, which are his concerns – albeit extreme – but those are his concerns and he appears to want to make sure that those concerns are heard.” During the last ten minutes of his program, it seems that Sanchez couldn’t make up his mind about Lee. At one point, he gave the following statement: “You hear of a lot of people who have causes. This particular person’s cause is saving the planet. But it’s how he goes about it, in a very unique way – even beyond what he’s doing here today, by endangering the lives of people stuck in a building with explosives, waving a handgun with hostage s- but what he actually says in his writings, in his manifesto that have certainly perked our curiosity and yours as well.” After Levs gave more background on the eco-terrorist’s views, he replied that it was a ” paradoxical theory, while it may be, and certainly, on this night, a dangerous one as well .” Sanchez was much more definitive on April 8, 2009, after three Pittsburgh police officers were shot and killed by a crazed gunman: ” That weekend tragedy involves a man who allegedly shot and killed three police officers in cold blood. Why? Because he was convinced, after no doubt watching Fox News and listening to right-wing radio, that quote, ‘Our rights were being infringed upon .'” When several congressmen asked for extra security after threats were made against them around the time of the vote on ObamaCare in March 2010, the CNN anchor repeatedly insinuated that Republican leaders and conservative media were to blame : ” Is there a possibility that that message isn’t getting out to the American people because these crazy talk show hosts that are so right-wing are out there using the most heated language and the most heated rhetoric that does, in fact, incite people to hate? “

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CNN’s Sanchez Hesitant to Blame Left for Discovery Channel Terrorist, Says ‘Most’ Think He Went ‘Too Far’

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Maddow’s Mic Glitch Has Her Seeing Conspiracies

Posted on August 31, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Ve haf certain powers, Miz Maddow . . . In the midst of bashing Pres. Bush over Iraq this evening, Rachel Maddow’s mic went suddenly dead, forcing her MSNBC show to go to commercial. When she returned [and after paraphrasing a line from Macbeth], Maddow let it be known she was “such a conspiracy theorist” but didn’t dare tell the audience what she was thinking because “it would discredit me forever.” RACHEL MADDOW: Spreading peace and democracy.  That was the third try at made-up reasons we invaded. How’s that worked out? It’s at that point that Maddow’s mic suddenly quit. For several moments, she can be seen speaking, with no sound at all. She begins to tap her mic, and a low-quality audio can be heard. MADDOW: Are we back?  We’re not back? Well this is unusual. One, two, three, four, five. [Inaudible] conspiracy. The show had to admit temporary defeat, and cut to commercial.  When it returned . . . MADDOW: Before I was so untimely ripped from the broadcast.  It’s really weird: it’s not like I’m on a satellite feed or anything.  I’m in my home studio, in New York.  And what we lost was the hard-wired mic that pins me to the desk. It’s really weird: nothing like that’s ever happened before. I’m such a conspiracy theorist. I cannot tell you what I’m thinking right now: it would discredit me forever. But as I was saying before that thing happened . . . Rachel, we didn’t want to hit the red button, really.  But on a night of national reconciliation, for you to have criticized Pres. Obama for saying a few kind words about Pres. Bush, then compounded things with your indictment of W’s war policy, well, our itchy finger just got the better of us 😉

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Bozell Column: Brian Williams, From Musketeer to Mouseketeer

Posted on August 31, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

The fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina recalls a horror show on two levels. There’s the actual disaster which killed hundreds of people – and then there’s the media smear job on the Bush administration and first responders. No one should forget pompous grandstanders like “NBC Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams signing off three months after the floods from the Lower Ninth Ward:  “This is a neighborhood that’s been left to die.” How those network anchors loved hurricane hyperbole! Williams, for one, lectured the nation that the hurricane should “necessitate a national discussion on race, on oil, politics, class, infrastructure, the environment, and more.” He underlined that a top local radio station decided not to air President Bush’s remarks from the city since “nothing he could say could ever help them deal with the dire situation unfolding live in the streets of New Orleans, where people were still dying during his visit.” It never mattered to these nattering nabobs that, as Popular Mechanics magazine documented, Katrina spurred by far the largest and fastest rescue effort in American history, with nearly 100,000 emergency personnel arriving on the scene within three days of the storm’s landfall, rescuing an estimated 50,000 residents. Not content to attack Bush on just his own program, Williams took to comedy shows to unload more spin. He lectured to Jon Stewart on how cities less black than New Orleans would have seen a lot more helicopter rescues. Williams proudly took that attack directly to Bush three months after the storm. “After the tragedy, I heard someone ask rhetorically, ‘What if this had been Nantucket, Massachusetts, or Inner Harbor Baltimore or Chicago or Houston?’ Are you convinced the response would have been the same? Was there any social or class or race aspect to the response?” On the first anniversary of Katrina, Williams repeated the mudslinging, citing radical-left black professor Michael Eric Dyson in Bush’s face: “A lot of Americans are always going to believe that that weekend, that week, you were watching something on television other than what they were seeing, and Professor Dyson from the University of Pennsylvania said on our broadcast last night it was because of your patrician upbringing, that it’s a class issue.” Bush shot back: “Dyson doesn’t know. I don’t know Dyson, and Dyson doesn’t know me.” But Williams didn’t care. His cartoon was perfect. Williams later appeared on PBS and boasted “You can’t give distance. I don’t mean that in a Jets vs. Sharks way. I’m not an adversary.” That’s laughable. He insisted Bush “appreciates the swordfight of a crackling good conversation.” Now watch Williams “swordfight” with Barack Obama. He’s gone from musketeer to Mouseketeer. On the fifth anniversary of the hurricane, Williams deferred to the statesman before him by asking about the lack of a national conversation: “Katrina was about so many things. It was about class and race and government and the environment. Whatever happened to that national conversation we were supposed to have about it?” Is that all the toughness Williams could muster? That’s how he “crackles” now? See his crackling swordfight over the BP oil spill and Obama’s lack of effort: “It’s getting baked in a little bit in the media that BP was President Obama’s Katrina. And it’s also getting baked in that the administration was slow off the mark. Is that unfair?” What about our disastrous economy? Surely Williams would challenge Obama here. “Do you have anything new on the economy?” Instead of tough questions, Williams felt Obama’s pain that too many Americans misunderstand his religious faith: “Mr. President, you’re an American-born Christian, and yet increasing and now significant numbers of Americans in polls, upwards of a fifth of respondents, are claiming you are neither. A fifth of the people, just about, believe you’re a Muslim….This has to be troubling to you. This is, of course, all new territory for an American president.” That’s not even a question! But it’s all in a day’s shoeshine for Brian Williams. He loved slinging “racist, classist” mud on Bush, but he was so distraught by Obama’s-a-Muslim rumors that he replayed the poor-Barry exchange a second time the next night. Why is this arrogant partisan the leading evening-news anchor in America? He drew 7.2 million viewers last week, as the ratings continue to decline. That’s not unexpected when an anchorman can’t be bothered to ask tougher questions to this president than his makeup artist would.

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Bozell Column: Brian Williams, From Musketeer to Mouseketeer

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Matthews, Fineman and Robinson: Obama Wouldn’t Have Muslim Image Problem If He Had Joined A Church

Posted on August 30, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

A truly astonishing thing happened on MSNBC Monday: three devout, liberal Obama supporters said the President is responsible for people thinking he’s a Muslim. During the opening segment of “Hardball,” in a discussion about Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally and how the host and attendees view Obama’s faith, Newsweek’s Howard Fineman said, “Barack Obama probably should have joined a church here…some things in politics you have to do at least for the symbolism.” A bit later, the Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson concurred: “Howard Fineman was in the earlier segment, but I tend to agree with him. I think — I expected that when President Obama came to town, he and the family, as he said, would look around, find a church to go to and join a church and go there regularly.” Minutes later, Matthews also agreed saying, “You`re responsible for your reputation” (videos follow with transcripts and commentary): HOWARD FINEMAN, “NEWSWEEK,” MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, first of all, I think all of the people who respect Obama, the president, are relieved that Glenn Beck is just saying that he`s — that Obama is godless and not that he`s a racist. I mean, if you listen to what he was saying there, that`s what — that`s what he was saying on Fox. And what Glenn Beck was doing was letting the rally happen, and then amending his words afterwards. CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: Yes. FINEMAN: I mean, if I can use an old-fashioned analogy Richard probably is not familiar wit, in old professional wrestling, you used to have the guy who played dirty who had a razor in his trunks, and when the ref came around, he put them back in. I mean… MATTHEWS: Foreign object. FINEMAN: Yes, foreign object. And Beck was playing very rough before this peaceful rally that Richard covered. MATTHEWS: Right. FINEMAN: And that`s — that`s the game that`s being played now. And as you said in your intro, Barack Obama and his people in the White House seem to me to be curiously passive about it. They`re letting other people handle it. It`s as though the president either doesn`t believe there`s anything he can do about it or that it`s not his role to speak up for himself or to do things or say things that would disprove what they`re talking about. MATTHEWS: Well, to use a Spanish (INAUDIBLE) Richard, the old Pennsylvania expression for dirty politics was spend the first half of the campaign kicking him in the cojones, and the second half, while they`re holding their cojones in pain, talk about the future of Pennsylvania. WOLFFE: Right. MATTHEWS: That`s the oldest trick in the political book. I think he`s following it. He brings these people in with rage and hatred for Obama. Then he gives them a nice Christian, if you will, message, sort of a benediction, if you will, to send them on their way to battle against Obama. RICHARD WOLFFE: Look, it was an impressive turnout. And his comments at the rally — there was nothing wrong with them at all. It was a weird mixture, a kind of rambling thing, but… MATTHEWS: Well, what do you make of the — let`s go to the religious side of this. What — what brand of religion was it? What was it — was it revivalism? WOLFFE: Clearly, it was evangelical. MATTHEWS: Was it “Marjoe”? What was it? WOLFFE: Ironically — ironically — just to relate it to Jeremiah Wright, by the way — Jeremiah Wright is a — is a black — runs a black church within a white denomination. It is a mixture of precisely the kinds of self… MATTHEWS: Yes. WOLFFE: … lifting yourself up and coming together which, actually, this guy was talking about. FINEMAN: Can I say something here that`ll probably get me in trouble? But I`m going to say it anyway. Barack Obama probably should have joined a church here, OK? Now, I`m not excusing any of the hatred or nasty language or any of the dirty strategy that we`re talking about. But some things in politics you have to do at least for the symbolism. MATTHEWS: Yes. FINEMAN: Now, he quit the Jeremiah Wright church, OK? But he hasn`t joined any other. MATTHEWS: Yes. FINEMAN: And had he done so and if he`d done so, but especially if he`d done so… MATTHEWS: Yes. FINEMAN: … after he came to town, a lot of this stuff would never have arisen, in my view. MATTHEWS: Yes. FINEMAN: Now, I`m not taking a Pollyanna… MATTHEWS: I agree (INAUDIBLE) FINEMAN: I`m not taking a Pollyannaish… MATTHEWS: OK. FINEMAN: … -view about these people. But why not? MATTHEWS: OK… FINEMAN: I don`t get it! MATTHEWS: … the subtext… FINEMAN: I don`t get it.  At the beginning of a later segment, Matthews played a clip of Obama telling NBC’s Brian Williams on Sunday what he thinks about all the people in the country that believe he’s a Muslim. After the clip, Matthews turned to his guests:  MATTHEWS: Gene, it astounds me. It grows and grows and grows. Every time we poll, more people believe he`s a Muslim, fewer people think he`s a Christian, more people believe he was born in some other country, like Kenya. It just keeps growing. Can he knock it down with this kind of disdainful comment, just knock it by saying these people are crazy, basically? EUGENE ROBINSON, “WASHINGTON POST,” MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, you know, it hasn`t worked so far. He gets criticized during the campaign for going to a specific Christian church, and now, all of a sudden, people are saying that he`s a Muslim. And this number continues to be high and arguably grows. I mean, Howard Fineman was in the earlier segment, but I tend to agree with him. I think — I expected that when President Obama came to town, he and the family, as he said, would look around, find a church to go to and join a church and go there regularly. MATTHEWS: Don`t they do that? I guess not. ROBINSON: No, they have… MATTHEWS: Not that there… (CROSSTALK) MATTHEWS: There`s a performance aspect to American religious life, let`s face it. ROBINSON: Well, there is, and… (CROSSTALK) MATTHEWS: … social event. ROBINSON: And that`s what I expected them to do. And I think had they done that, this issue wouldn`t be… MATTHEWS: Gene, Gene, Gene… (CROSSTALK) MATTHEWS: Before we leave you, I — do we — so we`re not getting the usual Monday morning picture of the president coming out of a church, usually a Protestant church, with a Bible in his hand or a missal or something in his hand, not…  Matthews then played a clip of Beck on “Fox News Sunday” telling Chris Wallace the problems he has with the President’s faith. At its conclusion, Matthews turned to his guests:  MATTHEWS: Wow. It really is getting personal. We`re getting a religious test thrown at — we`re not supposed to have religious tests. There`s Beck applying one.   ROBINSON: Yes. First of all, we would flunk Glenn Beck on his theology exam, number one. He`s not much of a theologian. Second, what is ironic about this whole nonissue is that at least in my experience, to the extent that I know the president, he seems to be a man of great faith, of real and genuine faith. He talks about his faith and the faith of his family and how it sustains him and how it sustains him in difficult moments.   (CROSSTALK)    ROBINSON: And so yet that doesn`t come across…    (CROSSTALK)    MATTHEWS: It doesn`t come across.    (CROSSTALK)    MATTHEWS: By the way, the role of a politician is to lead.    DAVID CORN: It`s not the president`s job.    (CROSSTALK)    MATTHEWS: No, it is the president`s job.    (CROSSTALK)    CORN: Not to talk about salvation.    (CROSSTALK)    CORN: It`s not his job to talk about salvation. And you know what? Today, I got a couple press releases from fundamentalist Christian groups on the right attacking because they believe Mormons are not true Christians. So, once we get into this game, no one — no one should cast ones.    (CROSSTALK)    MATTHEWS: OK. Let me reeducate you, as if you guys need it, or anybody watching doesn`t know this rule. You`re responsible for your reputation. And if people are painting a picture, whether it`s swift-boating or whatever nonsense they`re putting out about you, Michael Dukakis taught us this back, what, 20, 30 years ago. They can say all these terrible things about you. If you let them stick, that`s your problem. It may not be morally your problem, but it`s politically your problem. We`re not saying the president should be talking about his religion publicly to anybody. We`re saying it`s hurting him.  As hard as it is for me to admit it, these three liberals were all right for a change. The President of the United States has a more powerful bully pulpit to speak from than anyone on the planet. By not joining a new church when he moved to our nation’s capital, he foolishly left himself open for religious questioning. That he and his administration have sat back for approaching two years and allowed the narrative to be led by others shows a tremendous lack of leadership skills on their part. Much more surprising is that liberals like Matthews, Fineman, and Robinson would admit it with cameras rolling. I guess this is an indication of just how poorly Obama is doing as President when some of his biggest supporters in the media are starting to publicly voice their displeasure with him.

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Matthews, Fineman and Robinson: Obama Wouldn’t Have Muslim Image Problem If He Had Joined A Church

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To Al Gore: I’m planning a march in DC

Posted on August 28, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Today marks the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr's, “I Have A Dream Speech.” But that isn't really what concerns those gathering in Washington Dc today. What concerns them is that they are for the most part angry white people looking to even the score for what they see as being stuck with a black president. That is my view based on my observations and their own words as the crux of this so called rally put together by Fox and their poster child for dramatics, Glenn Beck. If you have any sort of knowledge of him, you will know that he is clearly an entertainer out to make money from his antics. And yet, Conservatives (and I use that word loosely because today's Conservatives are nothing like the real Conservatives of old) in droves flock to hear him toting their rifles and tea bag laden straw hats in an attempt to regain something they never had in the first place: honor. A group of people who supported stolen elections, illegal wars, wiretapping, torture, and the slow and steady degradation of the very constitution they claim to hold so very dear to their hearts… all while secretly fuming at those who they think have gotten all the breaks over them since the Civil Rights Act was passed. So they will show up in DC today to use our military (you know, the military they support so much as they watch them being sent to a war for oil while yelling Drill Baby Drill) with the secret corporate backing they got to spread their subtle message at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial where MLK jr. stood all those years ago to truly speak of justice, peace, and equality. Imagine that then we got him, now we get Sarah Palin daring to stand on those steps after just supporting the N word being shouted on Dr. Laura's radio rant trying to make us believe she has a connection at all to the Civil Rights Movement. We truly have gone through the looking glass. Now, I find their rally to be stomach turning and a clear slap in the face to the many Americans who suffered the inhumanities that come with standing up for what you believe in. And yet, this is America, a country where even one who makes your blood boil and your stomach turn has the right to spout their hatred and false concern, which is what makes it such a great country. So I got to thinking; if Glenn Beck and his brigade of Grisly Mamas with a Grudge can invade Washington DC with their foolery, why can't I as a citizen get a permit and march up the stairs of the Lincoln Memorial to talk about something that truly is urgent: the continued sustainability of our planet and our species. That is truly the stuff of what a moral movement is about. And actually, he is no more important than I or any other citizen. This is America, right? So it's all settled. I am going to apply for a permit for a climate march up Pennsylvania Avenue to the stairs of the Lincoln Memorial to announce the start of the Climate Changers Movement. And the time will be spent actually disseminating information to inform and educate people about the dangers of climate change noting the real science that backs it up and not what you hear from weathermen on Sean Hannity's decrepid TV show, and what we and our Congress must do to provide a future for our children and ourselves. And I'm sure these same Conservatives would show up to that one, right? I mean after all, it is about social equality, peace, and supporting our military, because clean energy gets us off the oil that kills them in the Middle Eastern sands. Right?… uh huh. Al Gore mentioned just a couple of weeks ago that this is the movement we need, and I agree wholeheartedly. However, it seems that people are either afraid to really move on this or aren't being heard, and we don't have time to lose. So then we will have to fight fire with fire. We then need to get permit after permit after permit and continue to march, and speak, and show, and warn, and repeat, repeat, repeat the message just like they do. And I”m serious about this and am ready to take it on. So Mr. Gore if you read this, I'm here! I will write more after I know more about the planning for this, because as a citizen of this country and of the world and seeing where it is heading I can no longer abide the airwaves being taken over by inconsiderate, hypocritical, apathetic, selfish people whose only concern is their own lives over the whole. And that is all we have been getting 24/7 on our airwaves and on the Internet. It is time to change the station and for the serious people to be heard. We must move this country forward to seeing what every other country sees: that the climate crisis is a clear and present danger and threat to our health, our safety, our democracy, and our very lives and has no political, social, economic, or sexual preference. The environment is what makes our lives liveable and without it, those who stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial today who have also trashed the fact that humans actually have an impact on their planet will see their words come back to them in ways they couldn't have imagined. So they need to be educated and what better way to do so than by exercising my right as well to freedom of speech, assembly, and expression, and for a cause that I would be willing to sacrifice for. It sure will beat the caricature dramatics we have seen of late that have distracted from these very important issues we must discuss to secure a clean safe future for our children. added by: JanforGore

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Kate Plus Back to School Shopping for 8

Posted on August 21, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Filed under: Kate Gosselin , Jon & Kate , Paparazzi Photo Kate Gosselin rounded up her eight offspring to take them back to school shopping at a department store in Pennsylvania today.

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