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Beck-Bashing WaPo Book Critic Acts Offended, As If He Didn’t Imply Violent Tea Party Uprising

Posted on June 16, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

On his radio show, Glenn Beck responded to Washington Post book critic Steven Levingston’s audacious claim that Beck’s new novel The Overton Window may be a terrorist’s inspirational handbook. Beck objected to the idea that it’s ridiculous that Tea Party protesters would be nonviolent. “Show me the violent Tea Party, Washington Post. Show them to me.” Levingston wrote: “Molly and her crowd assert their Second Amendment right to bear arms and are well stocked with weapons. They even make their own ammunition. Their insistence on nonviolence appears as disingenuous as anything out of the mouth of their nemesis, the insidious manipulator of reality Arthur Gardner.” In response to Beck on his Political Bookworm blog , Levingston weirdly claimed Beck had taken his review out of context: Most serious among his off-the-cuff language this morning was: “The Washington Post writes as future fact that [the book] will be found in a bag of ammunition at some point after a violent shooting.” Please read the review again, Mr. Beck. Here’s what I actually wrote, as a conditional statement — not as a future fact: “If the book is found tucked into the ammo boxes of self-proclaimed patriots and recited at “tea party” assemblies, then Beck will have achieved his goal.” And where is the mention of a violent shooting? This complaint is more disingenuous than Beck’s fictional characters. Levingston’s entire review implies repeatedly, from the “ammo boxes” line forward, that Beck’s “goal” is a violent uprising. (See previous sentence about “disingenuous” nonviolence while making their own ammo.) Levingston’s somehow overlooking that he concluded the review by mentioning a violent terrorist bombing: “The Overton Window” risks falling into the tradition of other anti-government novels such as “The Turner Diaries” by William L. Pierce, which became a handbook of extremists and inspired Timothy McVeigh to blow up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995. Levington cannot be sincerely outraged that he was misinterpreted, that he didn’t insist that it’s likely (and intended) that Beck’s book will lead to dead people. PS: Time book reviewer Alex Altman also panned the Beck book, but contained his conservative-bashing within more civil boundaries: For Beck’s millions of acolytes, however, the one-dimensional characters and half-baked plot will be less important than his message, which will channel their anxieties about perceived assaults on our freedom. “Perceived” assaults on our freedom? As if conservatives are merely imagining massive government spending increases, the federal takeover of auto companies, the top-down reorganization of the health sector, and other allegedly fictional happenings.

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Perez Hilton Loses ABC Ads after Posting Miley Cyrus Upskirt Photo

Posted on June 16, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

ABC has pulled its ads from gossip blogger Perez Hilton’s Web site, PerezHilton.com, after he caught legal flack for posting upskirt photos of 17-year-old Disney star Miley Cyrus. However, several big-name companies still have ads running on the snarky blogger’s site. Amid speculation that Hilton may be slapped with kiddie-porn charges over the lurid photos, ABC has removed its ads for “The View” from the popular gossip site. But other advertisers appear to be sticking by Hilton. TV Land still had a full-page background promotion and two smaller ads on PerezHilton.com, and Apple iTunes and Microsoft’s search engine Bing still had advertisements up as of Wednesday afternoon. The drama started Monday, when Hilton posted a link to a photo of Cyrus getting out of a car in a tight white dress – and apparently, no underwear. Outrage erupted over the photo, with some calling the image “child pornography” since Cyrus is legally a minor. Hilton quickly removed the picture, but has brushed off the incident as a “fake” controversy. It’s odd that Microsoft, which owns Bing, would opt to keep advertising. It has recently been touting its own crusade against kiddie-porn. “These photos live on the Internet forever and every time they are shared or viewed, the children in them are re-victimized. It’s not enough to stop the perpetrators. The real point is getting these images off the Internet,” said Microsoft senior vice president Brad Smith at the company’s summit in late May. In 2009, Microsoft also donated a new technology to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that finds hidden photos of child sexual exploitation on the internet. Microsoft uses the technology in its own search engine, Bing. In addition, Microsoft promotes its “fight against child pornography” on its website . Apple, which owns iTunes, has been ensnared in child porn scandals in the past. Last summer, the tech giant was forced to pull an iPhone application from its iTunes store after customers were using it to upload explicit images of minors. Hilton, who has used his gossip blog to become somewhat of a celebrity himself, is no stranger to controversy. The self-proclaimed “Queen of the media” was embroiled in scandal in 2009 when he served as a judge for the Miss U.S.A. pageant and asked finalist Carrie Prejean whether she supported same-sex marriage laws. Prejean said she believe marriage should be between a man and a woman, and Hilton slammed the beauty queen as prejudiced . The blogger later flamed the controversy on, calling Prejean a “dumb bitch” and saying her “awful, awful” answer “alienated so many people.” In June of 2009, Hilton posted a video blog in which he tearfully claimed to have been assaulted by Black Eyed Peas’ operation manager Polo Molina after the MuchMusic Video Awards. At the time of the alleged scuffle, Hilton called Black Eyed Peas member will.i.am a “faggot,” and he later told The Advocate that he had wanted to call the musician, who is black, the N-word instead. Last year, CMI reported on the cold reception Hilton received on ABC’s The View, after the show’s hosts criticized the blogger for posting provocative photos of Demi Moore’s 15-year-old daughter Rumer Willis.

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Chris Matthews Claims Tea Party is ‘McCarthyite,’ Sees Federal Government as an ‘Occupying Force’

Posted on June 16, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Chris Matthews definitely took a “hard look” at the Tea Party, on Wednesday’s “Morning Joe,” in anticipation of tonight’s MSNBC documentary “The Rise of the New Right.” Tying the whole Tea Party movement together, the MSNBC “Hardball” host defined it as “McCarthyite,” possessing a “fundamental questioning of authority,” and viewing the federal government as an occupying force. “It believes that this government is verging on tyranny,” Matthews complained, pointing to the movement’s use of the Revolutionary War-era Gadsden flag — “Don’t Tread on Me” — in an ominous light. When asked by Joe Scarborough if he would link members of the Michigan Militia featured in tonight’s documentary (seemingly characterized in the preceding video clip as a radical fringe group), to Tea Party members who have campaigned for Scott Brown and Marco Rubio, Matthews answered that the various groups are all part of one movement. “I’m tying the whole movement together,” he asserted. “Because what you hear is that they all fly the same flag.” Matthews said that the use of the Gadsden flag by Tea Partiers “scared” him. “They are basically looking at the federal government now as an occupying force, basically a foreign occupying force, a tyranny,” he said. “And that justifies a lot of bad behavior, I would say.” “What you hear, Joe, is the fundamental questioning of authority,” Matthews claimed. He also alleged that the movement is pointing to the Second Amendment to justify armed force against the federal government “when the time comes.” Not wanting to be left out of the fun, advertising executive Donny Deutsch, chairman of Deutsch, Inc., threw the race card onto the table. “Chris, along those lines, would the Tea Party be having the same verve if this was not an African-American President?” But Matthews wouldn’t bite. “I don’t know,” he said. “You make those kinds of charges, you get into trouble. I have no idea.” However, Matthews did accuse the movement of being “McCarthyite,” referencing accusations by Dick Armey and Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.) of Democrats and administration members of being un-American.     The transcript of the interview, which aired on June 16, at 7:45 a.m. EDT, is as follows: WILLIE GEIST: Chris, as far as you can tell, what is the new right? And how influential is it? CHRIS MATTHEWS: Well, it believes that this government is verging on tyranny. The federal government of the United States, which was honestly elected, is more like a British occupying force of colonial days. They look at it as illegitimate. Many of them believe that Barack Obama is not an American. They believe they need their Second Amendment rights–as Sharon Angle said the other day–to perhaps carry out remedies when they think that Congress is going too far. Very strong on Second Amendment as a way of fighting the federal government, when the time comes; very concerned about the legitimacy of Barack Obama as whether he is an American or not. And, in fact, if you listen to Dick Armey, they wonder whether anybody in the administration has any pro-American attitudes. And Michelle Bachmann would go right through the Democrats in Congress, and have the media investigate them for anti-American attitudes. It’s very much McCarthy-ite, it gets back to the days of questioning other people’s loyalties, and it questions the President’s very legitimacy. And what scared me, if you want to get scared, was the use of the flag from the American Revolution–the Great Gadsden flag from South Carolina, with the coiled rattlesnake. They are basically looking at the federal government now as an occupying force, basically a foreign occupying force, a tyranny. And that justifies a lot of bad behavior, I would say. JOE SCARBOROUGH: Chris, though, you’re not connecting, though, Tea Party members that Mike interviewed in Massachusetts that helped Scott Brown get elected, or Tea Party members that may be supporting Marco Rubio in Florida, or Tea Party members who are supporting other conservative candidates across America–you’re not tying them with members of the Michigan Militia, are you? CHRIS MATTHEWS: Yes, I am. I’m tying the whole movement together. Because what you hear is that they all fly the same flag. Certainly there are people that straggle along and show up at meetings of any political party, whether it’s mainstream or French. People show up and join. I’m not talking about the joiners. I’m talking about the leadership people themselves. Listen to Sharon Angle. Listen to Rand Paul. Listen to their basic questioning of federal authority. It’s very fundamental, and their absolute focus on the Second Amendment over and over again–that guy in that militia uniform with his fatigues on said that he speaks very much the same language as the Tea Party people. He says it. If you listen to people like Michelle Bachmann, they question the legitimacy of the government, they question whether it’s a tyranny or not. You got to hear the words tonight, Joe. These people–wait till you hear Dick Armey talking about “There’s nobody in this administration who is pro-American.” I mean they’re saying it. I’m not saying it. JOE SCARBOROUGH: I’ll be watching. I know that the guy in the camouflage said that the Tea Party people tell him that they’re not connected. But are you connecting–let me be more specific. This is fascinating. Are you connecting Rand Paul with these Michigan Militia members that run around with guns, that– CHRIS MATTHEWS: You know, I think you have to see the absolute resonance of the sound. What you hear, Joe, is the fundamental questioning of authority. You have people who believe that the federal government–look. Joe, I know you saw those Congress people waving the Gadsden flag off the balcony of the Capitol on the House side. They were waving that revolutionary flag. They were the ones inciting those people to look upon the federal government as a tyranny, as perhaps illegitimate. They’re the ones using the language of revolution. It’s not us. In fact, the documentary, all through it, you hear a very similar voice: this government is not legitimate. 32 percent of the Republican Party now believes that Barack Obama is not an American. And that’s the latest CBS Poll. These are not things that are arguable, Joe, these are facts. DONNY DEUTSCH, Chairman, Deutsch, Inc.: Chris, along those lines, would the Tea Party be having the same verve if this was not an African-American President? CHRIS MATTHEWS: I don’t know. I think–I don’t know. That’s something you got to get into people’s souls, and you make those kind of charges, you get into trouble. I have no idea. I do think that– DONNY DEUTSCH: I’m not making charges. I’m asking a question. I just want (Garbled) CHRIS MATTHEWS: I think the fact that so many of the people are–Orelly Tates is out there with the birther movement, which has very much been part of this, saying that the guy’s not an American, that he should be out of office because he was born in Kenya. Challenging that–Alan Keyes, those kinds of people. All those voices are out there on the Right. 

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NY Times Departing Public Editor Hoyt: We’re Not the Fox News of the Left

Posted on June 16, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Clark Hoyt filed his last column as the New York Times’s Public Editor: ” A Final  Report From Internal Affairs, ” praising the cooperation of Times reporters and editors during his term and fending off accusations that the paper is a “liberal rag.” Hoyt admitted the editorial page and columnists are liberal and that the paper “shares the prevailing sensibilities of the city and region where it is published,” but denied the Times was “really the Fox News of the left,” citing scandalous scoops that hurt prominent Northeastern Democrats like New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer. Hoyt was the paper’s third public editor in an experiment that had its roots in the Jayson Blair catastrophe . In retrospect, the paper’s first ombudsman, Daniel Okrent, was probably the toughest critic of the paper’s reporting. Okrent famously asked the rhetorical question in a July 2004 column: ” Is the Times a liberal newspaper? Of course it is .” His successor Barney Calame was far too much a corporate yes-man; he initially defended the paper’s exposure a U.S. terrorist surveillance program involving international bank transfers, though he later recanted . Hoyt was somewhere in the middle, and perhaps the least predictable when it came to which controversies he considered worth writing about. Each of my predecessors, Daniel Okrent and Byron Calame, faced some degree of resistance from the newsroom, and I do not think anyone thought it would go down easy for me. On my first day on the job, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the publisher, sat opposite me in a little room off his office, clapped his hands on his knees and said with a laugh: “Well, you’re here. You must be dumber than you look.” But my reception by the newsroom turned out to be accepting and unfailingly professional, in large part, I believe, because Okrent and Calame persevered, established the position and made it matter. Times journalists have been astonishingly candid, even when facing painful questions any of us would want to duck. Of course, journalists don’t relish being criticized in public any more than anyone else. A writer shaken by a conclusion I was reaching told me, if you say that, I’ll have to kill myself. I said, no, you won’t. Well, the writer said, I’ll have to go in the hospital. I wrote what I intended, with no ill consequences for anyone’s health. …. For all of my three years, I heard versions of Kevin Keller’s accusation: The Times is a “liberal rag,” pursuing a partisan agenda in its news columns. There is no question that the editorial page is liberal and the regular columnists on the Op-Ed page are heavily weighted in that direction. There is also no question that The Times, though a national newspaper, shares the prevailing sensibilities of the city and region where it is published. It does not take creationism or intelligent design as serious alternatives to the theory of evolution. It prints the marriages and commitment ceremonies of same-sex couples. It covers art and cultural events out on the edge. Hoyt next defended his paper’s balance by focusing on the Times breaking political scandals against Democrats in its backyard. While not quite denying the paper’s liberal slant, Hoyt said the Times was definitely not the Fox News of the left. But if The Times were really the Fox News of the left , how could you explain the investigative reporting that brought down Eliot Spitzer, New York’s Democratic governor; derailed the election campaign of his Democratic successor, David Paterson; got Charles Rangel, the Harlem Democrat who was chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, in ethics trouble; and exposed the falsehoods that Attorney General Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, another Democrat, was telling about his service record in the Vietnam era? Of course, as the Times is always reminding us, the Republican Party has been decimated in the Northeast in recent years, meaning the region is dominated by Democrats, meaning most political scandals will involve Democrats. Hoyt also announced a new public editor from outside the paper would be named soon.

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Open Thread: ‘Three Reasons Obama Should Kick His Own Ass’

Posted on June 16, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Nick Gillespie argues that the federal government bears much of the responsibility for the oil spill. Of course there is plenty of blame to go around. But let us not forget that it was the President who said mere months ago that “oil rigs today generally don’t cause spills.” What are your thoughts?

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Celtics even the series at 2-2 in Game 4, bench delivered

Posted on June 15, 2010 by Benny Hollywood

This game is one of the classic games in the 2010 NBA Finals. Call it slow, call it rough or even call it ugly, but the thought that the bench players were doing the starter job in major minutes in the fourth period that caused them won the game, while the starters were cheering for them made the game memorable for Doc Rivers. Celtics and Lakers traded basket after basket in the first period. Paul Pierce who played limited minutes on the floor due to his foul issues in Game 3, has led all scorers with 10 points after the first period of play in Game 4. The game tied 3 times before Nate Robinson hit a three with 3.4 seconds remaining to end the first quarter. Celtics lead 19-16. In the second period, Pau Gasol and Kobe Bryant carried the load for the Lakers. Kobe Bryant scored his eight of his 12 points at the half, Gasol added five to finish the first half with 13 points, leading all scorers before the break. Pau Gasol denied the three point attempt of Allen but Garnett got the lose ball and pulled a jumper to beat the buzzer. First half ended 45-42 in favor of Lakers. In the third, A fade away jumper from Garnett in the 5:09 mark regained the lead from Lakers. However, Kobe’s 3 three point baskets took the lead away from Celtics. Wallace missed a jumper but Big Baby Davis was there to put the ball back in with a minute remaining in the quarter. The score was 62-60 in favor of the Lakers at the end of the quarter. In the final quarter, the bench squad composed of Nate Robinson, Tony Allen, Glen Davis, and Rasheed Wallace played quality minutes on the floor. They ran good offense and played very good defense as well. In fact, Doc Rivers had to choose whether to keep the bench in, or return to his veterans. As the fourth quarter reached to the point when Doc Rivers traditionally would begin bringing his starters back in, he imposed a rule: If the Lakers got within six points, the bench squad was coming out. “I was really looking at the clock thinking, ‘Man, when is he going to take us out,’ Davis said. “I want to give Doc a hug man. I sure appreciate it.” Big Baby Davis scored 18 points, 7/10 from the field in 22 minutes on the floor. After their loss at home in Game 3, The Celtics were able to retaliate and dominate Game 4. Four of their five starters finished with double figures plus the 36 crucial points off the bench, including the 21 big points in the fourth quarter. At the 2:51 mark, the starters checked back in to finish the game. Paul Pierce finished with 19 ponits, five assists and six rebounds. “I don’t think [the starters] really care, and that’s what makes us ?? that’s why we’re here, it really is,” Doc Rivers said. “Hell, Rondo and all of them, they were begging me to keep guys in. ‘Don’t take them out! Don’t take them out!’ It was great. That was the loudest I’ve seen our bench, and it was our starters cheering from the bench.” Celtics took Game 4, 89-96, series now tied at 2-2. Game 5 will be Sunday, June 13, 2010 8PM ET More Info.. Celtics even the series at 2-2 in Game 4, bench delivered is a post from: Daily World Buzz Continue reading →

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Goodman & Scheer on Journalism

Posted on June 15, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Goodman & Scheer on Journalism From: truthdig Views: 1120 2 ratings Time: 03:39 More in News & Politics

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Bozell Column: Smearing Republican Women

Posted on June 15, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

In 1992, the feminists in the media rejoiced at what they called “The Year of the Woman,” when ten Democratic women (and one Republican) were running for the Senate in the aftermath of Anita Hill’s unproven sexual-harassment allegations against Clarence Thomas. Just two years before, seven Republican women (and two Democrats) ran. But the media yawned. In 1992, the evening newscasts aired 29 stories exclusively devoted to women Senate candidates. In 1990, there was one…on election night. In 1992, the morning shows interviewed women Senate candidates on 26 occasions. In 1990, there were zero interviews. This was all about the party affiliation. When the liberals Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein both won primary elections from the U.S. Senate in California in 1992, Time reporter Margaret Carlson almost levitated in ecstasy. “There was a rush, an exultation, that surpassed any political moment I have ever known — better even than Geraldine Ferraro’s vice-presidential candidacy.”   The primary elections on June 8 brought this memory rushing back. Republican women won gubernatorial primaries in South Carolina and New Mexico. The national media had plenty to say about Nikki Haley of South Carolina before the election, which is to say they had an endless regurgitation of unproven adultery charges to level against her. One low point came from former Clinton bimbo-crusher George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” asking Nikki Haley on the morning after her victory about how she’s somehow embarrassing her state by being accused without proof: “Do you expect more incoming during the runoff?” And: “Can you assure South Carolina voters that they’re not going to be embarrassed if they elect you?” Stephanopoulos, like many good Clintonistas, is incapable of embarrassment over his hypocrisy.                       Susana Martinez, winner of her gubernatorial primary in New Mexico, has another complaint. One gathers New Mexico is too far away from the East Coast for the media to notice. She’s been utterly ignored. Then there are the two female business leaders who won their GOP primaries in California, one for the Senate and the other for governor. On ABC, Stephanopoulos demeaned their business credentials of as a minus, not a plus, because of the oil spill. “Meg Whitman, head of eBay. Carly Fiorina ran Hewlett- Packard. There’s some controversy there.” Stephanopoulos had invited on the perpetually annoying British import Tina Brown, who complained “it almost feels as if all these women winning are kind of a blow to feminism. Because, each one of them, really, most of them, are, you know, very much, you know, against so many of things that women have fought for such a long time.” George Stephanopoulos invited no Republican guests on this occasion, so he attempted a mild rebuttal to Brown: “Well, you could argue they’re different kinds of feminists. They’ve had a lot of success in different fields.” Brown snapped back: “Women, too, can be wingnuts, is the point.” It’s bizarre that Brown is so blind that she doesn’t think you could call Barbara Boxer or her beloved Hillary Clinton a “wingnut,” only the conservative or Republican women. Several networks found “news” and some kind of national controversy in Fiorina mocking Sen. Boxer’s hairdo as “so yesterday” when she was wearing an open microphone off-camera. Stephanopoulos gave it a whole story when he moonlighted as evening anchorman on “World News.” NBC’s “Today” led off the show with this nothing-burger and mentioned it three times. Co-host Hoda Kotb touted it as a “big gaffe-a-rooney.” Newsweek’s Eleanor Clift insisted Fiorina was wrong about just who was “so yesterday” in politics. “And these two Republican women are also social conservatives in a state that’s very pro-choice. So maybe those issues will be cast as ‘so yesterday.’” Eleanor’s wishful thinking had to be corrected by Monica Crowley, who informed her that Whitman favors abortion. That’s not as bad as Jerry Brown accusing Whitman in advance of tarring him in her ads: “It’s like Goebbels. Goebbels invented this kind of propaganda. He took control of the whole world. She wants to be president. That’s her ambition, the first woman president. That’s what this is all about.” Amount of network outrage? Zip. The only network mention came from ABC’s Jake Tapper on “This Week,” and even he said “regardless of the tastelessness, Jerry Brown has a point…that she has a lot of money.” The media can disregard a lot of tastelessness when the women who are smeared are Republicans.

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Matthews Teases His Documentary About Scary and Violent Tea Party

Posted on June 15, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

If Chris Matthews’ preview, on Tuesday’s Hardball, of his MSNBC documentary Rise of the New Right, is an indicator of what his special will be like expect a lot of rehashing of Matthews’ various attacks on the Tea Party over the past year as he conflates them and the likes of Rush Limbaugh with the birther movement and ominously warns of their potential for violence. Matthews even warned his viewers that his special “will stun you” and that the “voices you’ll hear” and “the guns you see” will explain why “you’re seeing men at political rallies for the first time ever, wearing guns.” In a segment that featured conservative Pat Buchanan and leftist David Corn of Mother Jones, Matthews included the Limbaugh as a member of the “new right” that is “justifying violence.” CHRIS MATTHEWS: Pat these people are saying things about the country that just aren’t true. The President is not legitimate. That the, that the federal government is a tyranny. They are justifying violence. DAVID CORN, MOTHER JONES: Don’t forget secret FEMA camps! PAT BUCHANAN: Well look that’s, I think that’s preposterous. Look now, I’m sure you can go out there, you’ve got a country of 300 million and find people- MATTHEWS: Okay I’m talking about people like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, I’m not talking about strangers here. BUCHANAN: Alright but you’re taking, you take Joe McCarthy in 1954, four years into his crusade, 50 percent of the American people thought he was doing a good job. Twenty percent, what I’m saying is, take a look… MATTHEWS: That’s the point. I’m not denying the popularity of these people. That’s why we did the documentary. To say how scary it is. The following exchanges and final commentary from Matthews were aired on the June 15 edition of Hardball: CHRIS MATTHEWS: Pat you’re one of the stars of this not because you’re a current hero but because you were a pathfinder. What I find stunning about this, and I think liberals, progressives, people from the center left will be stunned and scared by what they see tomorrow night. People on the right may find themselves yelling “right on, right on!” because a lot of this documentary is people on the right saying their thing from Glenn Beck to Rush Limbaugh to Orly Taitz to all these people out there, Alex Jones, saying their thing. It’s a true documentary, as you know. What is it today that scares people about Washington government to the point where some are arming themselves? They’re calling it illegitimate. This government was elected legitimately. They’re calling it a tyranny. It’s not right/left anymore. It sounds revolutionary these people. All of them. Tea Party, militia, patriot groups, truths, birthers, the whole crowd. PAT BUCHANAN: Well, I think you’re mixing an awful lot of things. MATTHEWS: Well there’s because they use the same language. BUCHANAN: But look, look I don’t know the Michigan militia guys. I don’t go out with them into the woods and things like that. And I don’t know if these guys with guns and things like that, really represent our Tea Party. What you gotta ask, Chris, is how is it that a Tea Party that you described in a one-hour documentary as very dangerous and in some ways threatening, had a 2-1 approval record and the Tea Party was more admired and approving of than the Democratic Party and the Republican Party as of a couple of months ago. Where you’ve got it pretty close, I think Chris, is on the second part. I think the first part would be like me doing a documentary on the civil rights movement and starting off with Stokely Carmichael and H. Rapp Brown and you know Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad and then you get around to Whitney Young and, and Martin Luther King. MATTHEWS: Yeah but Martin Luther King was never a black nationalist. He wasn’t calling for separation. Let me go to you, David. It seems like what strikes me in doing this, and reporting it is the use of the flag “Don’t Tread on Me.” The great Gadsden flag from South Carolina. These people are referring to the federal government of the United States which was honestly elected. Nobody questions the election of Barack Obama. He won with a good, what? 53, 54 percent. DAVID CORN, MOTHER JONES: Well some actually do. MATTHEWS: Well look they’re saying he’s not an American. They’re saying he’s illegitimate. CORN: Yeah. MATTHEWS: This language I’ve never heard before. CORN: What was interesting to me about, about the piece that you did was, that you show the continuum between people, Dick Armeys of the world, who you interview, who was a member of Congress, you know libertarian conservative. You know helping to stir up the Tea Party. And then you have someone like Alex Jones who you just saw in that clip. Radio talk show host who says he’s not right, says he’s not left. But he says that basically there is a planetary elite that literally has a secret plan to kill 80 to 99 percent of the population. And you have Rand Paul going on his radio show every couple of months, in which they talk about the threats to liberty. Now I’m not saying that Rand Paul believes the conspiracy theories of Alex Jones, but by appearing on that show he is somewhat legitimating- MATTHEWS: Right. CORN: -Alex Jones as a voice of the right. MATTHEWS: Why, look Dick Armey, we all like, I’ve known Dick Armey forever. Dick Armey will not disown the birthers. Now this is where I think you’re wrong Pat. Thirty-two percent of Republicans, self-identified Republicans are birthers now. They believe the President wasn’t born in the United States now. The latest CBS poll. So you can’t just say it’s a fringe crowd. BUCHANAN: Alright well let me talk as a political figure- MATTHEWS: I mean can you imagine a third of the Republicans you know believing this guy is not an American. It’s true. BUCHANAN: Well Chris there about one-third of African-Americans in this country think that George Bush was responsible for either blowing up or deliberately not doing anything- MATTHEWS: What poll was that? BUCHANAN: I saw it after New Orleans. Because they said, because it was black folks there. Now what do you do about that? Here’s what I do about birthers, I say, no. I think the Honolulu Advertiser. They didn’t huck that up. I think he was born in Hawaii. And they say, “Well we don’t think so.” I’d say, well who are you going to vote for? If the say, “Well we’re gonna vote for you I’d say thanks, fine.” But you- MATTHEWS: Even though you’re de-legitimizing the government and justifying a lot of talk here. BUCHANAN: I’m not legit-, Chris there are people out there in my movement, all over the place that got views- MATTHEWS: Okay. BUCHANAN: -that I don’t agree with. What are you gonna say? I don’t want your vote or I don’t want your vote? MATTHEWS: You don’t think it’s dangerous for people to believe this government is illegitimate? BUCHANAN: Mean in what sense? MATTHEWS: And believe it’s illegitimate. Meaning it was a usurped power taken from the people. Somehow this guy is not an American. Somehow he was elected- BUCHANAN: I understand the birthers but I don’t know anybody that doesn’t think this was a legitimate election. MATTHEWS: They say he shouldn’t have been on the ballot. CORN: This is a danger and we’ve talked about this on the show before. If you have people out there saying that Barack Obama has a, is a secret Muslim, as one of the people say on your documentary, or he has a secret plan to destroy America or that America will cease to exist if what he wants, if he wants goes through, it does send a green light, a signal to people: “Wait a second. This is about life and death.” This is… MATTHEWS: Okay let’s take a look, first of all Dick Armey. CORN: And then what do you do? People out there are gonna get the wrong message about taking extreme action. MATTHEWS: Okay. BUCHANAN: Well you know, like Lee Harvey Oswald. I mean take a look at these guys who have done all the shooting in the sixties. MATTHEWS: By the way the trouble is this rationalizes all kinds of behavior. Let’s take a look at this. This is the origins of the Tea Party voices you’ll hear right now. Let’s listen. (Clip from documentary) MATTHEWS: And then you have the head of the John Birch Society saying that Ike was a communist, his brother Milton was a communist. All communist discipline guys. Pat these people are saying things about the country that just aren’t true. The President is not legitimate. That the, that the federal government is a tyranny. They are justifying violence. CORN: Don’t forget secret FEMA camps! BUCHANAN: Well look that’s, I think that’s preposterous. Look now, I’m sure you can go out there, you’ve got a country of 300 million and find people- MATTHEWS: Okay I’m talking about people like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, I’m not talking about strangers here. BUCHANAN: Alright but you’re taking, you take Joe McCarthy in 1954, four years into his crusade, 50 percent of the American people thought he was doing a good job. Twenty percent, what I’m saying is, take a look… MATTHEWS: That’s the point. I’m not denying the popularity of these people. That’s why we did the documentary. To say how scary it is. … MATTHEWS: Let me finish tonight with our big documentary coming up here tomorrow night. The Rise of the New Right at 7pm Eastern tomorrow night will stun you with what’s happening with this country. You’ll never again believe this so-called Tea Party movement is just about taxes or deficits or Obamacare. No, what you’ll see is far more like the original Tea Party up in Boston, the one that previewed our war against the British. Look at the Gadsden flag they wield, that warning of “Don’t tread on me” with the coiled rattlesnake. In 1776 it served warning to those who threatened America from abroad. Today it’s being waved in contempt of our own honestly elected American government in Washington. Listen to Rush Limbaugh stir on the new right by calling the government in Washington “a regime” or Orly Taitz, leader of the birthers, calling the President illegitimate. Listen to militiamen on guard against tyranny here on the Potomac and you get the full force of what’s happening. This isn’t about what the tax rate should be. It’s an argument about whether the federal government deserves toppling like any other tyranny or illegitimate regime in history. It’s not the talk of politics, but of revolution. Listen to Limbaugh, Beck and Palin and Michele Bachmann, Orly Taitz and yes Rand Paul and you hear of a Washington that has usurped authority, of a president who is not one of us, of a Congress that needs to be investigated for treason. Of a country itself that’s been taken over and needs to be taken back. The voices you’ll hear speak for themselves. The guns you see, the semi-automatic weapons of the arms of those who see the government of the United States as the looming tower of tyranny. If I can put it as bluntly as possible, catch The Rise of the New Right here tomorrow night at 7:00pm and you’ll suddenly get why you’re seeing men at political rallies for the first time ever, wearing guns.

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Matthews Teases His Documentary About Scary and Violent Tea Party

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Mediaite’s Colby Hall: Rep. Etheridge a ‘Hero’ For Assaulting Students?

Posted on June 15, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Mediaite’s Colby Hall thinks Congressman Bob Etheridge might be a hero for assaulting a college student who asked him a question. Etheridge attacked a student and held him captive for a short time after he asked if the Congressman supported the Obama agenda. Colby Hall wrote an article defending him titled, Congressman Loses Cool To Students With a Flip Cam, But Somehow Comes Out The Hero? . To be sure, Hall says, “No he’s not a hero. He’s a jerk,” but he only added that part in after his post was savaged by commenters . Earlier versions of the post, including the one automatically posted to Beltway Blips and the excerpt on Hall’s author page show that clarification was added later, and the post itself notes, “Edit. note – this post has been slightly edited for clarity from an earlier iteration.” Hall’s defense of Etheridge echos the DNC talking points that the videographers were unidentified and probably conservative . After all, assault is perfectly fine as long as it is done to a conservative or an alleged Republican operative. (Indeed, the media seems to have adopted this lesson in the Tea Party movement .) Hall said: But little is known about these “students.” The YouTube video is published under an account titled TonyManization, and even more damning is that the faces of the individuals asking the Congressman questions are blurred out. Hmmm…nothing like the courage of the anonymous protester. Which brings us back to Etheridge’s response. Yeah – he comes off as a jerk, but…when in Rome. The “when in Rome” defense… That would suggest that the Congressman should respond in an equivalent manner to the videographers. Is grabbing ahold of the questioner and threatening him an equitable response? Hall also attack Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government–Breitbart’s site having launched the video’s viral explosion–for the network’s great success in exposing government corruption. So yeah, if Big Government (the site that gave us the hidden camera video that took down ACORN) is telling us to expect more of this sort of inflammatory and guerrilla interview tactics, well then, we should be seeing more of this. And that fact is not lost on many elected officials who are probably on edge, half-expecting to be ambushed around every corner. Such is the case here. But there’s not exactly anything inflammatory about standing on a public street and asking a simple question. It is that easy to simply walk on by down the street, as any public figure should know. As for Breitbart’s role in promoting the video, the video is right there for all to see. Just like in the ACORN case, in which Breitbart provided the full audio and transcripts of ACORN employees openly giving advice on how to run a brothel, the video speaks for itself, and Breitbart’s relative level of credibility is irrelevant to what anyone’s eyes can clearly see.

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Mediaite’s Colby Hall: Rep. Etheridge a ‘Hero’ For Assaulting Students?

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