Who would have believed they would lie about health care reform?

In this case the lies were funded by the tobacco industry since they were about to taxed heavily under the emerging Clinton attempt at health care reform.  Crooks and Liars previews a story by Tim Dickinson which is about to appear in the Oct 1 issue of Rolling Stone:

We ask Betsy McCaughey, who's your daddy?

It is amazing they brought her back for a another round of lies and the mainstream media still hasn't caught on. Wtf is the point of giving them (MSM) any attention at all?


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Fair and Balanced, ya, you betcha.

Media Matters among others has a great example of Fox News' fair and balanced staging of a "news" event.

Fair and Balanced strikes again.

Even wimpy Howard Kurtz, media cheerleader critic, has called out Faux Nooze for its criticism of other networks for not covering the 912 teabaggers when in fact they did.

Howie Kurtz shows a little bit of spine.

I wonder if he will bother to mention the first story as well?

Fox News, the ideal news source for those who don't want to bother thinking.

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I guess everyone in Maine has health care already.

GOP Sen. Snowe urged Obama to take 'public option off the table' 

But then again aren't Maineacs known for being contrary?

 

The nerve of my local PBS station.

Last night I watched the pledge drive version of the celebration of Pete Seeger's 90th birthday.  There were some wonderful performances during this abbreviated version of full concert from Great Performances.

I was particularly struck by the two local hosts/beggars asking for money to support PBS in that self congratulatory way public broadcasting does for the vast range of ideas and cultures they bring to us.  Without an iota of awareness, they tout the messages Pete Seeger spent his life talking and singing about, peace, justice, inclusion, worker's rights and the environment, but the only place you will hear these messages is in the entertainment portion of their programming.  These ideas are not featured as mainstream or Serious by their news divisions or the commentators at PBS or NPR.  When is the last time you heard someone on a public broadcasting news program espouse Pete Seeger's vision for the world?

And I only sampled a very small portion of the begging and self congratulations.  It took some nerve to suggest public broadcasting supports a world as Pete might envision it with all they do to undermine it.  Pro-war and military/anti-peace activist, pro-Wal-Mart/anti-union, pro-health insurance industry/anti-health care reform, pro-torture/anti-accountability, pro-Israel/anti-Palestinian is their slant on the world.  I suppose the local station feels a couple hours a year from someone with the opposite view is going to balance the daily onslaught from their news divisions.  That must help them sleep at night.

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We demonized one of our own for having a D for his party affliation.

In this post Driftglass has summed up how hypocritical and cult oriented we Republiecans are.

Like a virgined up reason for partisan hatred.

h/t to Crooks and Liars for carrying the post as well.

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If Only Our Political Elite and Their Chattering Villagers Would Take Responsiblity Like This.

See, it's not that difficult to admit you've made a mistake just as this man did.

Driver, after a terrible wrong, plans to work to make amends.

If our political pundits had any integrity they would admit how wrong they were, then STFU to make amends.

......

If Juan Cole and Glenn Greenwald don't make you cringe about what your country has become, you're not thinking anymore.

Glenn Greenwald highlights there is something more pernicious going on than a lack of civility, but the media is refuses to see it,in the interest of false equivalency or as they call it "balance".

Juan Cole compares and contrasts the story of two Joe Wilsons.

Addison Graves Joe "you lie" Wilson inspires a movement.

So far Addison Graves Joe "you lie" Wilson is helping his opponent, Rob Miller, over at ActBlue more than himself. So far those two words have led to over $817,000 for USMC Iraq veteran Rob Miller.

Sue Sturgis at the Institute for Southern Studies has a rundown on Joe and his past behavior and funding from the health care industry.

One commenter points our that Joe "you lie" Wilson is actually a chickenhawk who got out of serving in Vietnam but did do time in the Army Reserve and National Guard. These days those stints wouldn't have helped him avoid serving in Iraq would they?

Another comment mentions that this will all be a big deal for the mainstream media who will chase the controversy over the lack of decorum or probably enter a debate about whether the Democrats aren't as ill mannered as the Republiecans. The whole time they will be missing the real issue of how it is the Republiecans, Betsy McCaughey, the for profit entities of the health care industry and their minions in Congress are lying and fabricating stuff to prevent any meaningful public option, let alone single payer over the desires of the majority of the American people.

America, land of the free to buy as many politicians as necessary to overcome the will of the people to protect profits, the beautiful.

Quote of the Day.

In a blog post about how the White House has co-opted formerly progressive groups Jane Hamsher at Firedog Lake quotes Jeremy Schahill quoting a great line from Naomi Klein,

"Running parallel to the bi-partisan war machine within the official government is a coordinated campaign in the shadow government — the think tanks. Or, as Naomi Klein describes them, the people paid to think by the makers of tanks. CAPs particular role in this campaign appears to be attempting to sell Obama’s war."

Deserves repeating Or, as Naomi Klein describes them, the people paid to think by the makers of tanks.
Is there any hope for progress when the progressive/liberal organizations are selling us out for party unity? Isn't that one of our major complaints about the Republiecans? Go figure.

South Carolinians Stand Tall and Be Proud

You folks in South Carolina must be especially proud of your Republiecan representative for putting that colored guy in his place.

Joe Wilson (R-SC) practices that genteel politeness and good manners for which Southerners are so famous.

The next time you hear a Republiecan whine about the decline in civil discourse or discourteous behavior by libruls, remember stuff like this. They do it all the time. Their motto really ought to be: "Do as I say, not as I do"

There goes that damn liberal media again.

This time it's ABC News demonstrating just how liberally biased the mainstream media is.

"With one sentence ABC News confirms ..."

Anyone spending a cent to consume this stuff needs their head examined.

We have to stop this man from indoctrinating our children with these ideas.

Olbermann (via Crooks and Liars) does a great mashup of the pre-event right wing hysteria versus the actual content of Obama's speech to school children.

It's almost too typically typical.

Has anyone ever pointed out the meaning of hypocrisy to these people?

Juan Cole at Informed Comment knows something about the political and economic situation in a country outside the Middle East.

Long live the Kleptocracy!


Dean Baker wonders if the liberally biased media is capable of telling us the truth.
Thanks again NoPublicRadio.


But, of course, as Glenn Greenwald notes, Cole's and Baker's opinions would be extremely Unserious.