Anyone who thinks they have all the Answers before they've even heard the Question - is Dangerously Deluded! Real Truth Requires Vigilance, Perseverance and Courage, regardless of Party and who wields Power. Left, Right, Center, Corporations, Government, Unions, Criminals or the Indifferent.
It's been said before, but yet again in their most recent update to the current Budget CBO has said it again. Here are the before and after projections.
As you can see there is a marked increase from the OMB numbers for FY2011 Budget compared to latest CBO projection. Why the difference? Follow over the flip.
Revenues under the President’s proposals would be $1.4 trillion (or 4 percent) below CBO’s baseline projections from 2011 to 2020, largely because of the President’s proposals to index the parameters of the alternative minimum tax (AMT) for inflation starting at their 2009 levels and to extend many of the tax reductions enacted in the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA) and the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 (JGTRRA). CBO’s baseline projections reflect current law, under which the parameters of the AMT revert to earlier levels and the reductions under EGTRRA and JGTRRA expire as scheduled at the end of December 2010.
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CBO has also updated its baseline budget projections, which—unlike the President’s budget—assume that current tax and spending laws and policies remain unchanged. CBO has not modified its economic forecast, so those updated projections just take into account new information obtained about various aspects of the budget since the previous projections were completed in January. The resulting changes are modest, adding $11 billion to the projected deficit in 2010 and reducing projected deficits over the 2011-2020 period by a total of $63 billion.
So they make it pretty plain, the Bush Tax Cuts from 2001 and 2003 are why the deficit will not drop nearly 50% by 2012 as President Obama's administration had previously predicted.
But what about that "Job-Killing Health Care Spending Act"?
Other proposals—including ones associated with significant changes in the nation’s health insurance system—would, on net, increase revenues.
In other words, it would reduce the deficit.
And what would happen if we follow Tea-Publican advice and extended the Bush cuts permenently?
Another set of proposals would permanently extend or modify certain provisions of EGTRRA and JGTRRA that are set to expire at the end of December 2010. Those provisions include reductions in tax rates on dividends, capital gains, and other income;4 relief from the so-called marriage penalty; and an increase in the child tax credit. Other proposals would modify estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer taxes by extending 2009 law permanently. If enacted, those changes would reduce revenues, relative to the baseline, by $2.2 trillion through 2020, according to estimates provided by JCT.
Not that such simple A-B=C math seems to work for Tea-Publicans like Michele Bachmann who responded to the President saying "every day families sacrifice to live within their means — they deserve a government that does the same."
With this...
"He's absolutely shameless," the Minnesota Republican could be seen saying to her seatmate, Representative Jean Schmidt, an Ohio Republican, according to a video taken in the U.S. House chamber during Obama's State of the Union address two nights ago.
Bachmann, 54, who later gave a televised response to the president on behalf of the Tea Party Express, turned back to face Obama and repeated, "Absolutely shameless!" She spoke as the president was saying the government should balance its budget more like average American families.
Interesting the Bachmann's SOTU-Prom Date was Jeane "Coward's Cut and Run" Schmidt.
And of course Bachmann would think it's "Shameless" since she's been going around Touting this bogus chart which attempts to blame all of our deficit and debt problems on President Obama.
Michele Bachmann may honestly not know this since she apparently doesn't know that John Quincy Adams died almost 20 years before the ratification of the 13th Amendment which finally abolished Slavery, or the fact the he's not a "Founding Father" since he was only 9-years-old in 1776, it's his Father was a Founding Father - not him, but she also doesn't know that the Federal Governments Fiscal Year for 2009 began on October 1st of 2008 - which was one month before Obama was even elected.
Before Obama Took Office, The FY 2009 Deficit Was Projected At $1.2 Trillion. As reported by the Washington Times: "The Congressional Budget Office announced a projected fiscal 2009 deficit of $1.2 trillion even if Congress doesn't enact any new programs. [...] About the only person who was silent on the deficit projection was Mr. Bush, who took office facing a surplus but who saw spending balloon and the country notch the highest deficits on record." [Washington Times, 1/8/09, emphasis added]
The Actual Deficit Chart from the End of Clinton (which shows a surplus) through Obama (which shows the deficit dropping after Bush's explosion) looked like this before the Bush cuts were extended by Decembers Tax Cut Deal.
Tea-Publicans like Bachmann are constantly trying to pin our budget problems on President Obama, but the fact is that the deficit began with Bush and that continuing to implement Bush's Policies will do nothing but continue to worsen our budget problems and deficit - not improve them.
Glenn Beck's repeated fantasy rants about the "Great Leftist Plan to Collapse our System" has resulted in the issuances of Death Threats against a 78 year-old sociology professor for a minor paper she co-authored in 1966. as if it had any bearing on events here today.
Beck: Perpare for a crash landing, this plane is coming down, because the pilot is intentionally steering it into the trees. We'll be fine as long as these people are not in control. They are taking you to a place to be slaughtered.
Glenn Beck has been railing against 78-year-old CUNY professor Frances Fox Piven for weeks now, claiming she co-authored a devious plan to overthrow the government in the 1960s. Now, some of his fans are issuing death threats against her.
According to the New York Times, Piven has been receiving death threats after being villainized on Beck's show. "Somebody tell Frances I have 5000 rounds ready and I'll give My life to take Our freedom back," wrote one user on Beck's news site, The Blaze.
Exactly how Barack Obama is tied to a paper that was written when he was 5-years-old, I'm not certain - but people like Beck and his flock have been absolutely convinced that the deep dark plan is at the heart of all of Barack Obama's policy solutions to date.
The assumption that Obama will need the nation to prosper in order to protect the 2010 mid-term election incorrectly assumes that he esteems free market capitalism. He does not. Rather than win through superior ideas and policies, the Democrat plan for success in the mid-term elections is to win by destroying political opposition.
Obama adheres to the Saul Alinksy Rules for Radicals method of politics, which teaches the dark art of destroying political adversaries. However, that text reveals only one front in the radical left's war against America. The Cloward/Piven Strategy is another method employed by the radical Left to create and manage crisis. This strategy explains Rahm Emanuel's ominous statement, "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste."
Rather than placating the poor with government hand-outs, wrote Cloward and Piven, activists should work to sabotage and destroy the welfare system; the collapse of the welfare state would ignite a political and financial crisis that would rock the nation... [Emphasis added.]
Making an already weak economy even worse is the intent of the Cloward/Piven Strategy. It is imperative that we view the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan's spending on items like food stamps, jobless benefits, and health care through this end goal. This strategy explains why the Democrat plan to "stimulate" the economy involves massive deficit spending projects. It includes billions for ACORN and its subgroups such as SHOP and the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. Expanding the S-Chip Program through deficit spending in a supposed effort to "save the children" only makes a faltering economy worse.
See how that works? They argue that the Recovery and Reinvestment Bill was simply a feint designed not to help the economy, but instead to destroy it. However in the meantime - despite Obama "obvious" dislike for capitalism - Corporate Profits during 2010 were at record levels.
American businesses earned profits at an annual rate of $1.659 trillion in the third quarter, according to a Commerce Department report released Tuesday. That is the highest figure recorded since the government began keeping track over 60 years ago, at least in nominal or noninflation-adjusted terms.
Meanwhile on the jobs front, even though things have been slow compared to the rate of corporate profits - in 2010 more jobs were generated under Barack Obama (1.3 Million) than during George Bush's entire 8 Year Presidency (1.1 Million).
Despite all the cry and hue about Run Away Government Spending the truth is that spending has been essentially flat during Obama's Presidency and has actually come down in FY2011 by over $70 Billion, and the Deficit has already been reduced over $200 Billion, and is projected to be cut in half by 2012. http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/#usgs302a
How is this possible? We all know that Obama spent massively on the Stimulus, TARP and Auto Bail outs right? Well besides the fact that both TARP and Auto Bail-out were started by George W. Bush, both were also Loans that have been paid back. In fact TARP was paid back with a profit of $73 Billion. 40% of the Recovery Act was Tax-Cuts for Businesses to spur growth and investment. In the end actually government spending has been basically neutral, while the Health Care Bill is project to save $132 Billion from the deficit over the next 10 years, including $500 Billion in savings in Medicare.
But in the end, all of these projections Depend on the Economy Recovering - and despite their claims to the contrary Republicans Don't Deserve Credit for this. But of course, if you're going to blame the Obama and Democrats for the Crash as being part of a deliberate strategy, Republicans have to take Credit for the Recovery Right (even though they voted against or blocked every aspect of it)
In Republicans' telling, they are responsible for a looming economic recovery from a recession caused by Democrats.
Close to the opposite is true, but you'd never guess that by listening to the GOP.
Citing a Dow Jones story reporting that U.S. companies plan to increase hiring, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's press shop fired off a morning roundup including this sub headline: "THERE ARE THE JOBS: Republicans Prevent Massive Tax Increase, Economy Begins to Improve."
The Dow Jones story does not credit Republicans for the recovery.
They also ignore who crashed the economy in the first place - hint: George W. Bush's "hands off" policy with the Housing Crisis and Wall Street.
Even more recently the Blaze has attacked Piven for supposed Calls for a Violent Revolution.
She’s considered by many as the grandmother of using the American welfare state to implement revolution. Make people dependent on the government, overload the government rolls, and once government services become unsustainable, the people will rise up, overthrow the oppressive capitalist system, and finally create income equality.
Now, as the new year ball drops, Piven is at it again, ringing in 2011 with renewed calls for revolution.
In a chilling and almost unbelievable editorial again in The Nation (”Mobilizing the Jobless,” January 10/17, 2011 edition), she calls on the jobless to rise up in a violent show of solidarity and force. As before, those calls are dripping with language of class struggle. Language she and her late husband Richard Cloward made popular in the 60s.
But Piven didn't call for anything more "violent" than - a Large Demonstration (a Tea Party) by and for the masses of Unemployed.
And as a result of these lies and spin this little old professor lady is getting Death Threats on the web, phone and email - via New York Times.
Her name has become a kind of shorthand for “enemy” on Mr. Beck’s Fox News Channel program, which is watched by more than 2 million people, and on one of his Web sites, The Blaze. This week, Mr. Beck suggested on television that she was an enemy of the Constitution.
Never mind that Ms. Piven’s radical plan to help poor people was published 45 years ago, when Mr. Beck was a toddler. Anonymous visitors to his Web site have called for her death, and some, she said, have contacted her directly via e-mail.
It's not like this hasn't happened before - like when Byron Williams attempted to stage a gun attack on the ACLU and Tides Foundation after becoming entranced by the Fear-Mongering of Beck.
Byron also writes that "very good information regarding 'Petrobraz' can be found in Glenn Beck's 'June' shows, where he accurately covered the Obama-Soros-Petrobraz-Chicago (Crime Inc.) connections for several days. It's all true."
Byron adds that he "found allusions to the Horizon disaster as a 'false-flag' operation in Alex Jones 'Info.Wars.com' and 'PrisonPlanet.com.' "
"Think like a conspiracy theorist," Byron tells me during the interview. "Except don't use the word 'theory.' Because the conspiracies are not theories. The official report is the lie; the conspiracy is the truth.?"
Are these ideas any less crazy than the idea that the Government is trying to control us through grammar?
All it takes is one nut being pointed in the wrong direction to start a blood bath.
Yes, Glenn Beck has stepped forward to defend, justify and rationalize this comment:
Beck: Shoot me in the head, before I stop talking about founders. Shoot me in the head, if you try and change our government.
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You're going to have to shoot them in the head, but be warned - they might shoot you first. Karl Marx is their George Washington, you'll never change their minds. Nancy Pelosi, those are the people you should be worried about.
You see, we've got it all wrong. Like the original Shirley Sherrod Video Beck claims that this is really a cry "for peace" and a warning that the people Democrats need to worry about becoming violent - are all on the Left.
Beck: "Did Glenn Beck really tell his audience to Shoot people in the head". This is the worst of the worst. This is the Left, and those who don't care about truth, honor or justice at all.
Stu: It's just so blatant. They don't even try to hide it anymore.
Beck: And will do anything they have to do to discredit, dishonor and inflame. This is so easy to explain...
Beck's claim is essentially that he wasn't inciting anyone to violence, he was warning against the danger Radical Revolutionary Leftists to Democratic Politicians and the "Leftist" Media.
Beck: In this clip I am warning that "They" the Revolutionaries who have been co-opted by the Politicians. I was warning, that if they feel betrayed, if they feel that you've been using them - they'll kill you.
Stu: We know that because they've said it in their own words.
Ok. Beck believes that somewhere there are raving bands of Communist Radicals in the U.S. who are ready to take up arms against politicians that dare to betray their Leftist Ideals.
Really?
So why didn't we see a violent uprising after the Public Option was removed from Health Care Reform? Why didn't we see an uprising and violent overthrow of the Government when Bush stole the Election against John Kerry in Ohio? Why didn't people protest in the streets after Abu Ghraib? Why haven't they gotten out their pitchforks when the Volker Rule was dropped from Wall Street Reform?
Beck: They believe in despotism. They think they're the enlightened ones - just like the Nazis believed they were the enlightened ones. Now, the progressive movement is co-opting everybody. People that believe violent revolution and death camps. Bill Ayers talked about death camps... that there will have to be 25 Million that will have to be exterminated.
He said what?. Well apparently he's referring to a claim made by a former FBI Informant back in 1982 after the case against Bill Ayers, Bernadette Dorn and the Weather Underground had completely fallen apart.
I asked, “Well what is going to happen to those people we can’t reeducate, that are diehard capitalists?” And the reply was that they’d have to be eliminated.
And when I pursued this further, they estimated they would have to eliminate 25 million people in these reeducation centers.
And when I say “eliminate,” I mean “kill.”
Twenty-five million people.
I want you to imagine sitting in a room with 25 people, most of which have graduate degrees, from Columbia and other well-known educational centers, and hear them figuring out the logistics for the elimination of 25 million people.
And they were dead serious.
This was a theoretical discussion initiated and pursued by the agent himself, not a "Plan", as to what might happen in a Red Dawn situation where the U.S. Government had collapsed and other communist countries from Cuba, to North Korea and Russia were occupying our territory. This wasn't a plan because until they had this discussion none of them have ever previous thought about the subject.
It's not like this was ever a rational possibility, and Beck ignores the fact that the goal of the Weather Underground wasn't to overthrow the U.S., it was to end the Vietnam War - and since that war is over - all this "Revolution" talk is meaningless.
By the end of April, the FBI offices were to terminate all files dealing with leftist groups.[31] The files were a part of an FBI program called COINTELPRO.[32] However, after COINTELPRO was dissolved in 1971 by J. Edgar Hoover,[33] the FBI continued its counterintelligence on groups like the Weather Underground. In 1973, the FBI established the 'Special Target Information Development' program, where agents were sent undercover to penetrate the Weather Underground. Due to the illegal tactics of FBI agents involved with the program, government attorneys requested all weapons- and bomb-related charges be dropped against the Weather Underground. The Weather Underground was no longer a fugitive organization and could turn themselves in with minimal charges against them
All charges against Bill Ayers and Bernadette Dorn were Dropped because the FBI broke the law and it wasn't just a few crimes - it was thousands. For example the FBI had a habit of lying to Congress.
A 25-year FBI veteran, M. Wesley Swearingen, claimed that the FBI routinely lied to Congress about the number of break-ins and wiretaps: "I myself actually participated in more than 238 while assigned to the Chicago office, [which] conducted thousands of bag jobs." Swearingen charged that agents had lied to a Washington grand jury about the number, locations, and duration of illegal practices in pursuit of the Weather Underground.[10] FBI director William Webster disciplined only six of the 68 agents referred to him by the Justice Department. Felt and Miller were convicted in 1980, and a few months later were pardoned by President Reagan. Today the FBI can still use these same techniques, simply by mislabeling their targets as foreign agents or terrorists.
Other FBI crimes from that period included planting false evidence and witness coercion. The case against Ayers and Dorn was dropped because it wasn't possible to trust what these people say.
Today - 30 years later - Bill Ayers is a college professor and as peaceful as a baby lamb. The idea that Ayers would still want the U.S. Government collapsed, even after the end of the War, even after the Church Commission and establishment of the FISA Court to protect the privacy of citizens against the actual Government Overreach and Intrusion that was occurring under COINTELPRO - is frankly ridiculous.
Y'know who else Beck claims has called for a violent Revolution?
Van Jones.
VAN JONES, FORMER WHITE HOUSE ADVISER FOR GREEN JOBS: I think that when we look back to the history of the Obama administration and look back at the history of our progressive movement, that this week will mark a historic inflection point when progressives decided to be progressive again in this country. I think something shifted this week.
Ok, that's a great example. Not.
The third person whom Beck claims is a Radical Revolutionary is Frances Fox Piven who like the Weather Underground may have once talked about "Overthrowing the Government" during the 60's, but today is a simply calling for the Unemployed and Disenfranchised to get organized and demonstrate on their own behalf.
So where are the angry crowds, the demonstrations, sit-ins and unruly mobs? After all, the injustice is apparent. Working people are losing their homes and their pensions while robber-baron CEOs report renewed profits and windfall bonuses. Shouldn't the unemployed be on the march? Why aren't they demanding enhanced safety net protections and big initiatives to generate jobs?
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Nothing like this seems to be on the agenda. Instead the next Congress is going to be fixated on an Alice in Wonderland policy of deficit reduction by means of tax and spending cuts. As for the jobless, right-wing commentators and Congressional Republicans are reviving the old shibboleth that unemployment is caused by generous unemployment benefits that indulge poor work habits and irresponsibility.
Mass protests might change the president's posture if they succeeded in pressing him hard from his base, something that hasn't happened so far in this administration. But there are obstructions to mobilizing the unemployed that would have to be overcome.
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Losing a job is bruising; even when many other people are out of work, most people are still working. So, a kind of psychological transformation has to take place; the out-of-work have to stop blaming themselves for their hard times and turn their anger on the bosses, the bureaucrats or the politicians who are in fact responsible.
Almost sounds to me like what she's calling for - IS A TEA PARTY and a heaven forfend a March on Washington to show our Government to support the people and the workers, not the fat cats and the corporations.
There's nothing violent in this request. This is not a call to revolution. But in Beck's fevered mind - it is.
Beck: I'm not calling for revolution. I'm begging for people to start paying attention to those people who are.
No, really they aren't calling for that Glenn - and that's why no one is becoming alarmed about it, except you and the people you are deliberately deluding.
Funny then, that after smearing and distorting the words and actions of these others - Glenn and his cohorts would start whining about how they've been smeared and distorted.
Stu: When someone sends a video like this edited Shirley Sherrod style. I can't believe they're trying to take down Glenn. It's almost as important what the person who edited that video thinks. They are convinced that the American people are so dumb, that they won't do 5 minutes of research to see what you're talking about.
Beck: I always ask people to do they're own homework. They can not ask you to do that because the second they do - you're exposed. It's what they think of their own followers. They're ranchers, and the people are cattle. That's why they say "Your boss did this to you".
Well, I did do my own homework Glenn - and what I found out was that you're still a lying prick.
And actually, sometimes the Boss did do it particularly when he's decided to move your job to China, just as Boeing announced it would do TODAY for 1000 workers in Southern California.
Bottom line is this: It's fair to say Beck wasn't literally calling for a violent overthrow of the government, or for a violent revolution. He wasn't literally calling for people to go out and Shoot each other in the head - he was ginning up Phony Unfounded Fears of Left-Wing Radical Revolutionaries that frankly don't exist, and rationalizing a self-defensive counter attack against them.
Basically he was authorizing a Jihad against the "Violent" Left that is long gone, while simultaneously blaming them for it with made-up exaggerated bullcrap. This is a trick Beck's been playing for a long while, like
But y'know at least he wasn't suggesting that a member of the U.S. Congress be Murdered with a Shovel - or someone should Line them Up and Shoot 'em In the Head.
Beck: I've been sitting here for the last few minutes trying to come up with a list of people I'd like to wack over the head with a shovel.
VO: And now "People We'd like to Beat to Death with a Shovel".
Beck: Charlie Rangel. (Clang!) See, I feel better already. There is a time for everything, for every season there is a purpose. And today, the season is, Clubbing people over the head with Shovels
Thank God, no one might take a clip like that and think Beck has a long habit of issuing death threats against members of Congress. Cuz, y'know that would be like a rancher leading his cattle out to graze on some fresh bails of hate.
So Sarah Palin decided after her brilliant performance trying to upstage the memorial service for those injured in the Loughner attack to double down and upstage Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day by making a whirl wind tour of Sean Hannity's Satellite feed. You see six people were killed last week and 14 wounded in an attempted political assassination, but enough of those whiners and losers - let's get to Sweet Saint Sarah.
Hannity sets it up well...
She's here to respond to the political finger-pointing...
Oh is she? Well, I've got ten fingers and plenty of time - so this should go well.
His first question is just priceless.
Hannity: Where were you and what were you thinking at the time (of the Shooting?)
Yes, because the most important thing about this shooting was what Saint Sarah thought!
Palin: I was thinking how atrocious it was and evil it was to kill innocent..
And some people think it's pretty evil to kill Bambi's innocent mother for meat you don't even need just to boost the ratings on your phony/adventure vacation slob hunter show - but I digress.
Hannity: I googled your name and "Tucson shooting" and got over 10,000 responses connecting you to this shooting
As I wrote yesterday almost no one of any prominence directly connected this attack solely to Sarah Palin or blamed her for it personally - they mostly connected Palin to the fact that Gabrielle Gifford's Office had previously been attacked (doing so by quoting Giffords MSNBC interview from 10 months ago) and they talked about our toxic political climate - which included extreme statements mostly from Sharon Angle ("Second Amendment Remedies"), Glenn Beck ("I'd like to Kill Michael Moore with my bare hands"), Bill O'Reilly ("Could I behead Dana Milbank"), Bernard Golberg ("If it was me, I'd go to the New York Times with a Baseball bat"), Michele Bachmann (We have to be "Armed and Dangerous") with occasional Carl Paladino ("I'm gong to take you out") & Alan West ("Obama should put his life on the line") - all with the possibility that this shooting was connected to that climate.
Sherrif Dupnik didn't blame Palin personally.
Paul Krugman didn't even mention Palin, although he did talk about Beck and O'reilly.
Keith Olbermann mentioned seven people, including himself, for making statements that could have been construed as threats.
Keith Addressed this in his Special Comment Last Night.
Although I've always agreed it was wrong to blame Palin for this particular incident without conclusive proof, it's also premature to claim that a psychotic person couldn't have been triggered to violence by just about anything whether it makes sense or not. Mark David Chapman was triggered by the Catcher in the Rye, and John Hinkley by Taxi Driver. It's still too soon and unclear to rule anything completely out.
Particularly when his ex-girlfriend says he's very political and into the government - and that he's faking being insane to avoid prison.
On the issue of the Gun Sight Map Palin argues (just as everyone else on Fox News already has) that Palin can't be blamed for that because - once upon a time, long ago under a blue moon, in a galaxy far far away - Democrats Did it too.
Oh well, gee, I guess that makes it just fine and dandy then.
(Just for the record, the DLC map they use targets several states as being vulnerable for the 2004 Presidential Election, not people or even specific Congressional offices)
At no time does she or Hannity even mention what happened to 11 out of 20 of the Representatives on her target sights. For those who still don't know - here's a hint:
Tom Perriello (Virginia-5) was threatened in March 2010, including the infamous incident when the gas line was cut at his brother's house; the attacker erroneously thought it was Rep Perriello's house.
Tell me, when the Democratic Leadership Council made it's maps - how many of those Representatives received death threats and had their windows shot out or their gas lies sabotaged!?
Just curious.
Palin claims that her initial video response 4 days after the shootings wasn't "self-defense" - it was a defense of those falsely accused! Ok, since this isn't really about you Sarah, Sharon Angle didn't just call for the murder of government officials when she repeated warned/threatened that they might have to resort to "Second Amendment Remedies"? What exactly the the hell was she talking about then? If She's going defend the entire Right-Wing she has a tall order in front of her.
The Republican Party is Ann Coulter's party. It's the party of O'Reilly calling the victims of Hurricane Katrina "drug-addicted" and "thugs". It's the party of Glenn Beck calling them "scumbags" and talking about "choking the life out" of Michael Moore. It's the party of Bill Bennett talking about "you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down". It's the party of Pat Robertson calling for Hugo Chavez's assassination. Want some more? Fine.
It's the party of Michael Reagan saying Howard Dean should be "hung for treason". It's the party of Brit Hume saying his first thought upon learning about the London terror attacks was, "Hmmm, time to buy". It's the party of John Gibson wishing those attacks on France. It's the party of Neal Boortz calling Rep. Cynthia McKinney a "ghetto slut". Get the picture?
Or some of these gems ...
Let's do a quick review (thanks to Media Matters) of some of the things that Republicans, including Hannity, regularly say about Democrats and Liberals.
Sean Hannity suggested that the DNC may have been behind the Abu Ghraib prison abuse photos, asking: "Was that a DNC plot too?" (The Sean Hannity Show, 9/10/04)
Laura Ingraham stated that Democratic Sens. John Kerry (MA), Joseph R. Biden Jr. (DE), and Barbara Boxer (CA) are "on the side of" North Korea leader Kim Jong Il because they were opposed to John R. Bolton's nomination as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. (Hannity & Colmes, 4/11/05).
Ann Coulter on Bill Clinton, "he was a very good rapist" and "molested the help" and on Al Gore, "Before we knew he was clinically insane" - "He seemed kinda gay"
Bill O'Reilly says he doesn't do "personal attacks", except of course for when he does.
On The O'Reilly Factor, O'Reilly has referred to media writer and Fox News Watch panelist Neal Gabler as a "rabid dog" and said of New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, "How nuts is this guy?" O'Reilly also said guest Christopher Murray "sounds like a fascist" for saying that that public institutions should not display religious symbols and called former Public Broadcasting System host Bill Moyers a "totalitarian." Students at the University of Connecticut who heckled right-wing pundit Ann Coulter during her campus appearance there earned the title of "far-left Nazis" from O'Reilly. He's also called John Kerry a "sissy", and claimed that Bill Clinton would be welcomed as president by Osama bin Laden.
Jonah Goldberg has distorted comments by Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), called syndicated columnist Helen Thomas a "thespian carbuncle of bile," and accused former President Jimmy Carter of engaging in a "mildly ghoulish exploitation of Coretta Scott King's funeral."
Then of course there's Michelle Malkin whose has claimed that "the vast majority of Hispanic politicians" believe that "the American Southwest belongs to Mexico;" has referred to certain Californian politicians as "Latino supremacists;" and characterized recent immigration protests as "militant racism" marked by "virulent anti-American hatred."
Despite all this Palin completely blew off the criticism of her using the term "Blood Libel" saying that it describes a false accusation of having blood on your hands. Except there is blood on the hands of the Right-Wing....
That's a total of 7 Dead, 7 Wounded by right Wing Violence in the last 2 years, while not counting the attack on Giffords.
It almost gets kinda sad/funny when Palin starts to complain, after some hefty Hannity prompting, that she and her family have received lots of death threats.
Yeah, well so has Nancy Pelosi from this guy, Gregory Guisti after Glenn Beck did a mock murder scene of her.
ELEANOR GIUSTI: Greg has -- frequently gets in with a group of people that have really radical ideas and that are not consistent with myself or the rest of the family and -- which gets him into problems. And apparently I would say this must be another one that somehow he's gotten onto either by -- I'd say Fox News or all of those that are really radical, and he -- that's where he comes from
While his actions were undeniably wrong and his choices were terrible, in part they were the actions of others played out by a very gullible Charlie. He was under the spell that Glenn Beck cast, aided by the turbulent times in our economy. I don't believe that Charlie even had the ability to actually carry out his threats.
Byron writes, "You want to know about Soros and Tides, yes, Glenn Beck is doing very well uncovering his wickedness, check his 'June' programs for 'Petrobraz', also look into 'DiscoverTheNetworks.com.' "
Byron also writes that "very good information regarding 'Petrobraz' can be found in Glenn Beck's 'June' shows, where he accurately covered the Obama-Soros-Petrobraz-Chicago (Crime Inc.) connections for several days. It's all true."
Byron adds that he "found allusions to the Horizon disaster as a 'false-flag' operation in Alex Jones 'Info.Wars.com' and 'PrisonPlanet.com.' "
"Think like a conspiracy theorist," Byron tells me during the interview. "Except don't use the word 'theory.' Because the conspiracies are not theories. The official report is the lie; the conspiracy is the truth.?"
Other than the fact Byron Williams was fortunately pulled over in a traffic stop and got into a shoot out with Police instead of the ACLU - exactly how is he all that different from Loughner who happens to believe Conspiracy theories about the Constitution that are just as nutty?
But let's not cloud up Palin's persecution fantasies with pesky facts that there is already an epidemic of violence inspired by right-wing rhetoric.
Instead lets listen to her whine that she was falsely accused of a "Blood Libel" while immediately turning around and saying that Loughner was "Leftie".
Palin: (The Map) had nothing to do with an apolitical and even left leaning criminal.
Call me silly but one of these things is not like other. If you are "Apolitical" then you can't be "Left-Leaning" and vice versa. This guy posted political rants on his youtube and his home movies - and just as many have pointed out he didn't espouse any Tea Party ideology in those videos - but he didn't expose any LEFTIST ideas either.
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If you gonna to go on and on about how it's unfair to make something political out of this - what's exactly with the "Left Leaning" jab? Was it because he read Marx? Is "Left=Communist" how your mind works? What about Mein Kampf, does "Left=Nazi" to you?
Pardon me but most of us consider being cold "Communist" and "Nazi", not to mention "Socialist" as much a slur as "Tea-Bagger", "Hate-Monger" or "Fascist Scumbag".
What about the fact he read Ayn Rand and if anything, his rants sounded mostly Libertarian which happens to be FAR FAR Right in most people's estimation?
Loughner was operating under a ton of wild Constitutional Conspiracy theories concerning the States authority to coin Gold & Silver, but then doesn't Christina O'Donnell operate under the twisted anti-constitutional theory that their "is no separation of Church and State"? Some of us would call that pretty much "Crazy" too, and she nearly became a U.S. Senator. Rand Paul thinks that when someone walks into a private establishment you - the customer - pretty much become their property to abuse as they see fit. I myself have had an extensive s with Tea Partiers on Twitter who claim the 16th Amendment doesn't authorize the Federal Government to collect Income Tax.
Frankly, as far as I'm concerned there's a whole lot of crazy going on, it doesn't just start and stop with people like Loughner.
People like this guy at the Heritage Foundation who claimed "Obama is a Domestic Enemy" - and got laughs and applause from the crowd.
Or Arizona Republican Trent Franks who said "Obama is an Enemy of Humanity - who has no place in government" :
Is this what you call "Civil Discourse"? You know what you do with "Enemies of Humanity" - you kill them!
But, here's the part that gets under my skin
Hannity: Why do you think the Left Singled you out Governor?
Palin: It's not about me, it's about the message. Those on the Left Hate my message and they'll do all that they can to stop me, because they don't like the message. They do not like to hear that message, and as many of them have promised to do- they'll destroy that message and the messenger.
Oh, so the killer was "Left Leaning" and basically the "Left" will stop at nothing because of their Hate?
Sounds to me like you're connecting this killer to the Left that has criticized your repeated, unneccesary Gun references, in the wake of a political gun crime.
That's just despicable.
Sarah "Death-Panel-Princess/He-Pals-Around-With-Domestic-Terrorists" Palin seriously thinks it's "the Left" that has engaged in a deliberate campaign of fear-mongering, politics of personal destruction and guilt by association?
What Sarah doesn't get, or maybe she gets it but doesn't want it pointed out - is that She's the Hater. She always has been.
When she goes around talking about "Real America" what she really doing is insulting and attacking "Unreal" America - which is the rest of us. She's used double-talk to make it clear that we don't count in her America, and frankly what happens to us doesn't matter.
Just like when she says "When we take up our arms, we're taking up our VOTE!" - is a load of crap. If you're talking about taking up your vote, then you say TAKING UP YOUR VOTE, if you talking about using weapons against your opponents then you say the other thing. If your habit is to say one thing and mean another, why should anyone believe that you say?
Palin: I've repeated over and over my condemnation of violence, and that "when we take up our arms", we're taking up our vote.
People do use combat metaphors in politics, but when she was saying this - it was March of 2010 - while simultaneous all the above threats and attacks were taking place.
Hannity: I don't think those on the Left have been very civil to you.
Palin: It reminds me that those on the Left, if it weren't for their double-standards - they'd have NO STANDARDS.
Yeah, that's real civil like isn't it?
In the end Palin takes absolutely no responsibility for her own words, not for "Don't Retreat, Reload", not for targeting Democrats who in the end are threatened and attacked, and further she seems as though she's Defending Beck, and Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin and Michael Savage and Ann Coulter every extreme Right-wing fire-breather for anything they've ever said - yet attacking and blaming the Left for any problematic comments.
A picture perfect performance of total hypocrisy.
Let me leave you with David Corn just to sum it all up as he points out why whenever political violence occurs, everyones prime suspect - Is the Tea Party.
Only 5% of the general public find violence against the government justified, but 13% of the Tea Party.
Corn: Republicans talk about "Death Panels", they talk abut things that are not true. We have to be sure that things like that do not take root in the political discourse.
...
There should be schism between some Republican leaders who want a respectful and responsible debate - when you start calling people "Nazy" and "Terrorist". Whether or not you tell people there are second amendment remedies, it sets the tone that these people don't deserve to live
Although Palin pretends to want to "play nice" and to oppose "the blame game" - what she clearly shows that she really wants is to be able to play it without anyone else complaining.
She wants to accuse Democrats of being hypocrites and Nazis, but don't anyone dare suggest her words might have any real impact or affect on anyone.
Sorry Sarah, no Sale. You talk smack, you're going to get some criticizing smack right back.
In the last week the Right-Wing hss been incensed - incensed - that poor sweet Saint Sarah was so unfairly and rudely accused of pretty much shooting Gabrielle Giffords in the head, or at the very least, inspiring the Jared Lee Loughner to launch his killing spree.
One wonders if Sarah Palin's name hadn't even come up after the Giffords shooting, would she have even bothered to make this video? But who was it that brought her name up?
Wow, since a crime starts and ends with the criminal who committed it - why are we still chasing Bin Laden exactly?
If you listened to Fox New Sunday, it seems that poor Saint Sarah just can't get a break.
Even before Palin’s interview with Sean Hannity tomorrow night, Fox News Sunday got a head start on Operation Save Sarah’s 2012, with a panel discussion on Fox News Sunday that was the height of pro-Palin propaganda. After the members of the panel concluded with amazement that the only reason Palin would release the video is that she has 2012 political ambitions, Britt Hume suggest that Palin has been unfairly attacked by the media.
Hume went as far as to suggest that the “attacks” on Palin were the most vicious that he has ever seen and he invoked Palin Derangement Syndrome, “What I would say about this, Chris, is that this is the dilemma with Sarah Palin. She has been subject to some of the most vicious and venomous media coverage, adverse media coverage of any public figure I have ever seen. And it amounts almost to what some would describe as a kind of derangement syndrome about her, this level of character assassination.”
Hume claimed that Palin was not to blame for the criticism, “However, to say all that, and to condemn it, even, does not mean that it hasn’t been effective, and does not mean that Sarah Palin has not been seriously damaged by it in the eyes of a broad cross-section of the public. And the Sarah Palin problem really is a problem that she has, largely, I think, through no fault of her own, become kind of radioactive. And it does mean that when she is in a situation like this, where she is the focus of national attention, she must be extremely careful about how she reacts to it.”
Poor Saint Sarah, it's not her fault that people shouted "TERRORIST" and "KILL HIM" after she carefully explained who Barack Obama "pals around with...". (Speaking of "Guilt by Association"...)
But I wonder, did Sherrif Dupnik actually blame Sarah Palin?
Dupnik: I think it's time as a country, we need to do a little soul searching. I think that the vitriolic rhetoric we hear day in and day out from people in the radio business, and some people in the tv business. And what we see on tv and how our children are being raised. It may be free speech, but it does not come without consequences. Arizona has become the Mecca of prejudice and bigotry.
Seems to me that Dupnik was talking more about local politics in Arizona, and their recent disagreements of things such as SB1070, not the Health Care Bill, Sarah Palin - who we mostly see on Facebook, not the TV - or Health Care.
Strange, it seems that he didn't even say Sarah's name. Not only that he didn't mention anyone's name, in fact he didn't say whether the vitriol was coming from the Right or the Left. He just said his opinion was it "Was Bad" - and exactly who disagrees with that?
When you heard the terrible news from Arizona, were you completely surprised? Or were you, at some level, expecting something like this atrocity to happen?
It’s true that the shooter in Arizona appears to have been mentally troubled. But that doesn’t mean that his act can or should be treated as an isolated event, having nothing to do with the national climate.
Where’s that toxic rhetoric coming from? Let’s not make a false pretense of balance: it’s coming, overwhelmingly, from the right. It’s hard to imagine a Democratic member of Congress urging constituents to be “armed and dangerous” without being ostracized; but Representative Michele Bachmann, who did just that, is a rising star in the G.O.P.
And there’s a huge contrast in the media. Listen to Rachel Maddow or Keith Olbermann, and you’ll hear a lot of caustic remarks and mockery aimed at Republicans. But you won’t hear jokes about shooting government officials or beheading a journalist at The Washington Post. Listen to Glenn Beck or Bill O’Reilly, and you will.
So if Dupnik didn't blame Sarah (or the Right) and Krugman didn't blame Sarah - how did she get brought into this? Fox News brought her into it, by trying to defend and excuse her cross hairs map.
Charlie Rangle: All of us are familiar with Palin targeting people with cross hairs, none of us can say that that had anything to do with this attempted asssasination, but it's clear things like that doesn't help.
It's not Saint Sarah's fault Dr Laura thinks saying "Nigger" 15 times to a Black woman is ok - she just said "Reload" (more "Niggers"?)
So did NBC News blame Palin? Not anymore than they blamed Glenn Beck for fantasizing about Killing Michael Moore and Nancy Pelosi.
NBC mentioned the map, but did they single Saint Sarah out? Hardly.
Not, just bringing the map up didn't get under Beck's collar.
Beck: The Problem is that everybody is playing politics with a national tragedy. Paul Krugman says it's long past time took a stand against Hate Mongers. I don't need to tell you MSNBC said. Hink: They think Fox pulled the trigger. Media Matters wants us to be told what to say on or off the air. I don't use it, on or off the air so I guess I'm in compliance.
I would stand with Barack Obama and even Van Jones if they would stand against Politicing Violence?
Yeah, but would you stand with them if they stand against violence itself?
Did Keith Blame Sarah Palin? Not directly.
Olbermann: If Sarah Palin - whose website put and today scrubbed bulls eye targets on 20 representatives including Gabby Giffords - does not repudiate her own part, however tangential, in amplifying violence and violent imagery in American politics, she must be dismissed from politics. She must be repudiated by the members of her own party, and they refuse to do so then each of them be judged to have silently supported this tactic that today proved so awfully for telling.
Keith went on to talk about an event with Jesse Kelly, who campaigned against Gabrielle Giffords, where he offered supporters to "Fire a Gun with Kelly". He talked about Sharon Angle and her "Second Amendment Remedies", and Congressman Alan West who said they should make his opponent "Afraid to come out his own home", and Tea Party Leaders who advance the idea of "Watering the Trea of Liberty with Blood", and Glenn Beck ("I could kill Michael Moore") and Bill O'Reilly ("Tiller the Killer").
If all of these are not responsible for Tucson, they are now be responsible for doing every thing they can to to make sure Tucson does not happen again. And if those of considered on the Left, do not do all we can to eliminate all our own suggestions of violence, now matter how mild they might have been, now matter how inadvertent, we deserve repudiation...
Even if Jared Lee Loughner was shooting into a political crowd simply to shoot into a political crowd, we haved for years been building up to a moment Just like This
Keith mention Sarah, but he certainly didn't singled her out at all - far from it - he include himself in the Repudiation List for an inadvertent comment that might have sounded like a threat against Hillary Clinton.
The argument made by all these people, from Dupnik to Krugman to Olbermann, none of them said "Sarah did this" but they did say the "climate" might have been a factor. And that's something that clinical psychologist happen to agree with.
Dr. Swartz cautioned that there's still much we don't know about Loughner or more generally about the impact of the political climate on the mentally ill. But he asserted that asking how our politics might have impacted Loughner's behavior was an entirely natural line of questioning.
"We know the manifestation of mental illness is affected by cultural factors," Dr. Swartz said. "One's cultural context does effect people's thinking and particularly their delusions. It gives some content and shape to their delusions. While we don't know whether there was a specific relationship between the political climate that he was exposed to and his thinking, it's a reasonable line of inquiry to explore."
Even if Dr. Swartz is correct - the argument isn't that Sarah Palin Alone - may have acted a some kind of "trigger" for Loughner, rather that the numerous incidents of violence and threats that were already in progress might have helped push an already unstable person even further over the edge. Even if Loughner is crazy as a Green Jaybird, this is still something work considering and investigating.
So why's Sarah feeling so butt hurt? Maybe it simply goes back to what Gabrielle Gifford's herself first said about the Cross Hairs Map ten months ago.
Giffords: The rhetoric is incredibly heated, the calls, the emails, the slurs.
People need to realize that the rhetoric and firing people up, even things for example we're on Sarah Palin's targeted list the way she has it depicted has the cross hairs of a gun over our district. when people do that, they've got to realize there's consequences to that action.
It's not Saint Sarah's fault that silly Giffords got her Surveyor, Bulls Eye, Reload Sights mixed up with Sniper Sights. Common mistake.
The consequences Giffords was talking about was the shooting out of her office windows back in March, not the shooting at the Safeway because she hasn't been able to speak since that shooting.
Even if this disgusting Youtube video of death threats against Palin - which has inflamed the right - No One Suggests that she SENT Loughner to shoot Giffords.
So Sarah Palin is going to go on Sean Hannity tonight to complain about the Left attacking her and blaming her - but the fact is that actually didn't happen. It was Fox News who distorted everyones comments, shifting what Sherrif Dupnik said about "people on TV" to "people on the Right" when he didn't say that - shifting what Keith said about people taking responsibility - including himself - to "Fox pulled the Trigger" and shifting criticism of Glenn Beck himself to "Sarah Made Loughner do it" - even when Sarah wasn't even mentioned by people on the Left or if they did they all said "none of us can say" that Sarah's target map had anything to do with it. They only said that it was a bad idea - a bad idea that DID lead to violence.
Tom Perriello (Virginia-5) was threatened in March 2010, including the infamous incident when the gas line was cut at his brother's house; the attacker erroneously thought it was Rep Perriello's house.
Glenn Beck has been railing against 78-year-old CUNY professor Frances Fox Piven for weeks now, claiming she co-authored a devious plan to overthrow the government in the 1960s. Now, some of his fans are issuing death threats against her.
Byron also writes that "very good information regarding 'Petrobraz' can be found in Glenn Beck's 'June' shows, where he accurately covered the Obama-Soros-Petrobraz-Chicago (Crime Inc.) connections for several days. It's all true."
