The False Equivalency Monster Raises it's Ugly Head

In the wake of the Gifford's shooting I suspect the number one thing we're going to hear is how the poor Tea Party has been so unfairly smeared with allegations of connections to this shooter and how when it comes to Violent Rhetoric - "Both Sides Do it".

Frankly, that's a load of crap.

Anyone remember this?

Glenn Beck Fantasizing about Killing Michael Moore, Micheal Reagan saying the 9-11 Truthers "Should be Shot", and Neal Boortz arguing that the victims of Hurricane Katrina were "Useless Parasites..."




Beck "Jokes" about Poisoning Nancy Pelosi.



O'Reilly "Jokes" about Decapitating Dana Milbank.



Fox Debates whether "Killing Liberals" should be a Crime?



Bernard Goldberg whose book directly inspired the Knoxville Murderer to KILL LIBERALS, suggest O'Reilly should take a Baseball Bat to the NYTimes.

Bernard Goldberg: If NY Times attacked me like it attacks O'Reilly, "I probably would have gotten a baseball bat and gone down to the New York Times with it and found the person that wrote the editorial, but that's me."

Right now on SarahPalin's Facebook page we've just had a post like this - which hasn't been deleted.

“It’s ok. Christina Taylor Green was probably going to end up a left wing bleeding heart liberal anyway. Hey, as ‘they’ say, what would you do if you had the chance to kill Hitler as a kid? Exactly.”

Yeah, both sides say shit like that!.

We'll now they're complaining that Jared Loughner is being blamed on them not that anyone serious actually has - Right Wings pundits haven't resisted to accused him of being a "Far Left Radical".

Pam Geller: This is from his youtube channel. Total lefty loon.

[...]

FOX News reports the shooter's favorite books: Communist Manifesto and Mein Kampf

Newsmax: Shooter "Fascinated By Leftwing Politics," His Favorite Books "Hardly The Reading List Of A Palin Supporter."

He also read Ayn Rand and The Wizard of Oz - so what does that tell you?

In response to criticism of the right on Loughner that hasn't really occurred we've already this kind of whining from Beck and Palin.

Beck: It is pervasive, everywhere - this opinion. I wrote Sarah Palin. I'm going to read my part and a little of her response. I said, "I know peace is always the answer, I know your feeling the same heat if not much more on this. Please, look into protection for you and your family. An attempt on you could bring the Republic Down.

...

There are nut jobs on all sides. Tomorrow I'm issuing a challenge to stand together to reject all violence. If people truly believe that America can become a some version of al Qeada, I will not stand in the shadows as too many did after 9/11. Terror is Terror. I don't care if it's for you party or allah, you're not a freedom fighter - but a killer. There's a difference between a hard fought political battle and violence. It's time for politics to stop and sanity to begin.

...

How many believe the worst can actually happen? Only those that do, and believe that peace and love is the solution will stand together. Everyone else will just continue to play politics"

Palin: "I hate violence. I hate war. Our children will not have peace, if politicos capitalized on this to succeed in portraying anyone as inciting terror and violence."

You mean inciting violence like this Sarah?

Rep. Tom Perriello's (D-VA) brother's address was erroneously posted online by a Tea Party blogger who invited activists to descend on the house. A gas line outside the brother's house was cut.

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) was the target of threatening faxes and phone calls, including death threats. (Ed. Which is why Stupak retired from the House)

A brick was thrown through the window of the Democratic Party office in Rochester, New York.

Rep. Anthony Weiner's office in Kew Gardens, New York, had to be evacuated after suspicious white powder was found in an envelope mailed to the office.

A thrown brick smashed a window at Rep. Louise Slaughter's district office in Niagara Falls, New York.

Slaughter also received a message claiming that "snipers were being deployed to kill those members who voted yes for health care," according to Politico.

The FBI arrested a California man for making threatening phone calls to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

A tossed brick demolished a window at the Sedgwick County Democratic Party headquarters in Wichita, Kansas.

A devoted Glenn Beck fan left a serious of death threats (“Kill the fucking Senator!“) on the voice mail at the office of Sen. Patty Murray

Many, many, many - MANY - more examples in comments here.

At the same time what acts of violence have really occurred against the right wing? The Kenneth Gladney Brawl and the vicious Egging by Harry Reid supporters?

Oh, the Humanity of "Both Sides".... Libs throw eggs, Repubs throw bricks, threaten peoples lives, call them "Nigger" and "Faggot", show up with guns and plot mass murder. Yeah, that's "Equal".

The issue isn't really whether Loughner himself was inspired by either the left of the right - the truth is it's the fact that he wasn't politically movited is a shocking Surprise! after everything that's already happened and attacks that have already occurred.

It wasn't anyone on the left wing that threatened Rep Eric Cantor or sent Fake Anthrax to Keith Olbermann and Jon Stewart - it was a guy from Red State.

Interesting that after all this Beck now wants to "Come Together" and stand against violence because when David Brock of Media Matters ask him and Sarah Palin to do exactly that after one of Beck's fans attempted to assasinate members of the ACLU and Tides Foundation - they laughed at him and said Brock was like the "sad kid in third grade".

BECK: Did you ever think you'd see the day, Sarah, when Media Matters would be calling you the only hope for America? I mean, that's incredible. It's sad. We were deciding-- We were trying to decide if it was laughable or kind of sad, pathetic, kind of like that smelly kid in third grade that everyone looked around and looked at and went, "That's kind of sad."

PALIN: Yeah, it's a little bit of both, I think. I see more humor it in though, and it shows, though, how pathetic their argument is that they would be that desperate as to reach out to me to say, you know, that you need to stop Glenn Beck, you know, you need to stop what they perceive as incitement to violence. Glenn, you know I abhor violence. I know you do. Hating war, hating civil war, and praying for peace, and wanting peace and freedom for our kids in a civil society. That is the mission here, is explaining to Americans what the threats are to our peace and to our opportunities and to our freedoms in America.

BECK: Sarah, I can't tell you how disappointed I am in you. I really - I thought you were going to take this moment to lead. I really did. But now, now Sarah -- and I want you to understand this -- now Media Matters is going to come out against you and they're not going to like you anymore. They like you so much, but now they're going to have to isolate you too. Oh boy.

PALIN: Yeah because here's the [inaudible] They were on my side.

Pardon me, if I don't take Palin's sudden calls for "Peace" all that seriously.

Now, one of the "Both Sides" do it attacks has been that during the 2008 Campaign Barack Obama once said "If they bring a knife to a (political) fight, we'll bring a gun".

Mobster wisdom tells us never to bring a knife to a gun fight. But what does political wisdom say about bringing a gun to a knife fight?

That’s exactly what Barack Obama said he would do to counter Republican attacks “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun,” Obama said at a Philadelphia fundraiser Friday night. “Because from what I understand folks in Philly like a good brawl. I’ve seen Eagles fans.”

Ok, if you shouldn't say that anyone is inciting violence then why did the McCain Campaign jump all over Obama for this?

“Barack Obama’s call for ‘new politics’ is officially over. In just 24 hours, Barack Obama attacked one of America’s pioneering women CEOs, rejected a series of joint bipartisan town halls, and said that if there’s a political knife fight, he’d bring a gun,” McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds said in a statement.

Now, it's fair to criticize that statement - but it's also fair to say that this kind of language isn't a habit of Barack Obama's. In the case of people like Sarah Palin it really wasn't a one time event, it is A FETISH on her part, and the part of people like Sharon Angle and Michele Bachmann.

Angle: If the country keeps going the way it is, we'll have to look at "Second Amendment Remedies"...

And Angle didn't just say it once, she said it at least three times on tape or on camera.

After we heard this did we hear anyone in the Republican Party criticize this kind of talk when it happened? Nope. Nor did anyone on the right call on Michele Bachmann for this...

Bachmann: I'm like a foreign correspondant behind enemy lines. I want people in Minnesota Armed in Dangerous on this Energy Tax. Thomas Jefferson told us having a Revolution every now and then is a good thing.

Or when Joe Stack flew his plane into the Austin IRS Building and Steve King said he sympathized with hating and "getting rid" of the IRS.




It's not like there wasn't violent implications to this graphic, although Palin's people now proclaim that these were just "Survey Sites" - not "Gun Sites".


Yeah, right. If Palin didn't think this image was wrong - why did she scrub it from her site as soon as the Shooting Took Place?

Then there's here "Don't Retreat, Reload" comments.

Palln: Don't Retreat, Reload - and that is not a call for violence. Don't let the "Lame-stream" media change the conversation.

Look Sarah, if you need to immediate explain what you really meant after putting forth an inflammatory comment - then maybe you Shouldn't have said it.

And to the Tea Party, when you start complaining that you're being "Smeared" when people are simply quoting what you've actually said - maybe you should've THOUGHT about what you saying before you speak.

When Aaron Sorkin criticized Sarah Palin for committing Animal Cruelty on her TV Show, she turned around and accused the screenwriter of a "A Few Good Men", "The American President", "The West Wing" and "The Social Network" of advocating violence against people through his films and movies. How does it work that she doesn't think politicians should be held accountable for their use of violent imagery and words but somehow writers of Fictional TV Shows and Movies Should?

Then after that she accused him of advocating hunting animals for their fur while sitting 5 feet from a Bear-Skin Rug!

Palin: I'll bet in his shows he's had some of the self-same high-powered rifles used - only they were pointed at people, not animals.

He said it would be ok, if it were for "Fashion" and I was shocked, I couldn't believe he would be so hypocritical to suggests it "Ok" to kill an animal for it's fur.

Having an occasional mis-statement is understandable and excusable - by anyone - but doing it over and over again and then repeatedly trying to deflect responsibility for your own statements onto to everyone else is a dangerous PATTERN AND PRACTICE of deliberate incitement, and calling out the people who do this is a requirement in maintaining a civil society - it's not an example of "Both Sides Doing it".

I did a music video about this a year ago - It's still relevant.



Vyan

Update: FNC's Brit Hume complains that "Disagreeing with Liberalism" is being called "Hate".

Among the most astonishing things to come out of the attempt on the life of Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords have been the knee-jerk reactions and the efforts by the liberal establishment to pin the blame for this tragedy on conservatives.

On Fox News Channel’s “Special Report” Monday, senior political analyst Brit Hume challenged the left’s narrative.

“It has become a habit of the American left to equate disagreement with liberals and liberalism with hate,” Hume said. “So convinced do they seem of the virtue of their cause that the only possible explanation for resistance to it must be hatred.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/01/10/fncs-brit-hume-rips-left-wing-habit-of-equating-disagreement-with-liberalism-with-hate/#ixzz1AhGAnKw1

What's being objected to is NOT criticism or disagreement of Liberalism. How is "Don't Retreat, Reload" a criticism? It's a threat. "Second Amendment Remedies" is not a disagreement. Fantasizing about killing Michael Moore & Nancy Pelosi is not a difference of opinion on policy. What people object too is the long litany of repeated calls for the use of violence, force and MURDER against Democrats by Conservatives, Tea Partiers and People On FOX NEWS.

How many times did we hear, when Liberals criticized George Bush that they were simply obsessed with Hatred and "Bush Derangement Syndrome?" In fact, didn't Fox News Contributor Charles Krauthammer Coin that Term? (Answer: Yes, he did)

So when Liberals criticize, it's not because they have a point - they just HATE. But when Liberals complain about being criticized (and threatened, sent fake Anthrax and SHOT AT), they can't respond to any legitimate concerns without Calling it "Hate"?. How many dead bodies - from Knoxville to the Holocaust Musuem to the attempted ACLU and Tides Attack - does it take before it becomes Hate?

Seriously, these people just can't help themselves from whining whenever they're being called out on their BULLSHIT.

Wading through the Flood of Tea Party Crocodile Tears

Unlike a lot of people here, i'm not going to jump up on a stump and blame anything that happened yesterday on Sarah Palin, Jan Brewer, Glenn Beck, Sharon Angle or Michele Bachmann.

Truth is, they had nothing to do with it.

This wasn't their fault. They didn't inspire or incite this kid to do anything. One honest and serious look at his Youtube Page and Videos shows that he was clearly on the verge of incoherence and suicide.



He doesn't site any of these people, he doesn't quote any of these people, he had his own issues. So I think it's completely unfair to tar them with this particular brush, but when it comes to their apparent Crocodile Tears over this tragedy, that's another story.

When I first looked at that page based on an ABCNews Tweet about 17 hours ago it had a total of 300 hits, now as of 7am PST, it's has over 900,000.

I think a lot more people need to take a look at Loughner's various social media pages where he repeatedly refers to himself in the past tense.

Schools:I attended school: Thornydale elementary,Tortolita Middle School, Mountain View Highschool, Northwest Aztec Middle College, and Pima Community

College.
Interests:My favorite interest was reading, and I studied grammar. Conscience dreams were a great study in college!

Books:I had favorite books: Animal Farm, Brave New World, The Wizard Of OZ, Aesop Fables, The Odyssey, Alice Adventures Into Wonderland, Fahrenheit 451, Peter Pan, To Kill A Mockingbird, We The Living, Phantom Toll Booth, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Pulp,Through The Looking Glass, The Communist Manifesto, Siddhartha, The Old Man And The Sea, Gulliver's Travels, Mein Kampf, The Republic, and Meno.

In one online statement he says "You could consider me a terrorist", but the definition of a terrorist is someone who commits violence in order to push forward a political agenda. But what exactly is this guy agenda?

So even though we are still fairly early in this situation, less than 24 hours after the incident, even though he does make an strange incoherent set of comments about the Constitution and the Gold Standard, I really don't see any political TEA PARTY red flags coming from Jared Loughner. Yes, even though Sarah Palin had Giffords in her Cross Hairs there's still no evidence YET that this guy took any heed of what she, or anyone else had to say about it. It could be as simple as the fact that Loughner happens to live in Giffords' district, and her public event that day was as good a spot as any for his impending implosion.

Again, It's simply not fair or responsible to blame this shooting on the Rhetoric of Republicans or the Tea Party without a concrete link of some kind.

To prove that point contrast Loughner's incoherence with this guy... who was intercepted by Police on his way to stage a gun attack on the ACLU and Tides Foundation.

Williams: And it was the things that he did, it was the things he exposed that blew my mind. Beck would never say anything about a conspiracy, would never advocate violence, he'll never do anything like, of this nature, but he'll give you every ounce of evidence that you could possibly need.

Williams: Soros has got himself a little system where rich people can donate and remain anonymous

Williams: Beck is going to deny everything about a violent approach. He's going to deny conspiracies, but he'll give you everything you need to believe them. He's protecting himself, and you can't blame him for that.

Beck: To the day I die, I'm going to be a progressive hunter. And drive a stake through the heart of the blood suckers.

Let's recall that when this happened - WE DID NOT see Glenn Beck stand up and say "This is wrong, and I repudiate what this guy did and any connection to him". Let's recall what happened when Media Matters begged Sarah Palin to step forward and say something about this...

Brock: I"m going to personally call Sarah.

We all know the showman Glenn Beck and his Fox News bosses have no incentive to call a halt to this dangerous rhetoric and demonizing of enemies on their own. Recently addressing a NewsCorp shareholder who questioned whether Murdoch was comfortable with what Beck is doing on behalf of shareholders, Murdoch said that he does not agree with everything said on Fox, and called the channel "simply unstoppable." It appears, as suggested in various media reports in recent weeks about what a divisive figure Beck has become even within the company, that Beck can't be controlled either by Murdoch or Roger Ailes, who recruited Beck as part of his strategy to declare war on the Obama administration.

However, as one of Beck's biggest boosters, is a respected leader in the GOP and conservative movement, and Fox's own star contributor, we think Palin is well positioned to pull Beck back from his current course, to hold him accountable for his reckless words. Palin's credibility as a leader relies on more than just endorsing candidates and an uncanny knack for making headlines. It requires a moral compass she repeatedly says she possesses to make this country a better, safer place to live for all Americans.

And what did Sarah do? She went on Glenn Beck's Radio show and Laughed at David Brock...

BECK: Did you ever think you'd see the day, Sarah, when Media Matters would be calling you the only hope for America? I mean, that's incredible. It's sad. We were deciding-- We were trying to decide if it was laughable or kind of sad, pathetic, kind of like that smelly kid in third grade that everyone looked around and looked at and went, "That's kind of sad."

PALIN: Yeah, it's a little bit of both, I think. I see more humor it in though, and it shows, though, how pathetic their argument is that they would be that desperate as to reach out to me to say, you know, that you need to stop Glenn Beck, you know, you need to stop what they perceive as incitement to violence. Glenn, you know I abhor violence. I know you do. Hating war, hating civil war, and praying for peace, and wanting peace and freedom for our kids in a civil society. That is the mission here, is explaining to Americans what the threats are to our peace and to our opportunities and to our freedoms in America.

BECK: Sarah, I can't tell you how disappointed I am in you. I really - I thought you were going to take this moment to lead. I really did. But now, now Sarah -- and I want you to understand this -- now Media Matters is going to come out against you and they're not going to like you anymore. They like you so much, but now they're going to have to isolate you too. Oh boy.

PALIN: Yeah because here's the [inaudible] They were on my side.

Oh really? Sarah Palin: Princess of Peace?

You had your chance to stand up against rhetorical violence and you BLEW IT Sarah, instead you decided to choose sides and sarcastically argued that you weren't on the side of Media Matters when they asked for your help. You and Glenn did exactly what Byron Wlliams SAID you would do - which is to Play Dumb and Innocent. Your reaction here was to double-down on the rhetoric just like Mark William's did when the NAACP called out the Tea Party allowing Racism.

That didn't turn out so well for him.

Palin and Beck's response then was to Pour Rocket Fuel on the Bonfire so there's frankly no reason to expect that their real feelings are much different now. What I expect them to do is run away from any responsibility for this saying that any criticism of them is an "attack on their free speech and political activism", then turn around and blame the Left for the Shooting. (Both of which, at least for rank and file Tea Party, have already occurred).

Isn't it funny how the Tea Party loves and endorses Profiling the actions of few individuals within a group and assigning responsibility to everyone else in that group - until they themselves happen to be the group in question? In fact their reflexive blame shifting is so deep I'm expecting any minute that Andrew Breitbart is going to claim that the Shooting "Never Happened" because no one caught it on video tape, and offer $10,000 to anyone who can prove the Rep Giffords and 17 other people really did get shot!

So, as a result I think the really valid Criticism of Palin, Beck and the Tea Party isn't that they may have sparked this attack on Rep Gifford's yesterday with their words -- because IMO they didn't -- it's that their Crocodile Tears today after the fact ring hollow as an empty bass drum since they FAILED to respond to so many events over the past two years, a list of which I compiled just two months ago after NPR received a Bomb Threat in response to the firing of Juan Williams.

The other day a Moveon.org activist was viciously curb stomped by a Rand Paul campaign volunteer.

In July Byron Williams was arrested in a freeway police shootout, while on his way to stage a violent attack on the ACLU and Tides Foundation after Glenn Beck repeatedly argued they were "Evil".

A Pheonix Man was indicted for threatening to Kill Rep Raul Grijalva over his opposition to SB1070.

Charles Alan Wilson was arrested for threatening to Kill Senator Patty Murray in Washington State.

Members of the Right-Wing Hutaree Militia were arrested an charged for plotting to shoot, ambush and bomb police in order to begin an anti-Government "Civil War".

A man was arrested for phoning threats against Nancy Pelosi.

Phone threats were made against Rep Betsy Markley.

'better hope I don't run into you in a dark alley with a knife, a club or a gun.

Someone cut the propane gas line at Rep Tom Perriello's brothers home, which appeared to be attempted arson.

Death Threats were issued against Rep Bart Stupak for his support of Health Care Reform.

Pictures of a Noose were Faxed Rep. James Clyburn because of his HCR support.

A Brick was thrown through the window of the Democratic Headquaters in Rochester NY.

Another brick was thrown at Rep Louis Slaughter's office, and a phone message threatening a "Sniper'.

A window was shattered at Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Office.

A envelope of White Powder was mail to Rep. Anthony Weiners Office with a threatening note about Health Care.

Packets of White Powder were also sent to Keith Olbermann, David Letterman, Jon Stewart and Speaker Pelosi by Free Republic Poster, Ann Coulter & Michelle Malkin acolyte Chad Costanza.

Rep Steve Dreihaus received death threats and had his home address published by a right-wing blogger.

Bricks were thrown through the window of Wichita Country Democratic Office after a "Nationwide Call to vandalize Democratic Offices" was made by the former head of the Alabama Constitutional Militia.

Selfstyled "Christian bin Laden" and Army of God member Justin Moose threatened to Bomb Women's Health Clinics

Arson was committed at The Murfeeboro Tennesee Mosque constuction site.

Scott Reoder shot and killed Dr. George Tiller.

James Adkisson shot 5 and killed 2 "Liberals" at a Knoxville Unitarian Church, because he wanted to murder every person Bernard Goldberg said was "Destroying America".

Michael Enright slashed a cab drivers throat for being Muslim.

Joe Stack flew a plane into the Austin IRS Building

Richard Poplowski killed three police officers in Pittsburgh in a rage over Obama's supposed "anti-gun stance'

James Von Brunn killed security guard at the Holocaust Museum on his way to attack David Axelrod.

James Cummings attempted to build a Radiological Dirty Bomb in Maine to attack President Obama.

If would be fair to include the Death Threats against Eric Cantor in this list as well, but not as an example of violent "Left Wing" rhetoric - because that issue was about his failure to stop the Health Care Bill which most on the Left Support, or want to see strengthened. It's not like these guys are above a bit of political fratricide.

But where exactly was Sarah Palin and the Republican Tea Party when all this - including the threats against Cantor - happened?

They were here... as I said in my post about the NPR Bomb threat.

The default position for all Republicans on issues like this are to duck, dodge and deflect that blame - accuse the perpetrators of simply being "insane", and then blame the victims for bringing all of this on themselves.

Oh yeah, and they'll whine about being linked or blamed for any of these - even when people from their own political campaigns are committing assault. Sarah's history is that she condemned Rahm Emmanuel comments about "Retards", then defended Rush Limbaugh for saying essentially the same exact thing. She attacked David Letterman for "insensitive speech" but defended Dr. Laura for "Nigger NIgger Nigger Nigger"! She's shown that Glenn Beck could talk about curb stomping a baby seal in her front yard, and she'd happily volunteer to help hold it down.

Think the curb-stomping reference is over the top? Not long ago a Republican Strategist connected to Dick Morris and Fox News tweeted this about Media Matters

Aside from the fact a gentleman doesn't hit women, explain to me why the MMFA boys don't get curbstomped fortnightly?

This is who they truly are. That's how they really feel.

Meanwhile they Pretend to be this...

My sincere condolences are offered to the family of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the other victims of today’s tragic shooting in Arizona.

On behalf of Todd and my family, we all pray for the victims and their families, and for peace and justice.

– Sarah Palin

Sorry Sarah, no sale - I'm not buying it. When you were specifically asked to come out against violence you made a mockery of it. You've already shown you don't give a damn what happens to Democrats in this country.

And from Arizona Governor Jan Brewer we get even more Crocodile Tears.

Governor Jan Brewer released this statement on the shooting:

All of Arizona is shocked and deeply saddened by the horrific tragedy that transpired this morning in Tucson.

I have been in contact throughout the morning with law enforcement officials, as well as Tucson mayor Bob Walkup, and just a short while ago I spoke personally with President Obama. The President conveyed his heartfelt sympathies for our State, and our shared determination to ensure that justice is fully served.

I am just heartbroken. Gabby is more than just a colleague, she is my friend. She has always been a noble public servant. My thoughts and prayers are with Congresswoman Giffords and her family, the Congresswoman’s staff and their families, and well as the other victims of this senseless and cruel violence.

Where exactly was all this heartfelt emotion when two citizens of her state died as a result of being DENIED DESPERATELY NEEDED TRANSPLANTS because of her decision to cut a tiny sliver of money from the Arizona Budget?

Brewer: I believe that the media has blown that totally completely out of proportion. It's an unfortunate thing that people have passed away, that the two people that have died, but I do believe that it wasn't because of the funding at this particular time,

Hmm... Boo hoo?

Also where the "heartfelt condolences" from Sarah Palin the Death Panel Queen when this was going on in Jan Brewer's Arizona?



Nothing but Crickets...

It's easy to well up tears when something horrible happens to someone you know and can identify with. It's easy to offer condolences to those you think are "worthy" of your compassion - what's hard to do, is to reach past all that and offer condolences and compassion to people who actually need it regardless of whether you find them sympathetic, or appealing or ON YOUR SIDE!. It's easy to have compassion for your friends, but not your "Enemies".

It's easy to say the right thing after it's too late, and hard to do it when it means something and counts.

Jan? Sarah? Tea Party? It's too late.

Vyan

Forbes Says "Health Care Reform is Working"

From Forbes via TalkingPointsMemo.

The first statistics are coming in and, to the surprise of a great many, Obamacare might just be working to bring health care to working Americans precisely as promised.

The major health insurance companies around the country are reporting a significant increase in small businesses offering health care benefits to their employees.

Why?

Because the tax cut created in the new health care reform law providing small businesses with an incentive to give health benefits to employees is working.

So much for that "Job-Killing" Bill, eh?

Republicans, headed by Deficit Fraud Paul Ryan and the Heritage Foundation have been arguing for months that the the Health Reform Act would cost business and force them to either drop coverage or cut jobs due to their "intrusive employer mandates and taxes".

From the Speakers "Report on ObamaCare".

“Evaluating the Small Business Tax Credit
Sections 1421 and 10105 of the health care bills passed by Congress provide for the creation of a tax credit to help small businesses afford the cost of covering their workers. Evidence suggests, however, this tax credit actually has the opposite effect than was intended: it acts as a disincentive to increase wages and hire additional workers. A NFIB analysis determined that the tax credit “will do little to nothing to make purchasing insurance more affordable for small firms”:

 Early estimates by CBO indicated that just 12 percent of small business workers would benefit.

 The credit is very restrictive and requires small business owners to meet three complicated “tests” to qualify for any portion of the credit.

 The credit is only available for a maximum of six years, but according to the actuaries at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, health care costs will continue to increase well after those six years.

Response to the small business tax credit has been described as “tepid” because “the credit starts to phase out for companies that pay average annual wages of more than $25,000 or employ more than 25 workers. The value of the benefit declines quickly, so many business owners in high-cost states get no tax break, and those elsewhere often say the credit is too small to make much of a difference.”

Well, that's the Republican theory, but what's the reality?

From the LA Times.

Reporting from Gladstone, Mo. — Major insurers around the country are reporting that a growing number of small businesses are signing up to give their workers health benefits, a sign of potential progress for the nation's battered healthcare system.

The increase, although not universal, has brought new security to thousands of workers, many of whom did not have insurance or were at risk of losing it.

An important selling point has been a tax credit that the nation's new healthcare law provides to companies with fewer than 25 employees and moderate-to-low pay scales to help offset the cost of providing benefits. The tax credit is one of the first few provisions to kick in; much of the law rolls out over the next few years.

...

For insurers, the market presents a big opportunity. Nationally, three-quarters of businesses with 10 to 24 workers offer benefits. About half of those with three to nine employees provide health plans. By comparison, 99% of firms with more than 200 employees offer benefits.

Now some insurers are reporting significant jumps in coverage

OOps.

Despite Republican's sticking their fingers in their ears and going "LALALaaaaa" the truth is that millions of small businesses are eligible for this credit, in fact as many as 400,000 of them in California alone.

Garnering little to no press attention when released in July, a report undertaken by Families USA and the Small Business Majority found that 80 percent of California’s small businesses with 25 or fewer employees will qualify for federal tax credits under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act starting this year. This means that of the state’s 571,200 small businesses, 465,500 are eligible for the tax credits in 2010. Of those, 30 percent – or 135,900 – qualify for the maximum tax credit amount.

This credit currently offsets 35% of the cost of Healthcare for these small businesses, and in 2014 the credit increases to 50% of the their costs.

And you know what happens as more and more small business begin to offer health insurance? The overall costs begin to go down. Back to the Times.

For Bistro Kids, a small business in the Kansas City suburb of Gladstone that serves school meals made with locally grown, organic produce, the deal was too good to pass up.

...

Like other small-business owners nationwide, Firquain had been keeping a file of health insurance quotes. But every year, the prices seemed to get more out of reach. "It just wasn't realistic," she said.

Now, Firquain is offering her 10 chefs a standard individual preferred provider organization plan with a $1,000 deductible and $30 co-pays. The employees pay $67 to $212 a month, depending on age and gender.

Back to Forbes:

The next argument has been that the PPACA is a job killer.

If these small businesses found the new law to be so onerous, why have so many of them voluntarily taken advantage of the benefits provided in the law to give their employees these benefits? They were not mandated to do so. And to the extent that the coming mandate obligations might figure into their thinking, would you not imagine they would wait until 2014 to make a move as the rules do not go into effect until that time?

Of course, there is the nagging banter as to how Obamacare is leading us down the road to socialism.

Let it go, folks.

Private market insurance companies are experiencing significant growth because of a tax break provided by the PPACA. I may have missed the day this was discussed in economics class, but I’m pretty sure this is not a socialistic result of federal legislation.

This certainly doesn't address every issue and concern brought up by reform, and there are still significant complaints coming larges businesses with low-income employees who have limited and weak insurance options such as McDonald's and Jack-in-the-Box who are mandated to provide 'quality' healthcare if they have 50 employees or more, or else pay a $2,000 per employee penalty. Of course the Obama Administration is offering waivers to many of these companies to prevent them from cutting their workforce or dropping covering until the Insurance Exchange come online with tax credits and subsidies similar to what these small business already have and begin to offer less costly choices for those companies, but that time may come far sooner if more and more small business begin to sign up for insurance and begin to further spread the risk pool and share costs.

Vyan

Boehner, Ryan and Rank Republican CBO Hypocrisy

So yesterday the CBO announces that the cost of Repealing Health Care Reform would be $230 Billion over ten years - and to this newly minted Speaker Boehner proclaims that he's possess the powers of Professor X.

Well, I do not believe that repealing the job-killing health care law will increase the deficit," Boehner replied. "CBO is entitled to their opinion, but they're locked within constraints of the 1974 Budget Act."

...

"I don't think anybody in this town believes that repealing Obamacare is going to increase the deficit."

Besides Beohner's Jedi mind-reading tricks we've also had some sweet tweets from our new Budget Committee Chairmain - Paul Ryan.

@RepPaulRyan Setting the record straight on budget-busting health care law: http://bit.ly/fndkzq

Who was far more specific about what he feels that CBO is wrong with it's projection.

Claim: In his letter to Speaker Boehner, CBO director Elmendorf writes that the Democrats’ new health care law “would reduce budget deficits over the 2010-2019 period and in subsequent years; consequently, we expect that repealing that legislation would increase budget deficits.”

Response: The same budget gimmicks that allowed the Democrats to get a CBO score last spring saying that their massive entitlement expansion would somehow reduce the deficit are still in place today. Nothing has changed about the underlying legislation.

Claims of deficit reduction are still excluding the $115 billion needed to implement the law. The Democrats are still double-counting $521 billion from Social Security payroll taxes, CLASS Act premiums, and Medicare cuts. The score still doesn’t account for the costly “doc-fix” provision that Democrats stripped out of the bill and passed separately.

Ryan is correct to note that the change from $143 Billion in estimated savings from the original forecast only shifted to $230 Billion because this forecast is for a different period - from 2012 to 2021, instead of 2010-2019, but that both estimates work off the same basic presumptions.

Let me take the last part of Ryan's argument first because if you think about for more than a nano-second - it's truly striking in it's rank ridiculousness. Ryan is criticizing the CBO estimate for not including the cost of the "doc fix" - Because the DOC FIX WASN'T INCLUDED IN THE LAW!

Follow me slowly here -- why exactly should the CBO include the cost of repealing something that's Not Going to be REPEALED by the theoretical implementation of HR2?

Once you've wrapped your mind around that astounding example of illogical sollipism there's also the fact that the CBO did address issues like this in their original report on the final Reconciliation Bill of 2010.

Key Considerations. Those longer-term calculations reflect an assumption that the provisions of the reconciliation proposal and H.R. 3590 are enacted and remain unchanged throughout the next two decades, which is often not the case for major legislation. For example, the sustainable growth rate mechanism governing Medicare’s payments to physicians has frequently been modified (either through legislation or administrative action) to avoid reductions in those payments, and legislation to do so again is currently under consideration by the Congress

They admit that the Doc Fix was in the process of being addressed in another bill - and they logically didn't include it because, that's a different BILL.

Ryan claims that the CBO didn't include "$115 Billion needed to implement the law" but reviewing the report I found this...

CBO expects that the cost to the Internal Revenue Service of
implementing the eligibility determination, documentation, and
verification processes for premium and cost sharing subsidies would
probably be between $5 billion and $10 billion over 10 years.

CBO expects that the costs to the Department of Health and Human
Services (especially the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services) and the Office of Personnel Management of implementing
the changes in Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health
Insurance Program, as well as certain reforms to the private
insurance market, would probably be at least $5 billion to $10 billion
over 10 years. (The administrative costs of establishing and
operating the exchanges were included as direct spending in CBO’s
estimate for the legislation.)

So basically - Ryan is Lying when he says CBO didn't include the cost of implementing the Bill. They did. He doesn't specify, but if you surmise that his "$115 Billion" comes from is the cost of implementing the State-Based High Risk Pools between now and 2014 and the Exchanges after that point (Even though CBO specifically said this was included), the problem that remains is that this is a cost to the STATES and shouldn't be included in the Federal Deficit!!!.

The other assumption one could make, because as I said Ryan doesn't specify where this magic money is being spent, is that's he's just plain wrong because Table 4 of the CBO report happens to include $5 Billion for the Costs Federal Subsidies for High-Risk Pools and Exchange Subsidies.

Even when reading the speakers report on how much "Obamacare Kills Jobs and creates a $701 Billion Deficit" it's still not clear where this "$115 Billion" comes from.

$115 billion in new government spending required to implement the health care law is not factored into CBO’s initial estimate. On May 11, CBO notified Congress that additional discretionary spending would be required to implement the government takeover of health care. This includes roughly $9 billion for both the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Department of Health and Human Services
(HHS).l i

This claims simultaneously that the CBO did not include an estimate for IRS costs - when they actually did include these costs as between $5 and $10 Billion - and that those costs both $9 Billion and $115 Billion at the same time.

Ryan claims that CBO Double-Counts the benefits of Medicare Savings in the plan - yet I can only find it once - on Table 2 (Page 18) at $455 Billion in Savings over 10 Years. Yet again, this appears to be another LIE, but the Speakers report may shed some light on it.

$398 billion is claimed in Medicare Hospital Insurance Fund savings. CBO has previously noted that “to describe the full amount of HI trust fund savings as both improving the government’s ability to pay future Medicare benefits and financing new spending outside of Medicare would essentially double-count a large share of those savings and thus overstate the improvement in the government’s fiscal
position.”

Ok, I don't see a reference to $398 Billion in savings to the "Medicare Hospital Insurance Fund" (Also Known as Medicare Part-A) in the March 20, 2010 CBO Report at all - so that looks like yet another lie. The report notes a Medicare Fee-for-Service Rate (which includes Parts-A and B) reduction of $193 Billion and a Medicare Advantage (Part C) reduction of $139 Billion. So basically the Republcans are saying CBO claimed $398 Billion in savings for Part-A ALONE but CBO actually say Part A, B, & C savings all together only comes up $332 Billion which still doesn't add up to $398 Billion.

And on top of all that Medicare Trustee Report Says This...

The Medicare Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund is projected to remain solvent until 2029, 12 years longer than reported in 2009 thanks to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, according to the Medicare Board of Trustees 2010 annual report, which was released today. In addition, the HI long-range actuarial deficit has been reduced to 0.66 percent of taxable payroll, or one-sixth of its projected amount before enactment of the Affordable Care Act. Although HI costs are estimated to continue to exceed trust fund income for the next few years, as they have since 2008, the savings under the new health reform act are expected to result in fund surpluses during 2014-22.

So according to the Trustees Report, the same report that in 1994 sent the Gingrich Congress into a desperate flat-spin tizzy to force a Balanced the Budget by 2002 and consequently Shutdown the Government - TWICE, Medicare - as of now - is headed for a Surplus in 2014 as shown by this chart.

Table II.E1.—Estimated Operations of the HI Trust Fund under Intermediate Assumptions, Calendar Years 2009-2019 [Dollar amounts in billions]
Calendar year	Total income	Total expenditures	Change in fund	Fund at year end	Ratio of assets to expenditures
2009	225.4	242.5	-17.1	304.2	132
2010	217.6	249.3	-31.7	272.5	122
2011	241.5	259.3	-17.8	254.7	105
2012	254.4	271.2	-16.8	237.9	94
2013	277.0	282.5	-5.5	232.4	84
2014	297.2	296.0	1.2	233.6	79
2015	315.9	305.0	10.8	244.4	77
2016	336.6	321.2	15.4	259.8	76
2017	357.2	338.2	19.0	278.8	77
2018	377.9	357.9	20.0	298.8	78
2019	397.9	379.7	18.2	317.0	79

More from the Trustees

The Affordable Care Act has introduced important changes to the
Medicare program that are designed to reduce costs, increase
revenues, expand the scope of benefits, and encourage the
development of new systems of health care delivery that will improve
health outcomes and cost efficiency.

Also, getting back to Ryan again, as a result of the Tax Deal that Obama made with Congressional Republicans last month, Social Security Payroll taxes were REDUCED by 2% so it's no longer a benefit to the deficit, it's now a negative.

Now while Ryan has a field day trying to rip the CBO a brand new orifice with his latest batch of tweets he seemed proud as punch to accept it's conclusions when it review HIS socalled "Roadmap for America".

The Roadmap is my attempt to offer America a choice, an alternative to Progressivism’s dreary path to welfare statism. It shows, using CBO analysis, that it is not too late for America to choose a path true to its founding ideas. We can still be that exceptional nation.

So when the CBO says something that Republicans like Beohner and Ryan dogmatically choose not to believe they say the Congress Official Non-Partisan Budget Umpire is "Entitled to their Opinion", but when they want to bolster the clout of their own ideas they TOUT the fact that it's been analyzed by the CBO?

Hypocrit Much, Mr Ryan?

Of course, while he crows about his plan being CBO scored he ignores what the CBO actually said about his plan.

On Social Security Ryan's plan would both cut benefits and RAISE payroll taxes.

Traditional retirement benefits would be reduced below those scheduled under current law for many workers who are age 55 or younger in 2011.

The Roadmap would also eliminate the income and payroll tax exclusions for
employment-based health insurance. As a result, more earnings would become taxable for Social Security purposes, thus boosting future benefit payments, and payroll tax revenues credited to the Social Security trust funds would increase.

On Medicare the eligibility age would be raised, and the system converted into vouches program which would slash it's effectiveness.

The age of eligibility for Medicare would increase incrementally from 65 (for people born before 1956), as it is under current law, to 69 years and 6 months for people born in 2022 and later. Starting in 2021, new enrollees would no longer receive coverage through the current program but, instead, would be given a voucher with which to purchase private health insurance.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Health Stamps.

And on the Budget?

The Roadmap, in the form that CBO analyzed, would result in less federal spending for Medicare and Medicaid as well as lower tax revenues than projected under CBO’s alternative fiscal scenario (see Table 1). On balance, those changes would reduce federal budget deficits and the federal debt.

So it would cut the deficit, which as a point in fact is already going down, but it would do so by punishing the poor, the sick and the old at a time when 74% of the Public supports raises taxes on the Rich to Balance the Budget.

So much for the "Will of the People"

Contrast that result with both the CBO and the Medicare Trustees say that the "Obamacare" reduce the deficit, increase the number of people covered and improve quality.

Bu there is another source that both Boehner and Ryan have depended on, a report from he Independant Centers for Medicare and Medicaid which the Heritage Foundation Characterized this way.

Obamacare will bend the cost curve up, causeing an additional $289 billion in expenditure

Millions will lose their existing private coverage

18 million Americans will either face jail time or be forced to pay a new tax they will receive no benefit from.

8.5 million seniours who currently get such services as coordinated care for chronic conditions, routine eye and hearing examinations, and preventive-care services would lose their existing private coverage.

More than half the people who gain health insurance will receive it through the welfare program Medicaid.

Hospitals currently serving Medicare patients might be forced to stop doing so, thus making it much more difficult for seniors to get health care.

Supply constraints will mean that the 21 million people who are gaining health insurance through Medicaid are going to have a very tough time finding a doctor who will treat them.

Yet, Surprise surprise - the actual CMS Report says nothing of the kind.

By 2019, the mandates, along with the Medicaid expansion would reduce the number of uninsured from an estimated 57 Million - to 23 Million.

Another 10 Million people would gain insurance through the newly created Exchange. Finally, we estimate the number of persons with employer-based insurance would increase by 2.9 Million.

CMS estimated that the total Cost of the Bill (which actually was the House Version of the Bill which was voted out in November of 2009 and Included The PUBLIC OPTION, not the final Bill that passed both the house and Senate) was $406 Billion over 10 years, including $900 Billion in outlays and over $571 Billion in Medicare Savings. They also estimated that the Costs for Plans Offered through the Public Option would be 5% lower than private plans, but that their premiums would be 4% Higher because of the "anti-selection by enrollees" - so that gives you an insight as to how their thinking seems to work.

There are a lot of differences between the CBO and CMS report but the most obvious thing that jumps out to me is their differing assumptions on the amount of subsidies and affordability credits available via the Exchange. CBO estimates that these credits will cost $107 Billion over the course of 10 years, where the CMS assumes it would cost $591 Billion. (As Jamie Henneman might say - "There's your problem") Exactly who is more correct is debatable since it all depends on how many people choose to join the exchange and how many of them will need subsidies. It's fair to say either of their estimate could be correct, and they both could be wrong - but we won't really know until 2019.

It's fair to note that the CBO also includes excise taxes on high-premium plans ($32 Billion), reinsurance and risk assessment collections ($106 Billion) that the CMS report doesn't include because it's focus is only on the outlays and savings associated primarily with Medicare and Medicaid not Taxes that will be collected and the fact that it's based on an earlier House version of the Bill, not the final version that passed and was signed by the President.

However you parse the disagreement here between CBO and CMS (or the Medicare Trustee's Report) it's clear that NONE OF THEM support half the claims we see coming from Republicans and the Heritage Foundation over Health Care. None. Zero. Zilch.


Vyan

Don't let them steal credit for this...

On January 5th, the same day that we were gifted with Speaker Boehner the Financial Times released this report on jobs.

A surprisingly positive jobs report and data showing that service industries expanded at their fastest pace since 2006 helped US stocks edge higher.

Private sector employment in the ADP report increased by 297,000 in December for the biggest monthly gain in jobs since 2001, coming in far above the average estimate of 100,000 extra jobs.

That's Three Times the projected estimate of jobs for that month, making it the 11th Straight Month of Job Growth.
\It could be argued that these were largely seasonal jobs and that it's unlikely that such a huge jump in job growth will be repeated, but it's also true that this assumption was already part of the initial estimate of 100,000.

This is what we've already seen happen to jobs as a result of Obama's Policies.



Additionally Republicans are claiming they'll be able to "Easily" cut $100 Billion per year from the Federal Budget, but they ignore the fact that THIS has already happened to the Deficit over the last two years.

Year Deficit in $Bilions 2008 458.55 2009 1412.68 2010 1555.58 2011 1266.68 2012 828.45 2013 727.32 2014 705.78

As of 2011, the Deficit has already come down by over $290 Billion - before the House Republicans have done thing. By 2012 it's projected to drop another $440 Billion. (The reason for this is because nearly all of the TARP and U.S. Auto Manufacturer Loans have been repaid - and the economy has begun to recover producing jobs which produce tax revenues - just as part of the reason the deficit jumped in 2009 during Bush's final year was mostly the economic meltdown and Obama finally placing the true cost of the Wars ON BUDGET.)

If we hear Republicans starting to say that They're Efforts have brought jobs back or that They've reduced the deficit - all we have to do is come back to these charts at this point and time and call those claims exactly what they are - BULL PUCKEY!

Vyan

Tucker Douche-Spigot Carlson say MIchael Vick should have been Executed

It's one thing to reflexive find fault with the President of an opposing party purely for partisan gain, it's another to wish Death and Execution on someone who has been through the legal system, paid his debt to society, and is working Very Hard to make amends and put his life back in order.

Oh, that we could expect this kind of recovery and redemption from Lindsey Lohan? Or Paris Hilton? Or Michael Peters? Or Mel Gibson? Or Kanye West?

But no, one of the guys whose actually did go to jail and has been the right thing has to be the target of Tucker Carlson's later explosion of Douche-Nozzlery.

Carlson: Personally I think he should be executed... some things are unforgivable.

First of all it's been well documented that President Obama called the head of the Eagles to talk about Alternative Energy since the announcement that their stadium would be Entirely Run by Solar, Wind and Cogeneration - including 80 Wind Turbines and 2,500 Solar Panels - not to discuss Michael Vick's rehabilitation. But Obama is a sports fan, and Michael Vick is ALMOST on tr-ack to be the potential League MVP behind just Tom Brady, so it's just something that came up naturally in conversation that the President was supportive of the Eagle's effort to give him a second chance, that's all.

Nothing complicated, nothing ulterior or even political about it. Just "Nice job, Congrats".

To be far more Fair to Tucker than he's been to Vick, Carlson it turns out happens to be passionate on this issue because he's donates time and supports a Rescue Animal Shelter in Washington. via Anna Marie Cox.

Carlson is well known as an animal advocate. For the past couple years, he and Ana Marie Cox have served as spokespeople for the Washington Animal Rescue League, and in fact co-hosted a holiday party for the organization just this month.

“It’s the oldest animal rescue league in Washington,” Cox said. “It’s a no-kill shelter, which appeals to my bleeding heart liberalism, but it also accepts no government funding, which appeals to Tucker’s libertarianism.”

She and Carlson were approached by the league after the organization found her name in its database of supporters.

So he's invested in the subject. Interesting that he's not as investing in say ... Moose and Caribou Torture! (From Aaron Sorkin's: I'm Sure the Moose Had it Coming)

I eat meat, chicken and fish, have shoes and furniture made of leather, and PETA is not ever going to put me on the cover of their brochure and for these reasons Palin thinks it's hypocritical of me to find what she did heart-stoppingly disgusting. I don't think it is, and here's why.

Like 95% of the people I know, I don't have a visceral (look it up) problem eating meat or wearing a belt. But like absolutely everybody I know, I don't relish the idea of torturing animals. I don't enjoy the fact that they're dead and I certainly don't want to volunteer to be the one to kill them and if I were picked to be the one to kill them in some kind of Lottery-from-Hell, I wouldn't do a little dance of joy while I was slicing the animal apart.

I didn't see Outraged Animal Activist Tucker Carlson jumping onto Sorkin's side of the argument here, did you?

Sorkin even made the link between Palin and Vick quite direct:

I can make the distinctio­n between the two of us but I’ve tried and tried and for the life of me, I can’t make a distinctio­n between what you [Sarah Palin] get paid to do and what Michael Vick went to prison for doing. I’m able to make the distinctio­n with no pangs of hypocrisy even though I get happy every time one of you faux-macho s***heads accidental­ly shoots another one of you in the face

So, pardon me if I ride this Palin/Sorkin tangent for bit, before returning directly to Tucker and his douchy-ness - as you'll see - I have my reasons.

Now, while I may be loathe to defend Palin, and Lord Knows I've given her a hard time, but it's fair to point out that she actually shot a Caribou, not a Moose (or a Wolf from a Helicopter) and that they actually did harvest the meat and prepared it for future meals by storing it in their freezer contrary to Sorkin's article. She wasn't just hunting to cruelly kill animals, she was hunting for food for her family - and after earning only a measly $12 Million in the last 9 months with her ruthless relentless self-promotion, she's clearly on the verge of some lean times in the near future - so it's not like she was just polishing her rugged outdoorsy image with this "hunt", and it had anything to keep the duchets flowing into her pockets from those easily duped by her snake-oil act.

(Ok,ok - I admit about half of that was snark!)

A better criticism of Palin would have been that she was a SLOB HUNTER, using a Varmint Rifle that was under power for their target game, and that it's sights were off making her a danger to everyone else around.

When PETA takes issue with Sarah Palin it should come as no surprise to anyone. However, when a group of hunters complain about Palin that can be considered a bit more newsworthy. A Mediate article documents complaints from a group of hunters who argue that Palin violated gun safety protocol. Other hunters argued that video showed Palin had no real experience in hunting as she claims. They cited the following examples of Palin's alleged hunting ignorance:
The group departs from the trip without bothering to sight in Palin's rifle
Palin chose her "varmint rifle" to go caribou hunting - a mistake the group claims no serious hunter would make.

. Palin had someone else carry her rifle for her and load her shells.

. When handed her dad's rifle Palin asked "Does it kick?" According to the hunters the answer should be obvious to anyone familiar with that type of rifle.

. Palin immediately put her finger on the trigger of the "hot" rifle handed to her by her dad. The hunters argued that the finger should not be put on the trigger until the moment right before the shot is fired.

Because of Sorkin's comments I actually saw the episode and all this is true, but the one who picked the varmint rifle for Sarah (to avoid the kick) and didn't bother to check the sights on his gun or Sarah's was her Dad, Chuck Heath, the "avid experienced hunter". Sarah actually used their companion's gun for the shoot since she couldn't hit anything with either of the guns her dad brought.

On the other hand, just like the ridiculous blather we're likely to hear from Carlson as this issue heats up, Palin's counter-argument was even more hole-riddled, claiming that Sorkin had endorsed the killing of animals for fashion - this she said while sitting just five feet from a bear skin rug as shown in the clip below - and that Sorkin had no credibility on the issue because as a TV producer "Alan" - as she called him - must have written plenty of TV Shows and Movies that showed people shooting Other People with "high powered rifles".

Palin: I'll bet in his shows he's had some of the self-same high-powered rifles used - only they were pointed at people, not animals.

He said it would be ok, if it were for "Fashion" and I was shocked, I couldn't believe he would be so hypocritical to suggests it "Ok" to kill an animal for it's fur.

Sorry Sarah, Sorkin didn't hold himself up as the paragon of veganite hyper-morality, but he also didn't say anything about "Fashion" or "Fur". Hunting he understands. Meat he eats. But was this really about "sustainance" or was it a "snuff" clip for tv ratings?

Palin here makes a common claim made by those on the Right as they support the Gun Lobby and Hunters while pointing a cold accusing finger of Gun Violence Monger-y at Hollywood, but does the charge stick this time?

As a writer-producer of The West Wing for it's first four seasons - penning 87 teleplays himself - the few episodes of that showed gunplay involved a near assassination of President Bartlett (Season 1 Finale: "What Kind of Day it's Has Been") by skinheads attempting to kill his aide Charlie because he was a black man dating the Presidents (White) daughter, a sequence that was based on the actual shooting of President Reagan and like that event left the President and one of his aides wounded. (One wonders which side of the weapons Palin and her ilk would have been as they brought the ostensibly Liberal President Bartlet into their sights?)



C.J. Cregg Press Briefing on the Shooting of Bartlett and Josh Lyman and Gun Violence.



Later in the series there was the shooting of Secret Service Agent Simon Donovan (played by Mark Harmon) in the episode "Posse Comittatus" while he was off duty and intervened during a convenience store robbery, and lastly the Episode "Commencement" (Sorkin's Next to Last on the Show) where that exact same Bartlet daughter, Zoey, was kidnapped and where a Secret Service Agent Molly O'Connor, the namesake for Toby Zeigler's daughter, was killed.

Sorkin's other TV shows include the short-lived Studio 60 on Sunset Strip about a Saturday Night Live-ish Comedy/Commentary show. Two seasons writing the Comedy Sports Night, writing both the successful Stage Play and Film A Few Good Men about the deliberate ordering and cover-up of an under-performing Marine to be Tortured by his fellow troops in Guantanamo Bay Cuba ("You want the truth, you can't handle the Truth!") and Charlie Wilson's War about the involvement of a U.S. Congressman in the 80's proxy War against the Soviet Union via Afghanistan. Another of his better known films includes The American President where this immortal speech is given...

President Andrew Shepard: For the last couple of months, Senator Rumson has suggested that being president of this country was, to a certain extent, about character, and although I have not been willing to engage in his attacks on me, I've been here three years and three days, and I can tell you without hesitation: Being President of this country is entirely about character.

For the record: yes, I am a card-carrying member of the ACLU. But the more important question is why aren't you, Bob? Now, this is an organization whose sole purpose is to defend the Bill of Rights, so it naturally begs the question: Why would a senator, his party's most powerful spokesman and a candidate for President, choose to reject upholding the Constitution?

If you can answer that question, folks, then you're smarter than I am, because I didn't understand it until a few hours ago.

America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country can't just be a flag; the symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then, you can stand up and sing about the "land of the free".

Possibly the best Presidential Speech, that isn't an Actual Presidential Speech ever written, in which he calls for a 20 Percent Reduction in Fossil Fuel use to prevent Global Warming and a serious restrictions on hand guns and assualt weapons. And that was in 1995! This is what Aaron Sorkin is known for, not being a hack exploiting sensationalist gun-violence for it's shock value or it's prurient voyeurism.

It's not like he's Jerry Bruckheimer or the Guy who Wrote Road House 2, Yeah, there really was a Road House 2.

If you don't know this speech, you don't know Aaron Sorkin and I've belabored this point because this movie and this speech was specifically about the exploitation of a Phony Controversy about widower President Sheppard's romance with a lobbyist and how that was a Distraction from his Official Duties. Kinda reminds you of the current of this current phony controversy of President Obama daring to Talk Sports with a Sports Team Owner, doesn't it?

Palin is Senator Bob Rumson, with a wink, a twinkle in her eye and poorly sighted varmint rifle under her arm. And Tucker carries her carcass for her.

If the question is what kind of character Obama has displayed by praising the efforts of the Eagle's owners in reaching for Hope, rather than cynicism, in praising Vick's efforts to strive for a better future than wallow mired in a despicable past - I would argue that Obama had shown that he certainly possesses and embodies Character over and above the thin veneer of fake partisan puritanism and opportunism coming from Palin, Carlson and Fox.

Now, in fairness one could argue that Sorkin, while on contract with Castle Rock Entertainment did write another shooting into his screenplay for the thriller Malice were the villain played by Nicole Kidman shoots her accomplice Alec Baldwin when he himself refuses to commit murder to cover up their crimes. IMO If you can say anything about how Aaron Sorkin has depicted gun violence it seems that every shooting he's ever written, that I've found, involved Bad Guys Shooting Good Guys - which is what make them "Bad Guys" I would assume - and isn't exactly a rousing endorsement of gun violence. It's a subject he addressed, but not as an naive advocate (or a so-called "hunter" who doesn't know basic safety). With these few incidents over the course of 5 movies and hundreds of hours of TV, it's pretty clear that it's very far his normal fair of thought provoking drama with dashes of social comedy, including the current hit movie The Social Network.

One last comment to close out this point, all of these fictional shootings involved hand guns not "High Powered Rifles" with one lone exception. During the same Episode where Agent Donovan is killed, Posse Comittatus President Bartlet authorizes the military assassination of Foreign Diplomat Adbul Shareef after it is confirmed that he was working to aid terrorists groups who had conducted attacks against the U.S. via NSA wiretaps, an action that has serious repercussions to the Barlett Presidency.



Somehow I would bet that the Sarahcuda would have been doing her best "Rah Rah, USA #!" cheerleading during the portion of the episode where Navy Seals attack Shareef's plane. To his credit Bartlet only resorts to these methods because Shareef has diplomatic immunity and is beyond the reach of the U.S. Legal System, and he also never even tried to Pretend this wasn't a War Crime. He knew it was wrong, he also knew he had no other viable choice.

Exploiting the use guns, hunting or assault rifles for murder are NOT Sorkin's stock in trade as a movie and film maker - when he's written about it he's done so with depth and care toward the consequences of violence - and even if it were, this would justify animal cruelty how?

But did we hear even a peep from Mr. fTucker (pronounced naturally with a silent "T") about any of this, while the Palin/Sorkin argument was ricocheting around the web like batch of unleashed Flubber Balls or was he just too busy trying to Steal Keith Olbermann's Domain Name and send prank Emails pretending to be Keith to be outraged by Palin's rank, callous acts of animal cruelty for the sake of burnishing her "Frontier Chick" Cred?

I can understand having a pet issue like abused animals as Tucker has, but the idea there's any possible legitimacy for thinking the death penalty is an appropriate punishment for animal cruelty, but yet thinking that crimes such as taking a nation to war on bogus evidence, murdering thousands of innocent (human) civilians and committing multiple counts of war crimes and torture which resulted in SAVING NO ONE, funneling $Billions to contractors who ended up killing and poisoning our own soldiers, don't even deserve a hearing in contrast is the absolute Height of self-aggrandized narcissism.

Tucker's pet cause deserves the Death Penalty over all the others because - Tucker said so, see? That all cleared up?

And as it turns out just like his lack of response to Caribou-gate and the Snow-Billy, Tucker has been quite restrained in his criticism of contracting out your war atrocities as he explained on Real Time in 2007.

Tucker: You can't go anywhere in Iraq without them (Blackwater), the military is not going to protect you.

Maher: There's have been over 200 incidents (of Blackwater shootings).

Paul Krugman: These guys drew weapons on American Soldiers, that was last year.

Tucker: If that's true - why did they get another contract the year after that?

Maher:If there were a bunch of mercenaries over in this country - say Iranians - and they shot up an intersection in the middle of Phoenix, wouldn't we call that terrorism?

Tucker: Well, we'd be offended by it.

Offended? Offended! Really, Ya think?

People Murdering Blackwater we need, (former) Dog Murderer (and potential Hall of Famer) Michael Vick we don't. Sure. Fine. Makes perfect sense.

Then there's the idea that the President shouldn't comment on current events, which is simply bizarre. Tucker and his cohorts spend most of the segment lambasting the President for his "weird" penchant for "bringing subjects like this up". Subjects like Park 51 or the the Arrest of Skip Gates. In the process they ignore the President was asked specifically about those two situations and simply answered the questions, or the fact that Park 51 isn't a "Mosque at Ground Zero" it's an interfaith prayer center with spaces for all types of worship, including a 9-11 Memorial, which makes perfect sense to have near the 9/111 Site. Also, saying the "Police Acted Stupidly" is rather mild considering the fact that Officer Crowley Repeatedly Falsified his Police Report to cover up the mendacity of his treatment of Skip Gates.

But who expects "Truth" on Fox anyway?

Carlson on Vick, the Rich guy:

Carlson: He's some creepy rich overpaid football player.

This coming from Tucker whose a trust fund baby - son of the Swanson Foods Heiress - who'se already been fired from Two of the Major Cable News Networks (CNN & MSNBC)? Overpaid Rich Creep? Yah. How about Pampered Prissy Talentless Partisan Hack Assclown Much? As a point of fact, Vick took a severe pay cut this season just for the opportunity to play, and had to pay the Atlanta Falcons $6.5 Million to be released and settle his bankruptcy.

We get all this self-righteous indignation about the law and honor from a guy whose Daddy WhoreBucks is on the Board for the Scooter Libby Defense Fund?

This guy gets credibility on the issue Rich Creeps who Shirk the Legal System from where exactly? His navel lint?

One last thing: fTucker on the issue of Michael Vick eventually becoming a spokesman for animal rights.

Tucker: It's like having the Donnor Party be a spokesman for for vegetarianism. Two years is nothing. People who cheated on their taxes,.. people who under-reported their tips have gotten more time (Than Vick) .

I'll be honest, I think dog-fighting and deliberate animal cruelty is about as psychologically evil and being a burgeoning serial killer, - it's vicious and cruel, but on the scale comparing someone who massively Fucked UP in their life - and have had chance after chance to redeem and reclaim their honor and self-respect - it may be premature, but at this point in time I'd take Michael Vick over TrustFund fTucker S. Carlson Esq. by a mile and a half.

Vyan