I laughed my ass off when I saw this tweet. I can guarantee to Gov. Rick Perry that working class people aren't concerned about corporate tax cuts. The level of disconnect Perry has with the working class is staggering.
"I can look out in the crowd, I kinda have Fox X-ray vision, and I can see that some of you women, you don't even know it yet, but you're pregnant. It's not your fault. It's not his fault."
Sean Hannity, at CPAC.
I think this was Sean Hannity's attempt at humor. I'm not offended by it. It is fascinating that Hannity thought talking about sex to a conservative audience was the way to go.
Sean Hannity would rather lose a Republican Senate seat than have Thad Cochran get re-elected. Conservative talk radio continues its self-destructive tendencies.
“If I was in Mississippi I would not and could not in good conscience vote for Thad Cochran after the way this campaign was run,” he said. “And I know many of you are gonna say, ‘but Hannity, that means we put the seat at risk for a Democrat.’”
“Well what is Thad Cochran?” he asked. “He ran as a Democrat. He ran as somebody who hates the Tea Party. He ran as somebody who hates conservatives.”
Hannity went on to claim that the Cochran campaign used "despicable" tactics in courting black Democratic voters. What Hannity conveniently forgets to tell his audience is that it was an open primary. Cochran could not go to the Right of tea party darling Chris McDaniel. Cochran is not the bleeding heat liberal Hannity described in his radio segment. Cochran needed to expand his voting base. Cochran campaigned in black neighborhoods and bought ads in black newspapers. Cochran's goal was to make black people scared of Chris McDaniel. Mission Accomplished.
A side effect of the McDaniel loss is that the tea party crowd is really pissed off. These people are professional sore losers. Rush Limbaugh called black Democratic voters "Uncle Toms For Thad." Limbaugh loves to use offensive racist code words. What is funny is Limbaugh admits that Cochran has never done anything for black voters in Mississippi. News flash to Rush: black people of Mississippi are aware of that. Black voters viewed the primary as the best chance to keep Chris McDaniel out of the Senate.
In his anger, Glenn Beck told the truth about Cochran's previous lack of interest in his black constituents.
BECK: I have a question for every black Democrat in Mississippi: What the hell has this 90-year-old fart -- a white Republican, the same white Republican that for years the Democrats have been telling you are nothing but old racists -- you tell me exactly what Thad Cochran did for you.
For the curious: here are some civil rights votes by Cochran.
Voted YES on ending special funding for minority & women-owned business.
Voted NO on setting aside 10% of highway funds for minorities & women.
Voted NO on expanding hate crimes to include sexual orientation.
Rated 0% by the ACLU, indicating an anti-civil rights voting record.
Cochran may have not even seen a black voter until the last two week. McDaniel is still scarier to black voters. McDaniel retweeted a post by a white supremacist. McDaniel gave a speech to the Sons of Confederate Veteran. The group is a Neo-Confederate and pro-secessionist movement. These crazy people want to split from the United States. This isn't a mystery why black voters turned out for Cochran.
This is low even by Fox News standards. Bill Cunningham repeatedly makes sexist attacks and wags his finger in the face of Tamara Holder. Apparently, Holder's crime was pointing out that President George W. Bush raised the debt ceiling 8 times. Cunningham responded to that by making snide remarks about Holder's appearance and told her she wasn't smart enough to understand math. Naturally, Hannity defended Cunningham.
Politico reports that Cumulus Media is planning to drop Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity from their stations by the end of the year. According to Politico, the reason is that Cumulus wants Limbaugh and Hannity to take a pay cut.
Cumulus declined to comment for this story: "Cumulus is not in a position to comment about negotiations with talent under contract, no matter what the rumor of the day might be," a spokesperson told POLITICO.
But in recent weeks, Cumulus has been quietly reaching out to radio talent agents and political insiders about new local and regional station hosts to fill some of the airtime that will be left vacant by Limbaugh and Hannity, industry sources said. Cumulus is also expected to move some of its existing talent -- which includes Mike Huckabee, Mark Levin, and Michael Savage -- into one of the slots.
The way radio ratings is being calculated is changing. Advertisers now realize that there isn't a big market for AM talk radio. The Daily Beast broke down the numbers and it isn't pretty.
A look at radio’s PPM ratings for the largest talk radio market in the nation bears this out. An apples-to-apples comparison of ratings between November ’09 and November ’10 in the New York area shows that Rush Limbaugh’s ratings on WABC declined from 5.4 to 5.0—despite the crescendo of a GOP election year landslide. Likewise, year-end to year-end comparisons of the crucial 24 to 55 demographic show that Rush declined from 3.7 to 2.6—while his packaged follow-up acts Sean Hannity and Mark Levin narrowly declined and flat-lined, respectively. And Hannity was dropped from his Philadelphia radio station along with Beck last month after being dropped from his syndicator in Salt Lake City (!) last year before finding a new home in the area.
Sean Hannity apparently got the memo that bashing Hispanic people is a losing proposition for Republicans. Hannity made this statement on his radio show.
“It’s simple to me to fix it,” Hannity said. “I think you control the border first. You create a pathway for those people that are here — you don’t say you’ve got to go home. And that is a position that I’ve evolved on. Because, you know what, it’s got to be resolved. The majority of people here, if some people have criminal records you can send them home, but if people are here, law-abiding, participating for years, their kids are born here, you know, first secure the border, pathway to citizenship, done.”
“You can’t let the problem continue — it’s got to stop,” the conservative radio host added.
That has been the long held position on Democrats and rationale conservatives> Welcome to reality, Mr. Hannity.
"Sean Hannity is about to have Herman Cain on to talk about New Black Panther voter intimidation. This is going to be amazing."
Matt Binder, on Twitter.
Let the wonderful conspiracy theories begin.
Sarah Palin might have forgotten about this little thing called the 2008 presidential election. I don't see how, considering she was John McCain's VP candidate. The media and blogosphere vetted all the candidates very thoroughly. I seem to remember Palin complaining about the media scrutiny. When people are asking to see Obama's birth certificate, I say he has been vetted.
"Our blacks are so much better than their blacks."
Ann Coulter, in her defense of Herman Cain.
Coulter goes on to call President Obama "half-black." Coulter and Hannity have no idea on racist they sound.
The Herman Cain sex scandal isn't about the Left v. Cain. The truth more likely is one of Cain's Republican primary opponents leaked this to Politico. Team Obama has been busy attacking Mitt Romney. The Obama people rightfully do not believe that Romney will be the nominee.
“You never say never. This is a standard answer that I’ve kind of learned how to give which is — you never say never, but I never rule out being on Dancing with the Stars either.”
Jeb Bush, on the possibility of running for president in 2012.
If Bush wanted to he would have gotten into the race by now.
I call it the G. Gordon Liddy rule. Liddy was convicted for breaking into the Watergate building. Yet, this second rate burglar is taken seriously by conservatives as a political pundit. Mark Foley will be on the Sean Hannity show to talk about the Anthony Weiner scandal.
Palm Beach County’s own expert on Internet sex scandals, former Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, is slated to appear on Fox News’ Hannity tonight at 9 p.m. in his first national television interview since he resigned in 2006 over sexually charged messages he sent to teenage males who had been in the congressional page program.
Foley is expected to discuss Democratic U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner’s lewd-photo scandal.
There truly are second acts for disgraced Republicans in conservative media.
What does Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity have in common? They are all members of the American Federation Television and Radio Artists union. The AFTRA is an affiliate of the AFL-CIO.
A representative from Beck's camp denied the claim, but a source within AFTRA confirmed to AlterNet Friday that O'Reilly, Limbaugh and Hannity were indeed union members.
O'Reilly confirmed on-air that he is a member of the AFTRA. Limbaugh and Hannity have been mum on their union status.
In the same segment where O'Reilly blamed government financial woes on union benefits, he not only said he was an AFTRA member, but that his membership had benefited him in the past. "On a personal note, I'm a member of a union, AFTRA, and when I was working at 'Inside Edition' some years ago, the King World company tried to renege on pension benefits," said O'Reilly. "AFTRA took them to court and the case was settled. If the shop had been non-union, we might have been stiffed."
Sadly, O'Reilly only likes unions when it benefits gis personal self-interest.
Amanda Marcotte predicts, "King, who just created a slogan that will spawn a million T-shirts that you probably only want to wear to feminist meet-ups."
The truth is this isn't about abortion or even Christian religion. King and other conservatives are uptight about sexuality and want to punish those that do the nasty. Amanda posted this quote of an exchange Sean Hannity had with Juan Williams.
"I'm pro-choice in this sense, Juan. If you choose to get in the back of the car with someone, if you choose to make out with them, if you choose to grab, grope and fondle, if you choose to take one article of clothing off after another, guess what? You made a series of choices, Juan."
Translation: If a woman has sex without Sean Hannity's consent then she deserved the punishment of carrying the baby to the final trimester. Hannity also wants the woman to take full responsibility of the baby. And no government handouts. Hannity doesn't care if your poor. Punishment has been rendered.
In April of 2009, Sean Hannity told actor Charles Grodin he would allow himself to be waterboarded.
Asked whether he would consent to being waterboarded, Hannity said: "Sure … I’ll do it for charity … I’ll do it for the troops’ families."
Keith Olbermann offered $1,000 for every second Hannity last. Hannity still has not submitted himself to be waterboarded for charity.
The amazing thing about Fox News is guys like Hannity and O'Reilly feel they must play up this false tough guy image. Grodin clearly threatened Hannity's manhood and got Hannity to agree to do something he has no intention on following through with. Sometime Pushing Rope contributor Alex Pickett allowed himself to be waterboarded. Alex only lasted a few seconds. Pickett was told this before being waterboarded.
“One tablespoon of water in your lungs and you’re dead,” he says, matter-of-factly. “I wouldn’t recommend it.”
GOP strategist Frank Luntz raves about the ad campaign Alex Sink is running.
"If ads are any impact on the campaign, and we know that they are, she's running the best statewide campaign of any of the candidates. And even though Florida is a slightly leaning Republican state...Rick Scott's got his hands full with a campaign like what Alex Sink is running."
Sink is running against special interests and incumbants. Sink doesn't mention in the ad that she is Florida's current CFO. Luntz told Hannity the Sink ads are testing well with Republicans.
I mentioned before Sink is going to run as a centrist. Sink coming out against the Cordoba House was a calulated (and distasteful) political strategy. 19.4 percent of Florida voters are independents. Many of whom are feeling anti-incumbant sentiments. Sink is attempting to tap into independent voters. It is a workable strategy. The question is can Sink compete with Rick Scott for ad buy time?
Ann Coulter says Andrew Breitbart was "set up." What happened to conservatives preaching personal responsibility. Oh, that's right. That was just bullshit.
"The whole key to this story is that Andrew Breitbart was set up. He was sent a tape that, as we now know, was massively out of context. It did look like this woman was saying something racist. When she first said it was taken out of context . . . we've heard that before from politicians telling racist jokes. This is the first time in world history it was literally taken out of context.
"It was a lovely speech. Of course the White House reacted that way -- of course you reacted the way you did. Anyone would have. I think Breitbart ought to reveal his source, because he was set up. This was a fraud. The person who sent the edited tape has to know what the full speech said, and whomever sent only that segment to Andrew Breitbart is the one who should apologize to Shirley Sherrod.
It has been awhile since I have blogged about Ann Coulter. Michele Malkin has taken Coulter's mantle.
Coulter has been accused of plagiarism. She hardly can be accused of being an expert in journalism ethics. Journalism 101 teaches students to fact-check. Breitbart is responsible for checking the videotape. Having Ann Coulter speak on behave of Breitbart isn't going to help his credibility.
The Republican Party of Florida is making members take a loyality oath. No member is allowed to support the independent candidacy of Charlie Crist. This idea comes from new Chairman John Thrasher. I am the last person to tell Florida Republicans how to run their party. I will say that I am enjoying the party moving so far right that it is pushing moderates out. Former RPoF chairman (and no fan of Crist) Tom Slade thinks this is a stupid idea.
Even former state GOP chairman Tom Slade, a vocal critic of Crist ("He's deader than the day before yesterday," he said of Crist political future), said it was a bad move. "That's going a step or two too far," Slade said. "Organized political parties can do some stupid stuff from time to time ... That loyalty oath doesn't make any sense to me."
David Frum's statement that the Republican Party panders to Fox News is an important truism. Marco Rubio has done Mitt Romney level flip flops on immigration and rail. Rubio's Tea Party pandering makes him less mainstream for the general election. Fox News CEO Roger Ailes recently ordered Sean Hannity not to appear at a Tea Party rally. You know the Tea Party is not mainstream when Fox News is getting nervous.
There is also the issue of Rubio's credit card scandal. Rubio can hardly paint himself as a fiscal conservative after spending $110,000 on a RPoF credit card. Rubio demanded former RPoF Chairman Jim Greer release his credit card records.
"It has become clear that Charlie Crist and Jim Greer have done untold damage to the Republican party of Florida. As Republican leaders, it is all of our responsibilities to clean up the mess they made as quickly as possible so we can turn the page and return to the true focus of the RPOF: to elect Republicans. Therefor I would ask you to strongly consider releasing all AMEX statement from Jim Greer's time as chairman to the RPOF Executive Committee," the letter states.
However, Rubio refuses to release records of his credit card transactions. Rubio also fails to mention that Crist never had a RPoF American Express card.
If the Republican Party wasn't operating in Fox News Bizarro World: Rubio wouldn't come near the GOP Senate nomination. Sarah Palin was the worst vice-presidential candidate since James Stockdale. She is now being talked about as a serious presidential contender. This is what happens when a political party is more concerned with silly loyality oaths than governing effectively.
Update:Steve Schale makexs a point that I have been thinking about. This is less about Rubio then the Florida Republican Party base looking for someone to defeat Charlie Crist. Fox News helped create the Tea Party. Republican politicians are too terrified to publicly criticize Fox News. David Frum was forced to resign from the American Enterprise Institute, after speaking out against Fox News. The GOP is pushing further to the Right. There is no room in the current GOP for Crist.
Sarah Palin raised taxes on oil companies then agrees with Sean Hannity that the country is headed towards socialism.
Palin: We are the only state with a negative tax rate where we don't have any income, sales or property tax statewide, and yes we have a share of our oil resource revenue that goes back to the people that own the resources. Imagine that.
Hannity: And it went up higher since you've been the governor and you negotiated with the oil companies. That all went up so people get a bigger check.
Palin: There was a corrupt tax system up there and we had a couple of lawmakers end up in jail because of the tax system that was adopted so we cleaned it up and said we wanted a fair and equitable share of the resources that we own, and the people will share in those resource revenues that are derived.
Hannity and Palin are bragging about raising taxes on oil companies and Obama is cutting taxes on the middle class and poor. In 2008, Alaska was ranked first in pork spending. Alaska has no state taxes because of shitty infrastructure and a low population.
Federal funding for Alaska's road and bridge system under TEA-21 was about $314 million in fiscal year 2002. 55% of Alaska's major roads are in poor or mediocre condition. 30% of Alaska's bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. 13% of Alaska's urban freeways are congested. Vehicle travel on Alaska's highways increased by 17 percent from 1991 to 2001. Alaska's population grew by 15 percent between 1990 and 2001. Driving on roads in need of repair costs Alaska's motorists $81 million a year in extra vehicle repairs and operating costs - $177 per motorist. 8% of municipal solid waste is recycled in Alaska. 69% of Alaska's schools have at least one inadequate building feature. 80% of Alaska's schools have at least one unsatisfactory environmental condition. Alaska's drinking water infrastructure need is $585.2 million over the next 20 years. Alaska's wastewater infrastructure need is $648 million. The rehabilitation cost for Alaska's most critical dams is estimated at $7.3 million.
Those Ted Stevens pork dollars weren't to better the quality of living in Alaska. However, a airplane did get painted to look like a fish.
"If we weren’t fair and balanced, we wouldn’t have the number one network in news — by a very wide margin. People believe we’re fair and balanced, and they love us."
Cavuto falsely reported Fox News covered the Million Man March. A hard task to do considering Fox News wasn't on-the-air until almost a year after the Louis Farrakhan march. Apparently, Fox News staffers are experiencing the same time travel problems as season 5 of Lost.
The Mark Foley sex scandal became a huge problem for the Republican Party. Fox News ran a picture of Foley labeling the Congressman a Democrat.
There are the emails from John Moody to Fox News staffers. Moody sets a clear mandate on his version of fair and balanced.
We have good perp walk video of Eric Rudolph which we should use. We should NOT assume that anyone who supported or helped Eric Rudolph is a racist. No one's in favor of murder or bombing of public places. But feelings in North Carolina may just be more complicated than the NY Times can conceive. Two style notes: Rudolph is charged with bombing an abortion clinic, not a "health clinic." and TODAY'S HEARING IS NOT AN ARRAIGNMENT. IT IS AN INITIAL HEARING.
Moody makes it clear supporting the Bush administration's position on Iraq is more important than mourning soldiers.
From: John Moody Date: 4/6/2004
The events in Iraq Tuesday are going to be the top story, unless and until something else (or worse) happens. Err on the side of doing too much Iraq rather than not enough. Do not fall into the easy trap of mourning the loss of US lives and asking out loud why are we there? The US is in Iraq to help a country brutalized for 30 years protect the gains made by Operation Iraqi Freedom and set it on the path to democracy. Some people in Iraq don't want that to happen. That is why American GIs are dying. And what we should remind our viewers.
Moody's fair and balanced journalistic ethics informs him the Left want to see Iraq continue to be under a brutal dictatorship. Exactly who are these people? Moody again tells his worker bees not to mourn the loss of American military personal.
If, as promised, the coalition decides to take Fallujah back by force, it will not be for lack of opportunities for the terrorists holed up there to negotiate. Let's not get lost in breast-beating about the sadness of the loss of life. They had a chance.
Moody's fair and balanced coverage of President George. W. Bush.
"His political courage and tactical cunning ar[e] [wo]rth noting in our reporting through the day"
Fox News hysterically attempted to pass off a Senate Republican Communications Center press release as their own research. If Fox News actually bothered to fact-check the press release the SRCC typo wouldn't have been in the on-screen graphics.
Steve Benen covered Sean Hannity taking a quote from President Barack Obama's speech out of context.
Last night, for example, whining incessantly about President Obama's speech in Cairo, Hannity told Fox News viewers that the president "decided to give 9/11 sympathizers a voice on the world stage." He then showed Obama saying, "I am aware that there are still some that would question or even justify the events of 9/11."
Here is what Obama actually said.
"The first issue that we have to confront is violent extremism in all of its forms.
"In Ankara, I made clear that America is not -- and never will be -- at war with Islam. (Applause.) We will, however, relentlessly confront violent extremists who pose a grave threat to our security -- because we reject the same thing that people of all faiths reject: the killing of innocent men, women, and children. And it is my first duty as President to protect the American people.
"The situation in Afghanistan demonstrates America's goals, and our need to work together. Over seven years ago, the United States pursued al Qaeda and the Taliban with broad international support. We did not go by choice; we went because of necessity. I'm aware that there's still some who would question or even justify the events of 9/11. But let us be clear: Al Qaeda killed nearly 3,000 people on that day. The victims were innocent men, women and children from America and many other nations who had done nothing to harm anybody. And yet al Qaeda chose to ruthlessly murder these people, claimed credit for the attack, and even now states their determination to kill on a massive scale. They have affiliates in many countries and are trying to expand their reach. These are not opinions to be debated; these are facts to be dealt with."
Even conservative David Horowitz admitted "Obama gave a great speech." Obama's speech was well-received in American and the Middle East. Fox News won't report that.
Sean Hannity debated Charles Grodin about torture. Hannity jokingly volunteered himself to be waterboarded.
GRODIN: You're for torture.
HANNITY: I am for enhanced interrogation.
GRODIN: You don't believe it's torture. Have you ever been waterboarded?
HANNITY: No, but Ollie North has.
GRODIN: Would you consent to be waterboarded? We can waterboard you?
HANNITY: Sure.
GRODIN: Are you busy on Sunday?
HANNITY: I'll do it for charity. I'll let you do it. I'll do it for the troops' families.
Keith Olbermann was offended Hannity would be so dismissive about waterboarding. Olbermann expressed doubts that Hannity would allow himself to be waterboarded. Olbermann offered $1,000 for every second Hannity lasts.
