Cantor, Fox News Hosts Essentially Blame Democrats For Death Threats They Are Getting

Far-right extremists are hurling death threats at Democrat members of Congress related to the health care legislation.

On Fox News, hosts Brian Kilmeade, Gretchen Carlson and Steve Doocy agreed with Republican Rep. Eric Cantor (the House minority whip), who in essence accused Democrats of essentially encouraging death threats by talking about them publicly.

People receive death threats and Fox News/Eric Cantor blame the victims, “Democrat lawmakers are feeding the public’s frenzy over the threats by discussing them so openly in the media.” Doocy makes excuses and blames the Democrats and Kilmeade makes what seems to be a joke about it and Carlson essentially says they should shut up and live in fear and not call out the extremist threats of violence.

Media Matters for America:
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201003250007

The Face Of Republican Extremism: Erich “Mancow” Muller On Fox And Friends

The far-right lunacy of Fox News was again on display as right-wing host Gretchen Carlson was hosting (among other people) nutty talk radio show host Erich “Mancow” Muller, who went off on a hysterical, hate-driven tirade regarding President Obama during a segment on the dreadful Fox & Friends program.

Media Matters for America has posted the video clip of this far-right moron (not that the fact that he is a far-right moron is news) spewing his stank-breath venom on Fox News.

Among other things, Muller referred to President Obama as a “race-baiting community organizer” and claimed (irrationally) that people didn’t want the president’s “communist health care.”

The more people like this become the face of the Republicans the better it is for this country that they continue to be exposed.

Fox & Friends Host Steve Doocy Offers His Best Measured And Intellectual Response To Criticism Of Limbaugh

Steve Doocy, who has risen through the ranks of Fox News to become one of the hosts of the dreadful Fox & Friends show, disagreed with criticism from Rosie O’Donnell and Janeane Garofalo of right-wing hero Rush Limbaugh, leader of the Republican Party.

O’Donnell and Garofalo openly questioned why people would be fans of Limbaugh and O’Donnell cited his highly publicized drug use. After teasing a response from far right-wing blogger Michelle Malkin (again displaying the lack of fair and balanced work of Fox News), the dazzling Doocy offered this thought pearl of wisdom as proof of his intellect and level of maturity: “My reaction is they should just shut up.”

If we didn’t know any better, one might think Doocy was getting ready to graduate … to middle school.

Media Matters for America:
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201002180002

Fox News Excuse Making For Sarah Palin Begins

Most of us could care less about whether or not politicians use teleprompters or read it off a sheet of paper when giving speeches. I do find it interesting, however, the large number of people using this to attack President Obama (as if no other president has ever used a teleprompter or read a speech off sheets of paper). So, whether it’s Barack Obama, President Reagan, President Bush, President Clinton or gold ole former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, it really makes no difference to me how they deliver a speech. But, for some reason, it does seem to spark something inside of Sarah Palin who seems to be taking wild shots at President Obama (like a boxer in the final round down on points and needing a miracle knockout to win). Getting in front of the Tea Party nuts sparked something inside of her to go after the president again and prove that the Tea Party movement is little more than an extremist splinter group of the GOP.

Fox and Friends, and its Republican hosts, went on the defensive to defend Palin for using notes to deliver her speech (as just about anyone on Fox is apt to do when it comes to Palin).

Gretchen Carlson, Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade (all right wingers) go out of their way to do damage control for the Fox News newbie Palin and her campaign (which is in the silent phase aided by the network conservatives trust).

CARLSON: I think she did it on purpose.

DOOCY: You do?

CARLSON: I think she did it on purpose. Yeah, because I think it’s an exact opposite of reading off the teleprompter. Reading off complete script written for you with every word in a sentence, and here she’s just taking crib notes on her hand. It makes it look as if she can just talk off the cuff and that she just jotted down a few couple notes before she went off to give a big, long speech.

KILMEADE: I am jealous.

DOOCY: I think she did — I think she did it because she probably does it a lot. I do that all the time.

KILMEADE: I personally am jealous, because I used to get in trouble if I wrote on my palms because my mom explained to me the ink would get through my pores and I would die. So I stopped doing that in the fifth grade.

DOOCY: Really?

KILMEADE: Why doesn’t she just — there’s nothing wrong with if she had a card. Just jot a card down — energy, taxes, hope, whatever it is. But — then no one has a problem. But to sit there and look at — do the interview and then look down at her hand, I think that is — it’s, like you said, Gretchen, before, folksy, absolutely. Down to earth. I can identify. But if you’re going to write it on your hand, why not just say, staffer, can you hand me a card? And then it would have been OK.

CARLSON: Like I say, I think it was on purpose. But anyway, we may never know.

Once again, Fox News comes to the rescue of their beloved Sarah Palin.

Check out how conservatives are rushing to the aid of Palin, who quit on Alaska (to make money selling books and gain publicity for herself) and yet criticizes other leaders for their leadership.

Fox News Conservatives Continue Riding Scott Brown’s Jock

Every time I see one of these Fox News hacks talking about recently elected U.S. Senator Scott Brown (some Republicans believe he is their Barack Obama) it reminds me of an episode of the Boondocks cartoon when Tom DuBois is trying to get in good with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Riley Freeman (pictured) quickly tires of DuBois trying to get in good with Dr. King and lets his feelings be known:

[The Freemans have Martin Luther King over for dinner]

TOM DUBOIS: Dr King, I just wanted to say that even though you’ve been catching a lot of flak recently, were very honored to meet you. Really.

RILEY: Get off his dick.
[Huey kicks him]

RILEY: Ow! Man, Im just sayin. Mr. Dubois riding Dr. King like a rodeo show.
[Huey kicks him again]

RILEY: Ow!

GRANDDAD: Stop it.

Check out the video (of Fox News continuing to ride Brown’s jock … this time in the form of playing with dolls on national television) at the link below:

Note: Look where Fox News host Steve Doocy’s right index finger is (on the Brown doll’s body) in the early part of the video.

This is the same hypocritical network that both made fun of Barack Obama’s celebrity status and lamented his popularity in the so-called mainstream media.

Media Matters for America:
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201002020004

Biased Fox News Continues To Ignore Nasty Rhetoric To Attack Barney Frank

This is an entry from Media Matters for America regarding the far-right Fox and Friends program:

Fox & Friends continues to ignore inflammatory question during “back and forth” with “rude” Frank

Check out the Media Matters page for the video and see for yourself how Fox News ignores the hateful rhetoric to attack one of their favorite targets: Rep. Barney Frank.

This Fox News takes out-of-context snippets of a video and use them to smear Rep. Frank as a biased host refers to the congressman as rude (and doing it with a biased guest and no guest with a counterpoint).

Media Matters And Others Do The Right Thing Not Showing Erin Andrews Images

Media Matters for America is reporting that two news organizations have shown stills from the secretly-taken video of ESPN reporter Erin Andrews (reportedly with no or very few clothes on). It’s bad enough that some worthless idiot felt the need to exploit her in such a nasty way, but now people are piggybacking this situation to shock people by showing portions of the video while reporting the story.

This is from Media Matters:

Fox & Friends repeatedly aired numerous video stills from a videotape surreptitiously taken of ESPN sideline reporter Erin Andrews nude in a hotel room, while CBS’ The Early Show aired several seconds of the Andrews videotape with some of her body parts blurred.

More from Media Matters:

On July 21, Fox & Friends repeatedly aired numerous video stills from a videotape surreptitiously taken of ESPN sideline reporter Erin Andrews nude in a hotel room. Fox News’ stills, which were prominently displayed on-screen, repeatedly showed Andrews’ face while covering some of her body parts with lacy red tape. In addition, during CBS’ The Early Show, science and technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg played several seconds of the Andrews videotape with parts of her body blurred.

ESPN’s general counsel has reportedly written to at least one website stating that the “posting of these pictures are highly likely to render you an accessory after the fact to a criminal act,” while a lawyer for Andrews has “request[ed] respect of Erin’s privacy at this time.”

Reporter Kate Snow reported on the Andrews story for ABC’s Good Morning America during the 7 a.m. ET hour, but did not show stills or video from the videotape. ABC and ESPN are both owned by The Walt Disney Co.

While Media Matters for America regularly provides video for segments, Media Matters will not provide video or provide the still shots Fox News aired. The following are screen captures from the Fox & Friends segment and CBS segment with black boxes replacing footage and stills from the video.

I comment Media Matters for not sinking so low as to republish these photos that robbed Erin Andrews of her privacy while violating her in ways we all should find highly offensive and very illegal.

Online Petition Calls For Fox News Host Brian Kilmeade To Answer For His Racist Comments

To: Fox News and News Corporation

On the July 8, 2009 episode of the morning show “Fox and Friends,” co-anchor Brian Kilmeade made a crude and bafflingly ignorant attempt to dismiss a study on marriage and Alzheimer’s that was conducted in Sweden and Finland.

Mr. Kilmeade stated: “we [Americans] keep marrying other species and other ethnics . . . Swedes have pure genes . . . in America we marry everybody…”

We don’t know where to begin. Did the study not apply to Americans because of racial intermarriage? Are racially integrated couples more likely to exacerbate the symptoms of dementia?

Mr. Kilmeade’s outlandish comments were more than silly and worthy of ridicule. They validate, under the guise of light-hearted humor, the basest of white supremacist ideologies, the notion that white people and non-white people are of different species, with the white race as “pure.” Without question, the comments should have been denounced immediately as racist, ignorant and bigoted.

Instead, a baffled co-host Gretchen Carlson rightly questioned Kilmeade’s mental state, and someone off-camera whistled “If I Only Had a Brain.” The song was well-chosen, seeing as the comments lacked intelligence, heart and courage, and should not have a home on anything resembling a news program.

UNITY: Journalists of Color, Inc., a multicultural coalition of national journalism organizations with an outreach to over 10,000 supporters, hereby calls for Fox News and its parent company, News Corporation, to:

- Issue an immediate apology for Mr. Kilmeade’s offensive comments
- Enter into a serious discussion on the program regarding intermarriage and the value of diversity in our society.

(The full video can be viewed here: http://tinyurl.com/lnb8rn)

Sincerely,

SIGN THE PETITION BY VISITING: http://www.petitiononline.com/UJOC/petition.html

What is Brian Kilmeade Thinking?

Those of you who regularly follow this blog know I don’t think too highly of the Fox News show Fox and Friends (mainly because their hosts leave plenty to be desired in my opinion). Brian Kilmeade, probably the most hardcore right wing of them all, offered this head-scratching comment that almost sounds as if it could have been lifted from a white supremacist Web site. Honestly, this truly is disturbing stuff coming from Kilmeade who failed to get the hint that he needed to shut his trap and quickly reflect about how he was throwing himself under the bus.

GRETCHEN CARLSON (co-host): Speaking of spouses –

BRIAN KILMEADE (co-host): Yes.

CARLSON: — did you know that being married is healthy for you? At least when it comes to Alzheimer’s disease or dementia or things like that. This group did a study. They first interviewed middle-aged people around 50 in the 1970s and the 1980s, and then they came back to look at them 21 years later. Those who were married at that point in their life, in the midpoint of their life, ended up having much fewer cases of Alzheimer’s than those who were –

DAVE BRIGGS (guest co-host): Yeah.

CARLSON: — divorced, single, widowed, et cetera.

BRIGGS: I’m kind of conflicted on this one. Because on one hand, I think my wife keeps me sane, because I lose everything and she helps me find it. But I leave cabinets open –

CARLSON: You too, huh?

BRIGGS: Does your husband leave cabinets open?

CARLSON: That first thing you said.

BRIGGS: Losing things? Right?

CARLSON: Yeah.

BRIGGS: But I leave these cabinets open all over the house. I come back in the room, and they’re closed. And sometimes I think I’m losing my marbles a little bit. Then I realize she just likes to come behind me and –

CARLSON: She’s just looking out for you, Mr. Briggs.

BRIGGS: — close things and put things away.

KILMEADE: I’m just amazed that they thought about doing this study in the — by interviewing people in the 1970s and the 1980s.

BRIGGS: A little dated, you think?

KILMEADE: The average is 50, and they see that they keep it together. I find this — I find this somewhat –

BRIGGS: Go ahead.

KILMEADE: Different. Leave it to the Finns and Swedes to some up with something. They literally –

CARLSON: Don’t look at me, pal.

KILMEADE: Because that’s a — we are — we’re — we’re a — we’re — we keep marrying other species and other ethnics and other –

CARLSON: Are you sure they’re not suffering from some of the –

KILMEADE: I mean, the Swedes –

CARLSON: — causes of dementia right now?

BRIGGS: What are you getting at?

KILMEADE: See, the problem is, the Swedes have pure genes.

BRIGGS: OK.

KILMEADE: Because they marry other Swedes. Because that’s the rule. Finland — Finns marry other Finns, so they have a pure society. In America, we marry everybody.

BRIGGS: OK.

KILMEADE: So, we’ll marry Italians and Irish.

BRIGGS: So, this study does not apply?

KILMEADE: Does not apply to us.

BRIGGS: Huh. You are a scientist.

CARLSON: Amazing deduction, Kilmeade.

BRIGGS: Scientist.

KILMEADE: That’s a — those are –

BRIGGS: Dr. Kilmeade, it is.

KILMEADE: That’s how I feel.

BRIGGS: All right.

CARLSON: Thank you for filling us in on that –

BRIGGS: Let’s see how he feels –

CARLSON: — Italian-Irish man.

Kilmeade said, “… we keep marrying other species and other ethnics and other –”

WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

As that one crook said in the 1983 Dirty Harry movie Sudden Impact, “Who is we, sucka?”

The depth and breadth of Kilmeade’s stupidity (driven by an obsessive right-wing ideology) never ceases to amaze.

You know you’re screwing up when Gretchen Carlson is trying to stop you from looking and sounding like an idiot (or worse).

The look on Carlson’s face says it all and it’s hard to go too far to the right of her.

Check out the video at Media Matters:
http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/07/08/qotd/index.html?source=video&aim=/politics/war_room

Daily Kos:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/7/8/751373/-Fox-and-Friends-Host-Argues-for-Racially-Pure-Society

Salon:
http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/07/08/qotd/

Tasteless Anti-Immigrant Joke From Neal Boortz

Rabidly-xenophobic and racist conservatives take frequent opportunities to attack illegal immigrants (generally, that means Mexicans since you rarely here people concerned about immigration from Canada). 

Here is the latest, as documented by Media Matters for America:

BOORTZ: OK, the Terminator, the Governator, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says he is actually happy, ladies and gentlemen, that illegal aliens in California get state services and says they’re not to blame for the budget gap in California. He’s happy that illegal aliens get state services. By the way, how many illegal aliens can you get into a Ford Excursion? Apparently about 27. Looks like a Mexican clown car. And you can actually roll that Ford Excursion on a back road in Arizona and only kill 10 of them. And on Fox & Friends this morning, I actually heard Brian Kilmeade refer to them as undocumented immigrants.

What a classy guy.

Media Matters:
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200906080032

Jesse Ventura School Bus Stop 3: Fox And Friends

Jesse Ventura, a former Navy SEAL and the former governor of the state of Minnesota, continued his school bus route as he made a stop on the set of Fox and Friends. Pay particular attention to an early exchange that takes place between Ventura and one of the hosts, Brian Kilmeade. In two different ways, Ventura asks Kilmeade why we don’t torture/waterboard criminals in the United States of America (including Timothy McVeigh, who was a major part of the Oklahoma City federal building bombing)? Both times, Kilmeade ducks the question and changes the subject to try and make it seem as though Ventura is not as interested in keeping us safe. Jesse, however, was not buying Kilmeade’s right-wing garbage.

Here is a transcript from Crooks and Liars:

VENTURA: I have been waterboarded. It is torture. I can speak from experience. It was part of SERE training that I went through as a Navy SEAL.

KILMEADE: And are you OK now?

VENTURA: I’m fine.

KILMEADE: So is Khalid Sheik Mohammed. He’s about 60 pounds overweight, having a great time –

VENTURA: It doesn’t matter. If it was OK, then why don’t we do it to criminals? Like, if we’ve got gang members in L.A., OK? We know that their gangs are gonna do bad things. When we arrest them, why don’t we waterboard them so we can get information out of them? Because it’s against the law.

Hmm, that is a good question. How does the right-winger Kilmeade respond? He changes the subject.

KILMEADE: Do you want us not to be safe from attack?

Ventura was not impressed.

VENTURA: Don’t come after me with that nonsense.

VENTURA: OK, why didn’t we waterboard McVeigh and Nichols, then? There were more people that they thought involved at Oklahoma City. Why weren’t they waterboarded to get more information? Because it’s against the law.

Wait — and if we’re not going to be a country that goes by the rule of law when it’s convenient or not convenient, then what do we stand for?

More good points by Ventura. Kilmeade, of course, ignores the points and goes back to the politics of fear.

KILMEADE: But what about the difference — you bring up Timothy McVeigh and maybe gang members, and maybe those threats weren’t as imminent as the threats –

VENTURA: I don’t think these threats are imminent.

KILMEADE: You didn’t think after 9/11, that America felt threats were imminent, that more could be coming?

VENTURA: Maybe. But I think our behavior has caused us to be in more trouble. Now they won’t release these photos. Why? Because they know the Muslim world will go irate. They’re all after Nancy Pelosi — when did she know? When dah dah dah — Well, if we hadn’t of tortured, it would be a dead issue, wouldn’t it?

The Jesse Ventura School Bus Route … coming to school a conservative hypocrite near you.

Crooks and Liars (I encourage you to read David Neiwert’s blog. It’s good stuff):
http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/jesse-ventura-piledrives-yellow-elep