The Hollywood Liberal

The Point of Pointing Fingers

Obama speaks disdainfully of “ideology,” but there comes a time when first principles need to be articulated. Conservatives have entered this fight with guns blazing while progressives have hidden behind a Maginot Line armed only with the word pragmatism.

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A Changing Community Now Wants Softer U.S. Policy on Cuba

A majority of Florida’s Cuban-Americans, including many former hard-liners, have come to oppose a U.S. embargo strategy that has proved futile over the decades.

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Tom Vander Ark: Eli Finally Won
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Hannity misrepresents source of editorial to claim that “liberal media” outlet claimed Obama has “embarrassed America”

On the March 10 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio program, Sean Hannity claimed that “the solid wall of the liberal media, in terms of support for [President Obama], may be starting to crack.” To support this claim, Hannity said, “In fact, we have the leading newspaper in San Francisco, no less, complaining that it looks like amateur hour at the White House, and they’re saying that Obama has, already, quote, ’embarrassed America.’ ” Hannity then read from what he claimed was a San Francisco Chronicle editorial criticizing Obama. In fact, the editorial from which Hannity read was not from the San Francisco Chronicle, which endorsed Obama in the 2008 presidential election, but rather The San Francisco Examiner, which endorsed Sen. John McCain in that race.

From the March 10 edition of ABC Radio Networks’ The Sean Hannity Show:

HANNITY: Now the solid wall of the liberal media, in terms of support for the anointed one, may be starting to crack. In fact, we have the leading newspaper in San Francisco, no less, complaining that it looks like amateur hour at the White House, and they’re saying that Obama has, already, quote, “embarrassed America.”

And here’s their editorial today, San Francisco Chronicle: It was embarrassing enough that President Barack Obama insulted British Prime Minister Gordon Brown last week by handing him 25 movie videos as the chief executive’s diplomatic gift to the visiting representative of America’s most important ally. Compared to Brown’s gifts, which included a pen holder which was made of wood from a British warship that helped stamp out the slave trade, Obama’s gift, in the words of The Telegraph, looked like the kind of thing the White House might hand out to a visiting head of a minor African state. Even worse is the context in which the huge diplomatic gaffe took place — a six-week succession of miscues, oversights, miscalculations, and outright errors that suggest things may have gone seriously wrong in the White House.

The list of Obama administration blunders include: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton telling the European Union at a gathering that American democracy has been around a lot longer than European democracy. This no doubt particularly surprised the Dutch, whose republic commenced years before the U.S. won its independence. Somebody should tell Clinton about Athens, too.

Then they go on, they say White House chief of staff “Rahmbo” — deadfish, my words — and OMB director Peter Orszag saying that Obama’s going to sign the $410 billion omnibus spending bill because it’s last year’s business, even though the bill requires the president’s signature now to become law. Saying that a catastrophe would result from delays in passing the $1.3 trillion stimulus bill, according to Obama, who took a four-day shopping trip with his family in Chicago before signing the emergency legislation.

Remember [Sen.] Sherrod Brown’s [D-OH] mother had died, and he had to fly back that Friday — he didn’t sign it until the following Tuesday. Attorney General Holder, calling Americans a nation of cowards.

Folks, this is the San Francisco Chronicle. And they’re — they’re getting a lot — they haven’t even begun to touch the surface as we have.

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Vitter went ?ballistic on an airline worker,? then ?fled the scene? before security arrived.
Last week, scandal-plagued Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) went “ballistic on an airline worker after missing a flight from Washington’s Dulles airport to New Orleans.” After arriving just 20 minutes before the plane was scheduled to depart, Vitter gave the airline employee who denied him entrance to the already closed gate “an earful, employing the timeworn […]

Last week, scandal-plagued Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) went “ballistic on an airline worker after missing a flight from Washington’s Dulles airport to New Orleans.” After arriving just 20 minutes before the plane was scheduled to depart, Vitter gave the airline employee who denied him entrance to the already closed gate “an earful, employing the timeworn ‘do-you-know-who-I-am’ tirade that apparently grew quite heated.” But when the employee left to find a security guard, Vitter “simply fled the scene”:

Vitter, according to the witness, remained defiant, yelling that the employee could call the police if he wanted to and their supervisors, who, presumably, might be more impressed with his Senator’s pin.

But after talking a huffy big game, Vitter apparently thought better of pushing the confrontation any further. When the gate attendant left to find a security guard, Vitter turned tail and simply fled the scene.

(HT: Raw Story)

Update Vitter said today that Roll Call is making much too much of the incident:

“After being delayed on the Senate floor ensuring a vote on my anti-pay-raise amendment and in a rush to make my flight home for town hall meetings the next day, I accidentally went through a wrong door at the gate,” Vitter said in a statement. “I did have a conversation with an airline employee, but it was certainly not like this silly gossip column made it out to be.”

Update A TSA spokeswoman said that the agency “will be reviewing the alleged incident.”

?Fair And Balanced? Fox News Wages Assault On Unions, Distorts Facts Of Employee Free Choice Act
Yesterday, the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) — a bill that makes it easier for workers to form unions and prevent employer harassment and intimidation — was introduced in both the House and Senate. The bill allows workers to unionize if a majority agrees, rather than forcing them to go through the months-long and often […]

Yesterday, the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) — a bill that makes it easier for workers to form unions and prevent employer harassment and intimidation — was introduced in both the House and Senate. The bill allows workers to unionize if a majority agrees, rather than forcing them to go through the months-long and often fruitless process of negotiating with powerful employers for the right to organize.

With a multi-million dollar campaign to defeat the bill under way, Fox News has enthusiastically taken up the anti-union, Big Business talking points. Even putting aside the network’s frequent right-wing guests, Fox News hosts describe EFCA using anti-union rhetoric while constantly distorting the truth about the legislation:

– BILL HEMMER: “Soon Americans who want to say no to unions might not be able to vote in private.”

– BILL O’REILLY: “Union officials have an open invitation to appear here on The Factor. They won’t, because their arguments for socialism won’t stand up.”

– MARTHA MACCULLUM: “This is going to make it very tough for small businesses to function. … They might have to lay people off!”

Watch some of the worst examples from the last 72 hours:

No matter how many times it’s been debunked, the Fox hosts keep repeating the falsehood that workers will no longer have access to a secret ballot under EFCA. The legislation does not eliminate the secret ballot. The bill would simply allow workers to choose whether to have a majority sign-up or a normal election process. And as American Rights At Work points out, a secret ballot is no guarantee to a fair election. Under current rules, union organizers do not have equal access to voters, the right to free speech, funding and resources equal to employers, or the ability to bring about elections in a timely manner.

More than concern for the secret ballot, the Fox hosts make it clear they are simply against unions. When they insist that union bosses — not employers — are intimidating workers, or when they declare that unions that drive up wages and benefits are harmful for Big Business, it’s clear whose side they’re on — and it’s not the American worker’s.