The Hollywood Liberal

Frank Gaffney Posits That Missile Defense Logo Is Evidence of Obama’s ‘Submission To Shariah’
Frank Gaffney, a protégé of Richard Perle and an influential figure in right wing national security circles, has firmly entered the world of right wing tin-foil hat paranoia. Media Matters documents the development of a new right wing conspiracy theory, claiming that the Obama administration manipulated the redesign of the Missile Defense Agency to look […]

Frank Gaffney, a protégé of Richard Perle and an influential figure in right wing national security circles, has firmly entered the world of right wing tin-foil hat paranoia.

Media Matters documents the development of a new right wing conspiracy theory, claiming that the Obama administration manipulated the redesign of the Missile Defense Agency to look like his campaign logo. This theory then evolved to claims that the new logo incorporates the Islamic crescent as well:

This nutty conspiracy theory was escalated by Frank Gaffney, who sees it as explaining Obama’s rationale behind his cuts to missile defense. How so? Well because he is a secret Muslim of course, which since all Muslims are out to destroy America, means Obama is out to do the same:

A just-unveiled symbolic action suggests, however, that something even more nefarious is afoot… Team Obama’s anti-anti-missile initiatives are not simply acts of unilateral disarmament of the sort to be expected from an Alinsky acolyte. They seem to fit an increasingly obvious and worrying pattern of official U.S. submission to Islam and the theo-political-legal program the latter’s authorities call Shariah… the new MDA shield appears ominously to reflect a morphing of the Islamic crescent and star with the Obama campaign logo… Watch this space as we identify and consider various, ominous and far more clear-cut acts of submission to Shariah by President Obama and his team.

So according to Gaffney, Obama hates missile defense so much that he wants to change the Missile Defense Agency’s logo to reflect his campaign symbol, as well as his secret Muslim identity? While this makes no sense, as Brendan Nyhan explains this is part of a strategy to spread fear-mongering “smears against Obama’s loyalty and false claims about Obama’s religion. As laughable as ‘Logo-gate’ may be, the underlying strategy is deeply disturbing.” As Matt Duss has noted:

Gaffney’s own past work strongly argues against taking him seriously as an analyst. As someone willing to cast deeply irresponsible and transparently bigoted accusations against the president, however, he should be taken very seriously.

Yet Gaffney is a prominent member of the right wing security establishment. He writes a regular column for the Washington Times, is a frequent commentator on cable television, and runs his own right-wing defense organization. Just this past October, at Gaffney’s Center for Security Policy “Keeper of the Flame” annual award dinner, Vice President Cheney was the featured speaker and recipient of the reward. Other guest speakers included Sen. Jon Kyl and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

By spreading this crazy paranoid conspiracy, Gaffney not only is defaming the President, he is also defaming the people who work and lead the Missile Defense Agency. The idea that the President would pay attention to an agency logo redesign or that the design in anyway reflected some secret Muslim agenda, as Richard Lehner of the Missile Defense Agency noted, “is ridiculous.” Lehner told Fox that “it isn’t a new logo to replace the official logo. It’s a logo developed for recruiting materials and for our public Web site. Also, it was used prior to the 2008 election and it has no link to any political campaign.”

Additionally, the one to approve the new logo is likely the head of the Missile Defense Agency, Lt. General Patrick O’Reilly, someone the right wing must now presumably believe is complicit with Obama’s secret plan to further the United States’ “submission to Islam.”

Health Care Summit Analysis: Closing thoughts
Washington Post reporters broke down the key flashpoints in real time as Republicans and Democrats shared their competing visions of health-care legislation.

Rep. Peter Roskam makes remarks at White House health summit
BOEHNER: I want to yield to Peter Roskam from Illinois.

Sen. Chris Dodd makes remarks on coverage at White House health summit
DODD: Well, thank you, Mr. President. And I’ll try and keep this brief and turn it over to Patty, so we’ll take the time for one person and divide into two.

Rep. Rob Andrews makes remarks on cutting health-care costs at White House health summit
OBAMA: OK. I’m going to let Rob — feel free to respond to anything they’ve indicated, or to any of the other issues that have been discussed.

Have Gays Found Their Place in the GOP?
Brian Montopoli, CBS News

Obama is Liked, But He Isn’t Feared
Rupert Cornwell, The Independent
What went wrong? In January 2009, Barack Obama took power in a nation that overwhelmingly yearned for him to succeed. He was a fresh face, eloquent, thoughtful, plainly intelligent. On Capitol Hill, his party had massive majorities. All of that remains true. Yet, just 13 months later, America is in about as foul a mood as when George W. Bush reached his nadir. Most parties that win the White House lose seats at the next mid-term elections. This November though, Democrats are bracing for a wipe-out that could conceivably see them lose control of both House and Senate, as the independent voters…

How Obama Screwed Volcker
Charles Gasparino, The Daily Beast
Enter your email address:Enter the recipients' email addresses, separated by commas:Message: AP Photos The president needed the gravitas of the former Fed chairman to sell his bank reform to Wall Street. And when the “Volcker Rule” didn’t fly, Obama sold him out.Barack Obama owes Paul Volcker a lot, but he apparently owes the fat cats on Wall Street even more. That’s the only reasonable conclusion that can be made from the president’s timely and, in some ways, bizarre about-face on the former…

Let’s Be Sure of Climate Change Facts First
Roddy Campbell, Prospect
An automatic weather station being installed on Butler Island, AntarcticaThe belief that man is warming the Earth's climate via greenhouse gas emissions is supported by evidence showing a modest increase in global temperatures over recent decades. But what is the scale of these increases, and are they in any way abnormal? To find out, we need an accurate record over a long period. This is where the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit (CRU) comes in, and why the “climategate”� scandal over its leaked emails matters so much.The CRU is one of the world's…

Zazi Case Vindicates Traditional Methods
Before Najibullah Zazi is finally dispatched to a secure cellblock for good, it is important to remember how the taxi-driver-turned-terrorist was brought to justice—and why the critics who jeered his civilian prosecution were dead wrong. By Joe Conason

Before Najibullah Zazi is finally dispatched to a secure cellblock for good, it is important to remember how the taxi-driver-turned-terrorist was brought to justice—and why the critics who jeered his civilian prosecution were dead wrong.

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• February 24, 2010 Why Are Democrats Ignoring the Next New Dealers?
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You Bet Your Ass

By Mr. Fish

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Obama Tops South Carolina Republican Senators In Poll, Despite Losing State In 2008
President Barack Obama’s job approval may be eroding nationwide, but in South Carolina, a state he lost in 2008, a new poll gives him higher…

Wall Street Bankers Are Overpaid, Says Morgan Stanley Chairman John Mack
Morgan Stanley Chairman John Mack said investment bankers are overpaid and Wall Street compensation won’t decrease much because firms don’t want to lose their best…

Missile Defense Agency Logo Upsets Right: Comparisons To Obama Campaign, Islamic Crescent
The new Missile Defense Agency logo has bombed in certain circles. Critics say it looks to much like any number of well-known symbols, including the…

Maryland Recognizes Gay Marriages From Out-Of-State
Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler (D) said Wednesday that effective immediately, and until challenged in court, the state recognizes same-sex marriages performed elsewhere and…

Carla Seaquist: “Government Take-over” of Healthcare? We Already Have Corporate Take-over
Reality bites—and just in time. Republican ranting over the past year at the fearful prospect of a “government take-over” of healthcare has pretty completely obscured…

An O’Reilly Factor hat trick: Rove, Morris, and Schoen repeat falsehoods on the eve of health care summit

On the night before the bipartisan health care summit, Bill O’Reilly hosted Fox News contributors Karl Rove, Dick Morris, and Doug Schoen, all of whom repeated various falsehoods about health care reform.

Rove distorts CBO report to claim “everybody’s health care premiums are going to be higher than they would be otherwise”

From the February 24 edition of Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor:

ROVE: There is a trillion dollars worth of additional money being spent over the next 10 years. It’s got to come from somebody, and it’s not just tanning salons. Remember, it’s going to come from everybody who has an insurance policy because the Congressional Budget Office says everybody’s health care premiums are going to be higher than they would be otherwise.

Premiums impact largely limited to nongroup market — about 17 percent of the market in 2016. In a November 30, 2009, summary of Obama’s health care proposal:

The President’s Proposal changes the effective date of the Senate policy from 2013 to 2018 to provide additional transition time for high-cost plans to become more efficient. It also raises the amount of premiums that are exempt from the assessment from $8,500 for singles to $10,200 and from $23,000 for families to $27,500 and indexes these amounts for subsequent years at general inflation plus 1 percent. To the degree that health costs rise unexpectedly quickly between now and 2018, the initial threshold would be adjusted upwards automatically. To ensure that the tax affects firms equitably, the President’s Proposal reforms it by including an adjustment for firms whose health costs are higher due to the age or gender of their workers, and by no longer counting dental and vision benefits as potentially taxable benefits.

A proposed compromise between the House and Senate bills would have exempted high-cost union health care plans from the excise tax until 2018, reportedly to give union members more time to renegotiate their contracts, while nonunion high-cost health care plans would have been subject to the excise tax starting in 2013.

O’Reilly and Schoen falsely suggest that GOP ideas like interstate competition “aren’t in the bill”

From the February 24 edition of The O’Reilly Factor:

O’REILLY: He may just try to show the country that the Democrats — that the Republicans are intractable because we do expect Republicans to go up there and say, look, unless you put in tort reform, unless you put in interstate competition of insurance companies — two stalwarts. And I — maybe — you’re a Democrat, maybe you could explain to me why those things aren’t in the bill, Mr. Schoen, because they seem to be common sense to me. They’re not in the bill. The Republicans have been hammering that for the last eight months, and the president basically just says, I’m not going to do it.

SCHOEN: Bill, I’ve been writing that the Democrats should include tort reform — malpractice reform — and interstate purchase of insurance, so I’m one Democrat —

O’REILLY: But why don’t they do it, then? If you’re a Democrat, I’m an independent, and all the Republicans want it, OK, why doesn’t President Obama say, “OK, I’ll give you both of those things”? Why not?

Obama: “[W]hen you say I ought to be willing to accept Republican ideas on health care, let’s be clear: I have.” During Obama’s question-and-answer period of his House GOP retreat visit on Section 3403 of the Senate health care bill, “Independent Medicare Advisory Board”:

(ii) The proposal shall not include any recommendation to ration health care, raise revenues or Medicare beneficiary premiums under section 1818, 1818A, or 1839, increase Medicare beneficiary cost sharing (including deductibles, coinsurance, and copayments), or otherwise restrict benefits or modify eligibility criteria.

CBO: Advisory Board provision “would place a number of limitations on the actions available to the board, including a prohibition against modifying eligibility or benefits.” In its December 19, 2009, analysis of the Senate bill incorporating the manager’s amendment, CBO noted that “[a]fter 2019, however, the threshold for Medicare spending growth that would trigger recommendations for spending reductions would be higher — specifically, the rate of increase in gross domestic product (GDP) per capita plus 1 percentage point.”

Senate Run For Bush Adviser Dan Senor?
Is Dan Senor, the face of the U.S. occupation of Iraq, mulling a run for the Senate from New York?

Yoo: ‘Sure,’ The President Could Order A Village Of Civilians Massacred
In John Yoo’s vision of executive power, the president can legally order a village of civilians “massacred,” according to the internal Justice Department report released Friday.

ACORN: We’re Still Around … But Maybe Not For Long
ACORN is pushing back against reports that it’s on the verge of collapse as a national organization, in the wake of last year’s hidden camera scandal. But it’s not making any long-term predictions about its future.

The Tattlesnake – CPAC Proof GOP is Still Doomed Edition
CPAC’s Corporate Mythmakers and True Believers Headed for a Hard Fall “Con artists have a word for the inability of their victims to accept that they’ve been scammed. They call it the ‘True Believer Syndrome.’” – Matt Taibbi, “Wall Street’s Bailout Hustle,” Rolling Stone, Feb. 21, 2010. You know you’re in trouble when your keynote speaker is Glenn […]

Is the Future Bright for Progressive Media?
A new book highlights how progressive media has achieved more influence than ever before. But there’s still work to be done.

A new book highlights how progressive media has achieved more influence than ever before. But there's still work to be done.

$100,000 Per Year to Lock up a Cheese Thief? The Perverse Logic of "Three Strikes"
That a man with unpaid-for cheese in his underwear could ever have faced essentially the same sentence as Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is an absurdity.

That a man with unpaid-for cheese in his underwear could ever have faced essentially the same sentence as Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is an absurdity.

Blackwater Rescued Progressive House Rep. Alan Grayson from Niger’s ‘Civil Unrest’
Grayson, who made his fortune by suing military contractors and later lambasted them as a lawmaker, was evacuated from Niger by personnel working for Xe Services.

Grayson, who made his fortune by suing military contractors and later lambasted them as a lawmaker, was evacuated from Niger by personnel working for Xe Services.

Try again!
The trade press reports that the President is trying again to pass an energy bill with a long term price on carbon emissions. Good! Its critical to realize how easy this transition from carbon to clean can really be. With…


Energy – Greenhouse gas – Environment – President of the United States – Carbon Cycle

Obama Now Owns a Deficit Commission – and Senator Simpson.
On Thursday President Obama signed an executive order creating a?National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. This deficit commission is based on an idea promoted by two Senators, Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and Judd Gregg (R-N.H.),? which would have required the…


Social Security – Alan Simpson – United States – Barack Obama – Economic

GIVING CHUTZPAH NEW MEANING
OK, so now I have read it all…the Jewish settlers in the West Bank are complaining about the new Palestinian city of Rawabi that has been conceived of for Palestinian families and young professionals just outside of Ramallah because they…


West Bank – Rawabi – Middle East – Israel – Ramallah