The Hollywood Liberal

?Worship Satan? Spray-Painted On St. Louis Mosque In Second Act Of Vandalism In As Many Weeks

Two weeks ago, vandals spraypainted the words “Worship Satan” and drew a pentagon along the side of the Masjid Qooba mosque in St. Louis. The FBI immediately began investigating the incident, but made no arrests.

Now, vandalism has once again befallen the mosque. The words “Worship Satan” were spray-painted over a different wall of the same mosque, alarming its worshippers. The FBI and St. Louis Police are both investigating the incident, and suspect the same vandals from the incident two weeks earlier may be responsible.

In an interview with local news station KMOV, mosque spokesman Tim Kaminski said the mosque is not interested in pursuing charges against the vandal or vandals. “What we would like is for this person to come forward and come clean,” said Kaminski. “We have no rancor, no anger. We want to talk to this person. Explain to them what Islam is, that we worship the same God as the Christian and Jewish traditions do.” Watch it:

Jim Hacking, a local attorney for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told local news station KMOX that right-wing figures have helped gin up the hatred against Muslims that is leading to vandalism. “Nationally on things like FOX News, you have people like Newt Gingrich comparing Muslims to Nazis,” Hacking said. “Just really negative, stereotypical hatred that’s been spewing out, and it’s really at its worst level, even worse than after 9/11.”

Richest House Member Darrell Issa Wants Tax Rates For The Rich Lowered From Bush Rates

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) went on Fox News last night to promote the GOP line that the government must not let the Bush tax cuts expire for the rich, repeating his charge that the House should hold a vote on the Bush tax cuts “or resign.” Issa dismissed the cost of extending those cuts for the rich (more than $800 billion over the next decade). “It isn’t that much,” he said.

Incredibly, Issa later argued that the tax cuts should be extended for the rich because those making less than $250,000 per year might one day win the lottery. “One of the things that you lose in the debate is most people don’t make over a quarter million dollars a year. But a great many people once in their lifetime will sort of win the lottery,” he said. But not only does Issa want to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, he actually wants the tax rates that the rich pay to be lowered:

ISSA: We were better off at 28 percent under Reagan than we’ve been since. And we are going to be at 39 percent come January. And in my state that is over and above over another 10 percent. You are looking at 50 percent of every dollar of every California business is being taken before they get to reinvestment.

Watch it:

Seeing that Issa doesn’t seem to care about the cost of extending the Bush tax cuts for the rich, he probably isn’t too worried about the additional hundreds of billions in debt that would result from cutting them even more. Rather, he stands to handsomely benefit from lower tax rates on the rich. The California lawmaker is one of the richest members of Congress:

The wealthiest members of Congress grew richer in 2009 even as the economy struggled to recover from a deep recession. The 50 wealthiest lawmakers were worth almost $1.4 billion in 2009, about $85.1 million more than 12 months earlier, according to The Hill’s annual review of lawmakers’ financial disclosure forms. […]

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), with a net worth of $160.1 million, is the second-richest member of Congress under The Hill’s formula, even though his wealth declined by more than $4 million in 2009.

According to Open Secrets, Issa was the wealthiest member of Congress in 2008.

Postal Service close to going broke
Americans can still send and receive mail, but the U.S. Postal Service may not have much left in the bank after this week, as it’s set to announce billions of dollars in losses as early as Thursday.


United States – Government – Postal Service – Mail – US Postal Service

Liberal groups plan One Nation rally in D.C.
Liberal groups hoping to revive their unenthused members are encouraging them to show up at the National Mall Saturday for a rally that they expect to draw tens of thousands or more.



Politics – Parties – Liberal Democrats – Glenn Beck – One Nation

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Blaming Voters Isn’t Very Smart
John Podhoretz, New York Post
On Oct. 24, 1996, Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole got up at a campaign rally and promptly lost it: “I wonder sometimes what people are thinking about, or if people are thinking at all,” he shouted. “Wake up, America!”Those words — an unmistakable harbinger of the humiliation Dole would experience by losing to Bill Clinton in a landslide 12 days later — seemed to echo painfully like Taylor Swift singing without the benefit of an auto-tune machine in the bewildering comments made over the last couple of days by President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.

Apathy Could Hurt Dems, Obama Warns
Anne Kornblut, Washington Post
MADISON, WIS. – President Obama delivered an impassioned argument to young voters Tuesday night, declaring that the changes he promised in 2008 are underway and that “now is not the time to give up.”Trying to recapture the enthusiasm that catapulted him into office, Obama returned to the proven format of a large college campus to launch a pre-election push for fellow Democrats. Speaking to what was once one of his most fervent fan bases – students – he unleashed a string of dire warnings about Republican control, arguing that his opponents are banking on Democratic…

Political Class Has Betrayed the Country
Tony Blankley, RealClearPolitics
Not long after the tea party sprang into being in the spring of 2009, America's elites started vilifying the movement. In an article worthy of a class-action libel suit, The New York Review of Books depicted the tea party's first march on Washington as a parade of bigots.Ex-president Jimmy Carter spit venom at tea partiers by saying they resented an African-American president — a baseless charge of racism willingly echoed by the media. Receive news alertsWhen they weren't being defamed as racists, tea party supporters were described as irrational, enraged, seething, and livid….

Asst. AG Harasses College Student
For months, an assistant attorney general in Michigan has waged an online campaign against Chris Armstrong, the gay student body president of the University of Michigan. Andrew Shirvell runs a Chris Armstrong Watch blog accusing him of gay orgies and racism, slams his family members and friends and admits to protesting outside his house. He calls Armstrong a “Nazi-like” recruiter for “the cult that is homosexuality.”

Late Late Night FDL: Big Town Playboy
Ana Popovic — Big Town Playboy.

Ana Popovic — Big Town Playboy.

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And THIS is why he gets the big bucks
Oh thank goodness, Tom Friedman is here to tell us what the Tea Partiers really believe…and it is exactly what Tom Friedman believes.

The Mustache of Understanding and Powdered Donuts via some Attaturk guy at flickr.com

And here I was just assuming Richard Cohen was still the nation’s tritest Op-Ed writer. I am crestfallen. For Tom Friedman’s ‘Mustache of Understanding’ (credit Atrios) has demanded the mantle:

The Tea Party that has gotten all the attention, the amorphous, self-generated protest against the growth in government and the deficit, is what I’d actually call the “Tea Kettle movement” — because all it’s doing is letting off steam.

Oh, you see what he did there? Considering the fact it became the “Tea Party” only after it’s bleaters found out what “teabagging” meant requires that any other nickname would be trite beyond belief. Enter Thomas Friedman. I bet he spent at least six months coming up with it, so one Friedman Unit, an “F.U.” But enough about that, let’s see how the Mustache would make everything just right...suck.on.this!

The Tea Partiers actually want us to raise taxes.

Um, yeah, good job there Tom, you’ve really got their belief system pegged, that’s exactly what they want. That’s some solid political analysis of what makes ‘em tick.

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Obama Finds Lack of Enthusiasm ‘Irresponsible’
Rolling Stone has a fascinating, sprawling interview with President Obama, who sees the tea party as an amalgam, says Gen. Stanley McChrystal didn’t meet his standards, and defends his administration as “the most successful … in a generation in moving progressive agendas forward.” The interview exemplifies why Obama is such a frustrating character. On the one hand, he is so casually brilliant that he can kibitz about the brevity of the journalistic golden age between Hearst and Fox News. At the same time, he is dense as a stone when it comes to his economic team (Larry Summers didn’t work at Goldman Sachs, he protests—no, he just pocketed its $135,000 payoff, er, speaking fee). The president is clearly frustrated that he hasn’t gotten credit for his legislative accomplishments. And even if he can understand that his base is disappointed, Obama does not believe such disappointment excuses apathy in the coming election, as you can see below.  —PZS Rolling Stone via TPM: The idea that we’ve got a lack of enthusiasm in the Democratic base, that people are sitting on their hands complaining, is just irresponsible. Everybody out there has to be thinking about what’s at stake in this election and if they want to move forward over the next two years or six years or 10 years on key issues like climate change, key issues like how we restore a sense of equity and optimism to middle-class families who have seen their incomes decline by five percent over the last decade. If we want the kind of country that respects civil rights and civil liberties, we’d better fight in this election. And right now, we are getting outspent eight to one by these 527s that the Roberts court says can spend with impunity without disclosing where their money’s coming from. In every single one of these congressional districts, you are seeing these independent organizations outspend political parties and the candidates by, as I said, factors of four to one, five to one, eight to one, 10 to one. We have to get folks off the sidelines. People need to shake off this lethargy, people need to buck up. Bringing about change is hard—that’s what I said during the campaign. It has been hard, and we’ve got some lumps to show for it. But if people now want to take their ball and go home, that tells me folks weren’t serious in the first place. Read more

Rolling Stone has a fascinating, sprawling interview with President Obama, who sees the tea party as an amalgam, says Gen. Stanley McChrystal didn’t meet his standards, and defends his administration as “the most successful … in a generation in moving progressive agendas forward.”

The interview exemplifies why Obama is such a frustrating character. On the one hand, he is so casually brilliant that he can kibitz about the brevity of the journalistic golden age between Hearst and Fox News. At the same time, he is dense as a stone when it comes to his economic team (Larry Summers didn’t work at Goldman Sachs, he protests—no, he just pocketed its $135,000 payoff, er, speaking fee).

The president is clearly frustrated that he hasn’t gotten credit for his legislative accomplishments. And even if he can understand that his base is disappointed, Obama does not believe such disappointment excuses apathy in the coming election, as you can see below.? —PZS

Rolling Stone via TPM:

The idea that we’ve got a lack of enthusiasm in the Democratic base, that people are sitting on their hands complaining, is just irresponsible.

Everybody out there has to be thinking about what’s at stake in this election and if they want to move forward over the next two years or six years or 10 years on key issues like climate change, key issues like how we restore a sense of equity and optimism to middle-class families who have seen their incomes decline by five percent over the last decade. If we want the kind of country that respects civil rights and civil liberties, we’d better fight in this election. And right now, we are getting outspent eight to one by these 527s that the Roberts court says can spend with impunity without disclosing where their money’s coming from. In every single one of these congressional districts, you are seeing these independent organizations outspend political parties and the candidates by, as I said, factors of four to one, five to one, eight to one, 10 to one.

We have to get folks off the sidelines. People need to shake off this lethargy, people need to buck up. Bringing about change is hard—that’s what I said during the campaign. It has been hard, and we’ve got some lumps to show for it. But if people now want to take their ball and go home, that tells me folks weren’t serious in the first place.

Read more

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This Joke’s on Congress
Stephen Colbert is no Elmo—which is why it was crazy for House Democrats to have him testify before a subcommittee last week about migrant labor. By Ruth Marcus

Stephen Colbert is no Elmo—which is why it was crazy for House Democrats to have him testify before a subcommittee last week about migrant labor.

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Obama is right: Fox News promoting “destructive” GOP agenda

In a recent Rolling Stone interview, President Obama said Fox News is part of the tradition of using the press “very intentionally to promote their viewpoints” because Fox “has a very clear, undeniable point of view” that “is ultimately destructive for the long-term growth” of the country. Indeed, Fox has a long history of actively promoting the Republican agenda and of opposing economic positions which economists say would stimulate growth.

Obama: Fox a “destructive” network that uses its platform “very intentionally to promote” its “point of view”

Obama: Fox “has a very clear, undeniable point of view” that “is ultimately destructive for the long-term growth” of the country. In an interview to appear in the October 15 edition of Rolling Stone, Obama stated his belief that Fox News is a “destructive” network that uses its platform to “very intentionally promote” its point of view, which is “ultimately destructive for the long-term growth” of the country:

The golden age of an objective press was a pretty narrow span of time in our history. Before that, you had folks like Hearst who used their newspapers very intentionally to promote their viewpoints. I think Fox is part of that tradition — it is part of the tradition that has a very clear, undeniable point of view. It’s a point of view that I disagree with. It’s a point of view that I think is ultimately destructive for the long-term growth of a country that has a vibrant middle class and is competitive in the world. But as an economic enterprise, it’s been wildly successful. And I suspect that if you ask Mr. Murdoch what his number-one concern is, it’s that Fox is very successful.

Obama is right: Fox has an extensive record of pushing GOP agenda, candidates

Five potential Republican presidential candidates are employed by — and speak almost exclusively through — Fox. As Media Matters documented, five potential Republican presidential candidates are employed by Fox News as contributors or hosts and have made at least 269 appearances on the cable channel — compared to a total of six appearances on all other major news channels combined. Fox also has a record of supporting ex-employees’ bids for elected office with free airtime, fundraising opportunities, and on-air adulation.  

Fox lavished coverage on the GOP’s legislative agenda. Following the House Republican Conference’s unveiling of its 2010 legislative agenda, “A Pledge to America,” Fox lavished attention on the pledge, devoting at least 2 hours and 33 minutes on September 22 and 23 to promoting, discussing, and reporting the agenda.

FoxPAC: Fox News’ corporate parent gave Republican Governors Association $1 million. News Corp., the parent company of Fox News, donated $1 million to the Republican Governors Association, causing journalism experts and news veterans to criticize the donation for “compromising the appearance of fairness.”

Fox News host and contributors also raise big bucks for the GOP. Meanwhile, Fox News hosts and contributors — including Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, Karl Rove, Dick Morris, and Sean Hannity — continue to raise money for Republican candidates and causes using political action committees and 527 and 501(c)4 organizations. Delaware’s Republican U.S. senatorial candidate, Christine O’Donnell, even thanked Palin and several other Fox-tied supporters for propelling her to a primary victory over Rep. Mike Castle.

Fox also supports candidates with fawning free coverage and serves as a launching pad for their campaigns. Republican candidates regularly appear on Fox for softball interviews to launch their campaigns and promote fundraising. Indeed, Nevada’s Republican U.S. senatorial candidate Sharron Angle recently bragged to supporters that her appearances on a “friendly press outlet” like Fox are very profitable for her.

Fox News aggressively promoted tea party protests. Fox News aggressively promoted the tea party protests which the channel described as primarily a response to Obama’s fiscal policies, going so far as to host several of the network’s shows on location at protests.

Fox has a history of adopting and promoting GOP talking points — without even stopping to edit them. Recently, following Republican Congressmen Kevin McCarthy’s and John Boehner’s repeated assertions that failing to vote on tax cuts will inject “uncertainty” into the economy on Fox News Sunday, Fox personalities ran with the talking point, spreading the claim throughout the network. Similarly, last year, Fox News host Jon Scott aired a segment purporting to “take a look back” at how the economic recovery plan “grew, and grew, and grew.” In doing so, Scott referenced seven dates, as on-screen graphics cited various news sources from those time periods — all of which came directly from a Senate Republican Communications Center press release. A Fox News on-screen graphic even reproduced a typo contained in the Republican press release. Fox did not attribute the data to the Senate Republican Communications Center at the time. The following day, Scott apologized — for running the typo.

Economists agree with Obama: proposals pushed by Fox bad for long-term growth

Fox has opposed every major effort to stimulate the economy — despite economists’ support. Since Obama took office, Fox personalities have opposed every major package proposed to stimulate the economy, despite support from a consensus of economists and economic analysts. Recent opposition has included Obama’s newly proposed infrastructure plan, the extension of unemployment insurance, aid to states, and food stamps, all of which have been shown to stimulate the economy.

Fox’s campaign to extend tax cuts for the wealthy would add debt, do little to stimulate growth. Over the past few months, Fox has launched a campaign aimed at extending the Bush tax cuts for the rich. However, economists and financial analysts agree that those cuts will cost $700 billion and would be much less effective at stimulating the economy than extending unemployment insurance, food stamps, and providing direct aid to states – all proposals which Fox personalities have repeatedly opposed.

Fox opposed the stimulus and since bill’s passage, have repeatedly falsely claimed that it failed. In covering the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, commonly referred to as the stimulus, Fox News consistently advanced false and misleading claims about the economic recovery package. Since the bill’s passage, Fox News figures have repeatedly advanced the false claim that the stimulus “failed,” despite the fact that independent and private analysts agree that the stimulus boosted GDP and increased employment.

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TN Mosque Opponents Bring In National Sharia ‘Expert’ Frank Gaffney
The opponents of a proposed mosque near Murfreesboro, Tenn., have brought in prominent Sharia law fearmonger Frank Gaffney to help them stop the project in court.



Sharia – Frank Gaffney – Osama bin Laden – Sharia Law – Terrorism

AZ Sheriff’s Dept Reopens Case Of Deputy Allegedly Shot By Drug Smugglers
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Sheriff – Arizona – Pinal County Arizona – Illegal drug trade – United States

Mama Grizzly Versus the Pristine Christine?