The Hollywood Liberal

Tea Party No Longer a Fringe Group
A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds 71% of Republicans “described themselves as tea-party supporters, saying they had a favorable image of the movement or hoped tea-party candidates would do well in the Nov. 2 elections.”

The survey also found that tea-party supporters “make up one-third of the voters most likely to cast ballots in November’s midterm elections.”

Crist’s Words Used Against Him
Florida Democrats released a devastating new ad that reminds voters of Gov. Charlie Crist’s (I) very partisan past. It shows him praising both former President George W. Bush and Sarah Palin and has him insisting, “I’m about as conservative as you can get,”

Rolling Stone Gets Obama to Open Up on Fox News, Tea Parties and the Threat of Election 2010
Obama runs the gamut in his RS interview, while telling progressives its inexcusable to be idle before the election.

Obama runs the gamut in his RS interview, while telling progressives its inexcusable to be idle before the election.

Why Having Political Hot Heads and Heated Debate Are a Good Thing
Have we overestimated the politics of cool?

Have we overestimated the politics of cool?

Face the truth about racial profiling

“I’ve seen a lot in my life but to be degraded? not just stripped of my clothes, being stripped of my dignity, was what I had a problem with.” Kurdish American Karwan Abdul Kader was stopped and stripped by local law enforcement for no reason other than driving around in the wrong […]

Alan Grayson: the Democrat Who Punches Back, Enraging GOP Hacks and Tea Party Billionaires
Alan Grayson is up against a Tea Party conservative. The billionaire Koch brothers, through their organization Americans for Prosperity, have dropped $250,000 in negative TV ads.

Alan Grayson is up against a Tea Party conservative. The billionaire Koch brothers, through their organization Americans for Prosperity, have dropped $250,000 in negative TV ads.

Corporate Mortgage Scams Threaten to Crash an Already Shaky Housing Market
A foreclosure pandemic riddled by corruption may stall America’s recovery.

A foreclosure pandemic riddled by corruption may stall America's recovery.

Triangulation Nation
Everybody should vote for all the Democrats this fall, every lyin’, weaselly, low-down, cowardly, corrupt, four-flushing double-dealing asshole. If that’s all you care about, you can leave now and reread the Clintons’ autobiographies. My interest is in restoring the meaning…


Democratic – United States – Politics – Barack Obama – White House

Supreme Court Democracy
The Times reports this morning on the way that one of the Karl Rove network of supposedly Non-Profit groups are gaming the election courtesy of the Roberts Supreme Court. Americans for Job Security, investigators found, had helped create the illusion…



Karl Rove – United States – Times – Politics – Supreme Court of the United States

Josh Marshall On Rahm’s “Unseemly” Departure
Here’s Josh from the front page. The word is that Rahm Emanuel is leaving the White House and his departure will likely happen this week. I know people have strong feelings on both sides about Rahm. But I must say…



Rahm Emanuel – White House – United States – chicagomayor – Pete Rouse

GOP Candidate Allen West Claims He Has Higher Security Clearance Than President Obama

Allen West, the Tea-Party backed GOP candidate for Congress in Florida’s 22nd district, is a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army. He apparently believes this entitles him to a security clearance higher than any clearance held by President Obama. He told an audience in Pompano, FL last week that: “I still retain a secret security clearance. And I tell you, if you look at the application for a security clearance, I have a clearance that even the president of the United States cannot obtain because of my background.” Watch it:

PolitiFact Florida performed a rather unnecessary fact-check, and categorized the claim as a “pants on fire” falsehood. PolitiFact called Steven Aftergood, a national security and intelligence specialist with the Federation of American Scientists, who explained: “The president is the one who established the security clearance system by executive order. Therefore it is nonsensical to speak of clearances higher than what the president has. As head of the executive branch and commander in chief of the armed forces, there is no information in government that could be denied to the president for security reasons if he determined he needed access to that information.”

West’s campaign doubled down on the outrageous claim when contacted by PolitiFact, however, and added several smears against President Obama. Josh Grodin, the campaign manager, explained that West meant that he obtained his clearance through a rigorous screening and security process, while Obama simply claimed his by winning the popular vote — and that Obama would not have obtained any clearance otherwise. “The fact that (Obama) admitted to cocaine use, travel to unauthorized countries years before, and his associations with Louis Farrakhan and Rev. Jeremiah Wright, he probably would not have been granted a security clearance,” he said.

As ThinkProgress has noted, West has a record of actual transgressions that could harm whatever security clearance he may or may not hold. (PolitiFact could not confirm that West still retained one). He resigned from the military while facing a court martial over the brutal interrogation of an Iraqi man: according to his own testimony, during a military hearing, West watched four of his men beat the suspect, and West said he personally threatened to kill the man. According to military prosecutors, West followed up on his threat by taking the man outside and firing a 9mm pistol near his head, in order to make the man believe he would be shot.

TenMillionVoters.Com: Newt Launches Tea Party Campaign To Stop ?Radical, Secular Socialist Machine?

With the incendiary claim that the Obama presidency is the greatest threat the American people have ever faced, Newt Gingrich has launched a massively funded effort to mobilize ten million conservative voters this November. In an online video promoting the “Power of 10” campaign by his American Solutions for Winning the Future (ASWF) 527 group, Gingrich rails against the “genuinely radical, secular socialist machine” of the “Obama-Pelosi-Reid team” who “simply run over the beliefs and values of the American people.” Images of Tea Party rallies and the right-wing enemies list — Michael Moore, Sean Penn, and Katie Couric — scroll by as Gingrich pleads for “we the American people” to “go all out”:

You know, I don’t remember any time in American history where we had such a threat to our basic way of life: A genuinely radical, secular socialist machine ramming things through with no regard for American values or the beliefs of the American people.

Watch it:

American Solutions for Winning the Future is bankrolled by a cadre of the right-wing billionaires and oil and coal companies who put George W. Bush into office and destroyed the national economy.

Read more about Newt Gingrich’s ASWF at the Wonk Room.

Transcript:

You know, I don’t remember any time in American history where we had such a threat to our basic way of life: A genuinely radical, secular socialist machine ramming things through with no regard for American values or the beliefs of the American people.

When you look at case after case, the Obama-Pelosi-Reid team are determined that they’re going to drive home change in America no matter what you and I think, no matter what every American thinks. Polls say people oppose them. They oppose issue after issue: They don’t want big tax increases, they don’t want the labor unions to eliminate the secret ballot in organizing, they don’t want to see government control of health care, they don’t want to see the Arizona law challenged on immigration.

And yet, again and again this administration and its allies simply run over the beliefs and values of the American people.

And that’s why these 45 days are so important. Now, I look at what’s going on, and I’m frankly worried. Oh yeah, the polls look pretty good. There’s a lot of happy talk, but I’ve been here before. We haven’t yet seen the full power of the presidency. All of the elite news media biased against us, the labor unions pouring out every penny. Trial lawyers writing their big checks. The left-wing celebrities out there raising money.

October’s gonna be tough, and for us to win after their counterattack, we have to have laid out careful plans, we have to have trained our candidates, and we have to have mobilized our voters. Because we’re up against a machine that’s gonna be desperate. They know the country’s angry. They look at every poll that tells them that on issue on issue we the American people are rejecting them. They know we’re determined to defeat them. So they’re going to go all out. The question is: Are we willing to go all out too?

So I’m asking you one more time, in this 45-day period, help us before the end of September to get the resources to stop the Left and get America back on the right track. I’m confident we will win, and our children and grandchildren will have a dramatically better future.

Our President Needs to Chart a New Course

Striking Out on Settlements
Richard Cohen, Washington Post

Census Finds Record Gap Between Rich and Poor

Breyer Has Formula to Take on Scalia
Jeffrey Rosen, The New Republic
Justice Stephen Breyer’s new book arrives at a time when liberals are still hungry for a constitutional vision. In a series of polls conducted by Quinnipiac University between 2003 and 2008, 54 percent of the respondents believe that “the Supreme Court should consider changing times and current realities in applying the principles of the Constitution,” as opposed to 44 percent who believe that the Court “should only consider the original intentions of the authors of the Constitution.”

New Cancer Drug Costs $93,000
A new drug therapy for cancer treatment, Provenge, costs $93,000 but only and adds an averae of four months’ survival for men with incurable prostate tumors. Bob Svensson, an 80-year-old former CFO, said the only reason he got it is because insurance paid. “I would not spend that money,” because the benefit doesn’t seem worth it, he said.

Well, I guess sometimes you do get a break
When your in a tough campaign it helps if your opponent is videotape standing up for pedophiles against victims.

While it appears that Rahm Emanuel is leaving the White House soon so he can spend more time cursing at his family, things haven’t looked too good for Russ Feingold, who’d like to stay employed. The Wisconsin Senator who is generally a reliable progressive, if occasionally a tad sanctimonious, is having a tough reelection campaign. In a year that has been good for Republicans (for once it really is good news for them) Feingold had recently fallen double-digits behind his Republican opponent, Ron Johnson, in some polls (that aren’t Rasmussen).

But as they say the Lord works in mysterious ways…especially when you are running against an idiot.

Here’s Mr. Johnson on videotape (via Jud Loundsbury at the Great Orange Satan) protecting the right of Catholic Diocese to reassign pedophile priests and make it harder for victims to sue. A real popular position all around.

Your move Russ.

?

Late, Late Night FDL: Carry On My Wayward Son
Kansas – Carry On My Wayward Son Them old geezers can still wail…! What’s on your mind tonite…?  

Kansas – Carry On My Wayward Son

Them old geezers can still wail…!

What’s on your mind tonite…?

?

Early Morning Swim

• Our gain is Chicago’s loss.
• Gosh, it’s lucky the Democrats are in charge.
• How to win hearts and minds, cont’d.
• Now this is how it’s done — and this is not.
• Um, okay?

• Our gain is Chicago’s loss.
• Gosh, it’s lucky the Democrats are in charge.
• How to win hearts and minds, cont’d.
• Now this is how it’s done — and this is not.
• Um, okay?

?

American Soldiers Accused of Shooting Afghans for the Hell of It
Five U.S. soldiers are accused of getting high and murdering Afghan civilians without cause. In leaked interrogation tapes, at least two appear to confess to as much. In one tape, Specialist Jeremy N. Morlock, who, if convicted, faces a death sentence, was asked whether one victim in particular was carrying weapons or acting aggressively. Morlock replied candidly: “No, not at all. Nothing, he wasn’t a threat.” The soldiers are accused of taking souvenirs of their alleged crimes, including body parts and photos in which they are said to pose with the victims. The New York Times: The soldiers are accused of possessing dismembered body parts, including fingers and a skull, and collecting photographs of dead Afghans. Some images show soldiers posing with the dead. As many as 70 images are believed to be in evidence. Some of the soldiers have said in court documents that they were forced to participate in the killings by a supervisor, Sgt. Calvin Gibbs, who is also accused in the killings. All five defendants have said they are not guilty. Read more

Five U.S. soldiers are accused of getting high and murdering Afghan civilians without cause. In leaked interrogation tapes, at least two appear to confess to as much.

In one tape, Specialist Jeremy N. Morlock, who, if convicted, faces a death sentence, was asked whether one victim in particular was carrying weapons or acting aggressively. Morlock replied candidly: “No, not at all. Nothing, he wasn’t a threat.”

The soldiers are accused of taking souvenirs of their alleged crimes, including body parts and photos in which they are said to pose with the victims.

The New York Times:

The soldiers are accused of possessing dismembered body parts, including fingers and a skull, and collecting photographs of dead Afghans. Some images show soldiers posing with the dead. As many as 70 images are believed to be in evidence.

Some of the soldiers have said in court documents that they were forced to participate in the killings by a supervisor, Sgt. Calvin Gibbs, who is also accused in the killings. All five defendants have said they are not guilty.

Read more

Related Entries

• September 27, 2010 The Ironies of Bishop Long
• September 27, 2010 The War of the McCourts

The Ironies of Bishop Long
Bishop Eddie Long tells us that he—and not the young men he is accused of coercing into sexual relationships or the gays and lesbians he has condemned—feels “like David against Goliath.” By Eugene Robinson

Bishop Eddie Long tells us that he—and not the young men he is accused of coercing into sexual relationships or the gays and lesbians he has condemned—feels “like David against Goliath.”

Related Entries

• September 27, 2010 The Ironies of Bishop Long
• September 27, 2010 The War of the McCourts

Rahm Emanuel Expected To Announce Departure From White House This Week
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is expected to announce Friday that he is leaving the Obama administration to consider a campaign for mayor…

FBI Protests: Hundreds Rally Against Raids On Anti-War Activists
MINNEAPOLIS — Hundreds of protesters gathered outside FBI offices in Minneapolis and Chicago on Monday, bearing signs and shouting chants condemning the agency’s recent searches…

Ted Stevens Burial At Arlington Planned After Nearly Two Months
JUNEAU, Alaska — Former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens will be buried Tuesday at Arlington National Cemetery. Stevens was one of five people killed in plane…

Nicholas Marsh, Ted Stevens Prosecutor, Dead In Apparent Suicide
WASHINGTON â?? A Justice Department prosecutor killed himself while under investigation over whether he and other attorneys in the prosecution of Sen. Ted Stevens acted…

REPORT: Fox News’ candidates “speak through Fox News” a whopping 269 times

Five potential Republican presidential candidates that serve as Fox News contributors or hosts have made at least 269 appearances on the cable channel – compared to a total of six appearances on all other major news channels combined.

“In-kind contribution”: Potential 2012 GOP candidates “speak through Fox News”

Palin: “[S]peak to the American people. Speak through Fox News.” Fox News contributor Sarah Palin appeared on the September 15 edition of The O’Reilly Factor and advised Christine O’Donnell, the Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Delaware, to “speak to the American people. Speak through Fox News and let the Independents who are tuning in to you, let them know what it is that she stands for, the principles behind her positions.” [The O’Reilly Factor, 9/15/10]

Fox News candidates “speak through Fox News” at least 269 times in 2010. Media Matters for America searched the Nexis database through September 18 for network and cable television appearances in 2010 by five potential 2012 Republican presidential candidates who currently have relationships with Fox News. The five potential candidates — John Bolton, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin, and Rick Santorum — have appeared 269 times on Fox News and a total of six times on CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, and CBS combined:

Each Fox News candidate has appeared at least 36 times this year. Mike Huckabee, the former Governor of Arkansas and 2008 GOP presidential candidate who hosts his own Fox News show, appeared on Fox News 96 times through September 18. Fox News contributor Rick Santorum, a one-time Republican Senator from Pennsylvania appeared 52 times, and former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich has appeared 48 times on Fox News so far this year. Sarah Palin, the party’s vice presidential nominee in 2008, appeared 37 times, while Bush’s U.N. ambassador John Bolton appeared 36 times:

Only Gingrich has appeared on other major news outlets – and just six times. Gingrich is the only one of the Fox News candidates to have appeared on any other major news channel in 2010 – having shown up on CNN once, on ABC News twice and on NBC News three times:

GOP strategist reportedly calls Fox News appearances an “in-kind contribution.” A September 27 Politico article highlighted the conflict Fox News faces in its contractual relationship with so many possible GOP contenders:

While they won’t talk about it on the record — no one wants to offend a news outlet with a potentially outsize role in determining the next GOP nominee — officials with some of the other campaigns in waiting are plainly annoyed at the advantage they see the four potential GOP candidates have with Fox. 

[…]

Jim Dyke, a veteran GOP strategist who isn’t affiliated with any 2012 candidate, predicted that the issue would gain steam after the midterms, when the so-called invisible primary begins in earnest.

“As it becomes clear somebody is looking at running, Fox gets into a bit of a box because doesn’t it become an in-kind contribution if they’re being paid?” Dyke asked. 

FoxPAC has an extensively documented history helping GOP candidates

Fox News has well documented history of raising money for and promoting GOP candidates. Media Matters for America has extensively documented Fox News’ role in opposing Democratic policies, promoting and fundraising for GOP candidates, raising millions of dollars for Republican candidates and causes in the 2010 election cycle and donating $1 million to elect Republican gubernatorial candidates. 

*Media Matters’ search was limited to transcripts available in the Nexis database, so it covers all CNN shows; most evening shows on FNC and MSNBC; and morning shows, evening news, and Sunday shows on the broadcast networks. Since Huckabee hosts his own weekly Fox News show that does not have transcripts in Nexis, Media Matters  added 37 appearances to Huckabee’s Fox News total to account for his weekly program.

Media Matters counted pre-taped interviews as appearances, but not brief statements by the potential candidates that aired as part of news packages.