The Hollywood Liberal

Charles D. Ellison: Is Black Political Power Under Siege?
Black political power and influence appears somehow strafed and in serious condition since the midterm elections. Even President Barack Obama is not immune as he fends off assaults from both left and right.

The Price Of Privacy
The companies with multimillion-dollar contracts to supply American airports with body-scanning machines more than doubled their spending on lobbying in the past five years and…

R.W. Sanders: What’s in It for Me?
Have there ever been more vile words spoken? Yet, this is our credo these days. Greed is good. And good is whatever I get. Bad is what comes your way. In a world defined by winners and losers, does humanity have a chance?

Beck still doesn’t understand net neutrality

Glenn Beck again claimed that proposed net neutrality rules are “basically a Fairness Doctrine for the Internet” and would allow the government to “control what you see on the Internet.” In fact, net neutrality prohibits Internet service providers from controlling access to Internet content, and — contrary to Beck’s suggestion — would not require Fox to change its content.

Beck falsely claims net neutrality is “basically a Fairness Doctrine for the Internet”

Beck: “They want to make sure that you can get the Huffington Post on Fox News.” On the November 22 edition of his Fox News program, Beck Brent Bozell, who frequently appears on Fox News.

Internet pioneers and leaders credit net neutrality as guiding principle in growth and competition

“Father of the internet” and pioneering scientists support net neutrality rules. In an October 15, 2009, notes, Cerf is “often called ‘the father of the Internet.’ ”

Internet pioneering companies support net neutrality for growth and creativity. In an October 19, 2009, post on his blog, Tim Berners-Lee — who FoxNews.com noted “created a computer-based system for sharing information with colleagues around the world [World Wide Web]” — wrote: “When I invented the Web, I didn’t have to ask anyone’s permission. Now, hundreds of millions of people are using it freely. I am worried that that is going end in the USA. … I hope that Congress can protect net neutrality, so I can continue to innovate in the internet space. I want to see the explosion of innovations happening out there on the Web, so diverse and so exciting, continue unabated.”

Investors who “brought us the Mac, Tweets and Internet search” support net neutrality. WashingtonPost.com telecommunications reporter Cecilia Kang noted on October 20, 2009, that the “people who invested the money that eventually brought us the Mac, Tweets and Internet search … threw their support behind a push for proposed net neutrality rules, saying clear regulations that prevent Internet services providers from blocking the applications they help fund would spur growth in one of the brightest sectors of the economy.” The investors stated in a letter that the “promise of permanently securing an open Internet will deliver consumers and innovators a perfect free market that drives investment, job creation, and consumer welfare.” Kang reported that the letter’s signers included investors who helped start Amazon, Sun Microsystems, Google, Skype, Hotmail, Twitter, and Yelp.

Google: “Internet has operated according to this neutrality principle since its earliest days,” allowing innovation. In its explanation of net neutrality, Google wrote that the “Internet has operated according to this neutrality principle since its earliest days. Indeed, it is this neutrality that has allowed many companies, including Google, to launch, grow, and innovate. Fundamentally, net neutrality is about equal access to the Internet. In our view, the broadband carriers should not be permitted to use their market power to discriminate against competing applications or content. Just as telephone companies are not permitted to tell consumers who they can call or what they can say, broadband carriers should not be allowed to use their market power to control activity online.”

Beck wrongly suggests Sunstein wants to require websites to present opposing views

Beck: “Cass Sunstein said it was bad for people that they could seek out information that only fits their point of view.” During the segment, Beck said: “Cass Sunstein said it was bad for people that they could seek out information that only fits their point of view. They want to make sure that you can get the Huffington Post on Fox News. No, thank you. They’re about to control what you see on the Internet.”

Sunstein said it was a “bad idea” for government to require websites to provide opposing viewpoints. PolitiFact.com reported that in his 2002 book, Republic.com, “Sunstein talks about the idea of the government requiring sites to link to opposing views.” However, PolitiFact further reported:

In a later edition of the book released in 2007, Republic.com 2.0 , Sunstein tempers that position, advocating instead for the creation of public spaces on the Internet where people with differing viewpoints could share their ideas with one another.

But in a video interview on the Web site Bloggerheads.tv on Feb. 29, 2008, Sunstein actually goes a little bit farther than that, calling it a “bad idea” he should never have ventured.

Asked to explain some of the differences between the first book, what Sunstein called “the initial inadequate edition,” and its successor, Sunstein said, “To me, the most important (difference) is that the first Republic.com was full of some bad policy recommendations and I was able to get rid of those. So I feel the book has been corrected.”

“The initial book was interested in at least considering some government mandates that would require people to link to opposing views, that would require some attention to arguments that maybe had been neglected,” Sunstein said. “And while the book Republic.com was pretty tentative about that, to be tentative about a bad idea, it’s probably better not to even venture a bad idea. Some of the bad ideas I ventured tentatively as worth considering in Republic.com , in 2.0 I say they’d be bad ideas and they’d be unconstitutional.”

Contrary to Beck’s suggestion, Sunstein’s discussion of this topic is entirely unrelated to net neutrality.

Beck has a history of misinforming about net neutrality

Beck claimed net neutrality is “a way to control voices.” On the January 19 edition of his Fox News show [accessed via Nexis], Beck claimed, “FCC, they want net neutrality with Obama. That’s the big push. Net neutrality, it’s a way to control voices.”

Beck: “So we have Marxists that are designing and working on net neutrality — are believers in net neutrality” to “control content.” During the October 20, 2009, edition of his Fox News program, Beck claimed that “we have Marxists that are designing and working on net neutrality — are big believers in net neutrality, right? Gosh, it does seem that these would be the wrong people to help, you know, innovate business for it. And so what they want to do is, if I can do the third one, control content.”

DOJ Official: Defending DADT, DOMA ‘Difficult’ For Administration
Assistant Attorney General Tony West of the Justice Department told reporters Monday that defending Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and the Defense of Marriage Act were “difficult” for the Obama administration.

Yoo: I Said Torture Was Legal, But It Doesn’t Mean They Should’ve Done It (VIDEO)
Former Justice Department lawyer and “torture memo” author John Yoo used a speeding metaphor to explain that just because he gave George W. Bush the legal justification for the “unpopular” decision to waterboard Khalid Sheikh Muhammed didn’t mean Bush had to go through with it.Muhammed didn’t mean Bush had to go through with it.

Thank a Republican in Advance!

The Palin-Huckabee Dilemma
With Republican presidential prospects considering whether to enter the fray, The Fix notes that “one thing is clear: that Huckabee and Palin…would perform well without the other, but they might undercut each other if they are in the same race.”

“The base of support for Huckabee and Palin is readily apparent, and for both of them, it starts with born-again evangelicals. The two of them combine for 46 percent of that vote, compared to just 26 percent for Gingrich and Romney. Palin and Huckabee are also the top two vote-getters among women and people without college degrees… It’s hard to see Palin having a path to victory that doesn’t include Iowa or South Carolina, and both of those early states happened to be Huckabee’s strongest in 2008.”

A Thanksgiving Miracle for Children of Incarcerated Parents
Terrance Stevens’ dream was to help the many children of NY State prisoners that live in his Harlem community and had been left with a great void in their lives.

Terrance Stevens' dream was to help the many children of NY State prisoners that live in his Harlem community and had been left with a great void in their lives.

Hedging Democracy
Like my friend Larry Lessig, I admit to mixed feelings about the Tea Party Movement. On the one hand I can admire the passionate reform spirit that forces old bulls like Mitch McConnell to give up their beloved earmarks. As…

More Calls for Pentagon Cuts
The new report from the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Domenici-Rivlin commission adds another voice to the growing chorus of calls for cuts in Pentagon spending as part of any deficit reduction plan. Among the most important elements of the report with…

Rep.-Elect Allen West: In D.C. ?You Don?t See People Getting Laid Off? And ?You Don?t See Anyone Suffering?
Yesterday, Rep.-elect Allen West (R-FL), who has risen to national prominence amid controversy over his disparaging views of Islam, progressives, and multiculturalism, appeared on Meet the Press. In the process of explaining why we should permanently extend the Bush tax breaks for millionaires – a move that would add $830 billion to the deficit over […]

Yesterday, Rep.-elect Allen West (R-FL), who has risen to national prominence amid controversy over his disparaging views of Islam, progressives, and multiculturalism, appeared on Meet the Press. In the process of explaining why we should permanently extend the Bush tax breaks for millionaires – a move that would add $830 billion to the deficit over the next ten years alone – West made some curious comments about the economic situation in his new home of Washington, D.C. After noting that unemployment is as high as 13 percent in his Florida district and foreclosures are skyrocketing, West claimed that “you don’t see people getting laid off” and “you don’t see anyone suffering” in our nation’s capital:

GREGORY: The — Congressman, the — on the issue of tax cuts, do you buy the president’s argument, “Look, let’s extend those Bush-era tax cuts for the middle class first, then we can come back and do the upper earners, or at least have that conversation”?

WEST: No. I think that we need to extend those tax cuts permanently across the board. Look, I come from a — an area down in South Florida where unemployment is at 13 percent, foreclosures are absolutely high. We are seeing closed upon closed storefronts. But yet, when you walk around here in Washington, D.C., you don’t see people getting laid off, you don’t see, you know, anyone suffering, you don’t see the foreclosures.

Watch it:

West’s comments display an unfortunate lack of awareness of the economic hardships that many D.C. residents experience. Unemployment is low for the upper crust of Washington, including those who populate the halls of Congress — just 4.2 percent for those with a college degree, according to a study by the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute.

However, working-class residents have acutely felt the pain of the economic recession. In Ward 8, which lies just south of Capitol Hill, the unemployment rate topped 28 percent last year, “one of the highest in the nation.” West’s comments about foreclosures are equally misguided, as local blog DCist shows with a video of residents lining up around the block and crowding into the Convention Center to receive free home loan counseling.

It is extraordinarily easy for congressmen like West to arrive in Washington, ingratiate themselves in lobbyist luncheons and the cocktail circuit, and assume that economic hardship somehow passed over our nation’s capital. As a result, it is no surprise that West would argue for permanent tax breaks for billionaires while — in the very same breath — denying the existence of poor people in D.C.

Thankfully, West will not chair the House subcommittee that oversees Washington, D.C. in the 112th Congress. That role will be filled by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), a man who believes that giving D.C. governing autonomy and voting rights is unconstitutional.

Bachmann Stands By Charge That Obama Is ?Anti-American? And Her Lie About Obama?s India Trip Costs
Last Friday on the BBC, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) spoke with host Emily Maitlis about a range of topics. Unlike the puff interviews Bachmann enjoys from most of the media, like on Fox News, the BBC actually challenged Bachmann on some of her radical views and distortions. First, Maitlis questioned Bachmann about her 2008 charge […]

Last Friday on the BBC, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) spoke with host Emily Maitlis about a range of topics. Unlike the puff interviews Bachmann enjoys from most of the media, like on Fox News, the BBC actually challenged Bachmann on some of her radical views and distortions. First, Maitlis questioned Bachmann about her 2008 charge that Obama is “very anti-American.” Rather than apologize or walk back the statement, Bachmann dug in, repeatedly answering the question with a litany of right-wing anti-Obama talking points:

MAITLIS: You’ve suggested that President Obama is anti-American. Do you really believe that?

BACHMANN: I’ve been very concerned about the policies that have come out of the White House and I share that agreement with people who voted at the ballot box on the first Tuesday in November, they’re rejecting the federal government foray into buying and owning an equity share […]

MAITLIS: But that’s a different thing, do you think he’s anti-American, do you think that the president of America is anti-American?

BACHMANN: The policies that are anti-free enterprise are ones that are not familiar to the people of the United States. And that’s why we saw such a strong reaction to the ballot box. In fact, the government takeover of health care is a great example, that’s not what was done here historically in the United States, and the people don’t want to see the federal government to control and dictate our health care.

Maitlis then asked Bachmann about her ridiculous claim that Obama spent over $200 million a day on his trip to India. The inflated number has been debunked by the Wall Street Journal, PolitiFact, and other organizations. As the blog IntoxiNation noted, Bachmann and a chorus of right-wing voices pounced on the smear after it was promulgated by Matt Drudge on the Drudge Report. Bachmann justified her lie by claiming that it was fair game since “major national figures in the United States, many in the media had already been using that figure.” Apparently, if Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh says something, that’s enough for a member of the House of Representatives to believe it as true:

MAITLIS: You claimed that President Obama spent $200 million a day on a trip to India. It’s been roundly ridiculed as a quote.

BACHMANN: Actually, I didn’t claim that. I was quoting a newspaper out of India. And I only used that quote–

MAITLIS: Well why would you do that?

BACHMANN: Well number one it came out of the host country in India, a well-respected financial newspaper.

MAITLIS: And you believe that? $200 million dollars a day?

BACHMANN: Well, all I did was I quoted the newspaper. I quoted the newspaper and major national figures in the United States, many in the media had already been using that figure. […] The reason it was so important was that the president has a two-year history of out of country spending. […]

MAITLIS: You still believe that it was $200 million dollars a day?

BACHMANN: I didn’t say if I believe it or not. What I said was a I was quoting a newspaper.

Watch:

As the New York Times reported on Saturday, Bachmann lost her bid for a leadership position within the GOP House largely because of her proclivity to make deeply embarrassing gaffes and lies. Her performance on the BBC serves as a testament to that problem. (HT: DailyKos diarist devtob)