The Hollywood Liberal

YOS Presents: Another Quote from the Quote Goat
Poster jaapdenhaan commenting on the possibility of a Palin presidency @ guardian.co.uk- The fulfillment of the Maya prophecy.

Lugar to Kyl: Time to “Get Real”
Strong words today from ranking Repblican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Dick Lugar, insisting that ratification of the New START treaty should be voted on during the lame-duck session, despite Sen. Jon Kyl’s announcement yesterday of his opposition to…

Louie, Louie, Louie Gohmert: A Big Lie on Palestine & Raging Homosexual Hormones??
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) needs to read up on some things — like learn some facts and stuff. . .and use those facts to stop illegals from taking land that is not theirs. You know those Israelis are taking land…

AIPAC, The Animation (Via Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
From Steve Rosen’s deposition. And you can download the legal documents all here. Note: not for anyone who is offended by gross sexual imagery or disregard for America (or Israel’s) interests. And note that AIPAC is just one lobby,although it…

GOP Judges Write Senators Asking Them To Stop Obstructing President Obama?s Judges
Earlier this week, seven Republican-appointed federal judges co-signed a letter warning of the consequences of the GOP’s systematic obstruction of President Obama’s judges.  The letter from the Judicial Council of the Ninth Circuit, which includes Republican appointees Alex Kozinski, Ralph Beistline, Vaughn Walker, Irma Gonzales, Frances Marie Tydingco-Gatewood, Richard Frank Cebull, Lonny Ray Suko, explains: […]

Earlier this week, seven Republican-appointed federal judges co-signed a letter warning of the consequences of the GOP’s systematic obstruction of President Obama’s judges.  The letter from the Judicial Council of the Ninth Circuit, which includes Republican appointees Alex Kozinski, Ralph Beistline, Vaughn Walker, Irma Gonzales, Frances Marie Tydingco-Gatewood, Richard Frank Cebull, Lonny Ray Suko, explains:

In order to do our work, and serve the public as Congress expects us to serve it, we need the resources to carry out our mission. While there are many areas of serious need, we write today to emphasize our desperate need for judges. Our need in that regard has been amply documented (See attached March 2009 Judicial Conference Recommendations for Additional Judgeships). Courts cannot do their work if authorized judicial positions remain vacant.

While we could certainly use more judges, and hope that Congress will soon approve the additional judgeships requested by the Judicial Conference, we would be greatly assisted if our judicial vacancies–some of which have been open for several years and declared “judicial emergencies”–were to be filled promptly. We respectfully request that the Senate act on judicial nominees without delay.

Although the letter is written in the respectful tone that judges generally adopt when speaking to their colleagues, this kind of advocacy by judges is exceptionally rare.  Indeed, judges so rarely speak out about the judicial confirmation process that when conservative Chief Justice William Rehnquist spoke out against GOP obstructionism of President Clinton’s nominees in 1997, the event stunned senators into action.  Judicial confirmations increased from only 36 in 1997 to 65 in 1998.  GOP obstructionism has become so serious that only 41 judges have been confirmed during Obama’s entire presidency.

An op-ed co-authored by retired conservative Judge Timothy Lewis provides a grim accessment of what will happen if Republicans continue their “delay for delay’s sake” tactics: “They are creating an unprecedented shortfall of judicial confirmations and, ultimately, a shortage of judges available to hear cases. For many Americans, this means justice is likely to be unnecessarily delayed — and often denied.”

Republicans Slam GOP?s Climate Change Denial As ?Incomprehensible? And ?Embarrassing?
Characterized as the moral issue of our time, climate change not only poses significant risks to the environment but represents an opportunity to adapt and re-energize the economy through investment in clean energy technology. As the National Academies of Science notes, “the U.S. should act now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and develop a national […]

Characterized as the moral issue of our time, climate change not only poses significant risks to the environment but represents an opportunity to adapt and re-energize the economy through investment in clean energy technology. As the National Academies of Science notes, “the U.S. should act now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and develop a national strategy to adapt to the inevitable impacts of climate change.”

Despite the overwhelming evidence and need to address its “inevitable impacts,” a huge contingent of the newly-empowered GOP members of Congress do not believe in climate change to begin with. A survey by the Wonk Room’s Brad Johnson finds that a member of Congress from nearly every state in the union — the so-called “Climate Zombie Caucus” — explicitly reject the threat of man-made global warming. Of the incoming freshmen, 36 of 85 in the House and 11 of 13 in the Senate have publicly questioned the science and “there are no freshman Republicans, in the House or Senate, who publicly accept the scientific consensus that greenhouse pollution is an immediate threat,” Johnson found.

But this iron wall of denial does not sit well with all conservatives. In a Washington Post op-ed yesterday, former Republican Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (NY) articulated his confusion as to why “so many Republican senators and representatives think they are right and the world’s top scientific academies and scientists are wrong.” Allowing for debate over policy, Boehlert said he finds the GOP’s “dogged determination” to deny the actual science “incomprehensible”:

Watching the raft of newly elected GOP lawmakers converge on Washington, I couldn’t help thinking about an issue I hope our party will better address. I call on my fellow Republicans to open their minds to rethinking what has largely become our party’s line: denying that climate change and global warming are occurring and that they are largely due to human activities.[…]

Why do so many Republican senators and representatives think they are right and the world’s top scientific academies and scientists are wrong? I would like to be able to chalk it up to lack of information or misinformation.

I can understand arguments over proposed policy approaches to climate change. I served in Congress for 24 years. I know these are legitimate areas for debate. What I find incomprehensible is the dogged determination by some to discredit distinguished scientists and their findings.[…]

There is a natural aversion to more government regulation. But that should be included in the debate about how to respond to climate change, not as an excuse to deny the problem’s existence. The current practice of disparaging the science and the scientists only clouds our understanding and delays a solution.

While normally walking lockstep with this crowd, the GOP is rebuking the approach of “leaders of some of our nation’s most prominent businesses,” says Boehlert. The U.S. Climate Action Partnership, for example, is “no collection of mom-and-pop shops operated by ‘tree huggers’” but rather a group of “hard-nosed, profit-driven capitalists” like General Electric, Duke Energy, and DuPont pushing Congress to see climate change as an opportunity to “create more economic opportunities than risks for the U.S. economy.” “My fellow Republicans should understand that wholesale, ideologically based or special-interest-driven rejection of science is bad policy,” he said.

To former Republican Rep. Joe Scarborough (FL), its more than bad policy, “it’s embarrassing.” In a thorough roundtable discussion with Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) on the “huge ideological tension” over climate change, MSNBC’s conservative host bemoaned the U.S.’s woeful standing in clean energy production that could “transform our economy.” Kerry, the leading lawmaker on climate change legislation, agreed that Congress’s failure was both “embarrassing” and “ridiculous.” Noting that “Republicans have made an art form out of calling everything a tax and running against it,” Kerry said, telling Scarborough why there’s little hope for improvement: “Too many of the people who’ve come into the Congress on the other side, all they want to do is cut. They’re not talking about investing in America. And if all we do is come down here and focus on the deficit without focusing on future investment, the United States is going to fall farther behind.”

Watch it (starting at 3:00):

To Run or Not to Run, That Is the Question
Peggy Noonan, WSJ
All eyes have been on Capitol Hill, but let's take a look at the early stages of the race for the Republican presidential nomination. This week the papers have been full of sightings—Newt and Huckabee are in Iowa, Pawlenty's in New Hampshire. But maybe the more interesting story is that a lot of potential candidates will decide if they are definitely going to run between now and New Year's—and some of them will be deciding over Thanksgiving weekend. It's all happening now, they're deciding in long walks, at the dinner table, and while watching the…

Hiding From Reality
Bob Herbert, New York Times
However you want to define the American dream, there is not much of it that’s left anymore. Bob Herbert Wherever you choose to look — at the economy and jobs, the public schools, the budget deficits, the nonstop warfare overseas — you’ll see a country in sad shape. Standards of living are declining, and American parents increasingly believe that their children will inherit a very bad deal. We’re in denial about the extent of the rot in the system, and the effort that would be required to turn…

A Body Scan Too Far
Kathleen Parker, Washington Post

Nation: The Money-Media Election Complex
Writing for The Nation, Robert W. McChesney and John Nichols cal this the most important story of the election: “the radical transformation of our politics by a money-and-media election complex that is now more definitional than any candidate or party — and that poses every bit as much of a threat to democracy as the military-industrial complex about which Dwight Eisenhower warned us a half-century ago.”

Late Late Night FDL: Classical Chicken
Classical Chicken — Muppet Studio‘s bawkapella version of Johann Strauss’ Blue Danube.

Classical Chicken — Muppet Studio‘s bawkapella version of Johann Strauss’ Blue Danube.

What’s on your mind?

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Lame Duck

By Nate Beeler, Cagle Cartoons, The Washington Examiner

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USPS Losses

By Mike Keefe, Cagle Cartoons, The Denver Post

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Fact-Checking The Nuclear-Arms Treaty Debate
WASHINGTON — In their showdown over an arms-control treaty with Russia, Democrats and Republicans are charging each other with undermining national security. Who’s right?…

Senior Federal Judge Pleads Guilty To 2 Drug Charges In Shocking Case
ATLANTA — A veteran federal judge who was arrested on charges that he bought and used drugs with a stripper pleaded guilty Friday to two-drug…

Chris Weigant: Friday Talking Points [147] — Democrats Fighting The Good Fight
Well, I don’t know about anyone else, but I thought that was a pretty good week for Democrats. Maybe it’s just the subject matter I’ve…

Report: U.S. Preparing Sweeping Insider-Trading Charges
Federal authorities, capping a three-year investigation, are preparing insider-trading charges that could ensnare consultants, investment bankers, hedge-fund and mutual-fund traders and analysts across the nation,…

Media Matters: Glenn Beck is the face of Fox News

To those Fox News journalists who are reportedly “worried about the prospect that Beck is becoming the face of the network”: Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes have picked a side in this fight — and it’s not yours.

For months, accounts of internal tension over Beck have been leaking out of Fox News. Back in March, media critic Howard Kurtz — then with The Washington Post — reported that “there is a deep split within Fox between those — led by Chairman Roger Ailes — who are supportive, and many journalists who are worried about the prospect that Beck is becoming the face of the network. … Beck has become a constant topic of conversation among Fox journalists, some of whom say they believe he uses distorted or inflammatory rhetoric that undermines their credibility.”

In an October New York Times Magazine profile of Beck, Mark Leibovich — who noted the “[o]ff-the-record sniping shoots in both directions” and could be related to upcoming contract negotiations — reported: “But the friction is evident in many areas.”  In addition to reporting — like Kurtz — that some Fox News journalists felt Beck’s inflammatory rhetoric undermined the network, Leibovich introduced a new twist: Ailes’ support for Beck may have been flagging.

Ailes, Leibovich wrote, “has generally been supportive of Beck,” but he’s also “complained about Beck’s hawking his non-Fox ventures too much on his Fox show” and has been “vocal around the network about how Beck does not fully appreciate the degree to which Fox News has made him the sensation he has become in recent months.”

With his ratings in a slump, advertisers dropping like flies, and the reported sniping from Ailes, it seemed possible that Beck’s influence at Fox might wane.

Then Rupert Murdoch stepped in.

When asked at the News Corp. annual shareholders meeting later that month about Ailes’ reported frustration with Beck’s use of Fox News airwaves to promote his own brand and interests, Murdoch dismissed such concerns, saying, “I don’t know whether you watch Fox News, but Mr. Beck is the least of our stars who take liberties in promoting their interests.”

And Murdoch was unfazed when asked at the meeting about reports that nearly 300 advertisers are boycotting Glenn Beck, responding, “That’s not true. … Maybe four or five who have been moved over to Mr. O’Reilly’s program. No one has taken any money off the channel.”

But perhaps most surprising was Murdoch’s unprompted praise for Beck in a November interview in his native Australia, which was paired with some trash-talking aimed at Fox News ratings giant Bill O’Reilly. O’Reilly’s “easy” treatment of now-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in an interview was “disgraceful,” Murdoch said. He then lavished Beck with praise:

There’s a guy on Fox who started on CNN called Glenn Beck.

He is a little bit of an actor, he looks in the camera all the time. He’s very genuine, extremely well-read libertarian, doesn’t make any secret of it. He says don’t trust the government, don’t trust me, just trust yourselves.

He’s hit a nerve. Millions — millions — watch him at five in the afternoon!

Never mind that these days, O’Reilly regularly pulls in well over a million more viewers in his 8 p.m. slot than Beck does in his 5 p.m. slot. Or that advertisers — by Murdoch’s own admission — have moved from Beck’s program to O’Reilly’s. Beck is the one Murdoch brags about.

Is Murdoch out of touch with what is happening at his own network? Is his defense and praise of Beck an accident? That seems unlikely, given that he views the network as the jewel of his empire. When asked earlier this week by Fox Business’ Liz Claman what News Corp.’s best growth market is, Murdoch said, “Our best growth engine right now is in this country.” When Claman pressed for specifics, Murdoch immediately responded, “Fox Business. Fox News. Seriously.”

He later noted “other cable channels” — though not by name — and gave “Fox Broadcasting Company” a shout-out, but it’s clear that he believes financial future of News Corp. as a whole is tied closely to the financial future of Fox News.

Murdoch has quite consciously pushed Beck to the forefront at Fox News, and with him the type of paranoid, incendiary rhetoric and wild inaccuracies with which some Fox journalists are growing increasingly uncomfortable.

With a directive straight from the top of News Corp., Roger Ailes quickly fell back into line as Beck’s key backer at Fox News.

Ailes came roaring back to Beck’s defense this week in an interview with Kurtz after prominent Jewish leaders and Holocaust survivors condemned Beck’s three–day attack on financier and philanthropist George Soros.

In the special series — which ran from November 9th to 11th and was heavily promoted by Fox News — Beck falsely accused Soros of being a Holocaust collaborator and repeatedly attacked Soros with anti-Semitic stereotypes, referring to him as a “puppet master” and accusing him of controlling the media, the political process, and the global economy.

Kurtz, now with The Daily Beast, reported that Ailes offered a “spirited defense” of Beck in the wake of his recent attacks on Soros, and that Ailes had even reached out to the Anti-Defamation League — one of the groups that condemned Beck’s “puppet master” series — to smooth things over.

In fact, according to Kurtz’s interview, Ailes’ only real gripe with Beck seems to be that Beck criticizes Republicans too much. Ailes told Kurtz: “Beck trashes Republicans every night. I’ve said to him, ‘Where the hell are you going to get your audience if you keep this up? You’re trashing everyone.'”

Kurtz added: “There’s one criticism that Ailes doesn’t want to hear. He admonished the staff after unnamed Fox journalists told me they are worried that the divisive Beck is becoming the face of the network. ‘Yeah, shut up,’ says Ailes. ‘You’re getting a paycheck. Go on the team or get off the team. Don’t run around here badmouthing a colleague.'”

Indeed, Murdoch and Ailes have made their game plan for Fox News increasingly clear with their constant Beck boosterism. And ironically, Ailes’ analysis of Jon Stewart in his interview with Kurtz seems to best apply to Fox News and Ailes himself:

“If it wasn’t polarized, he couldn’t make a living.” … “He loves polarization. He depends on it. If liberals and conservatives are all getting along, how good would that show be? It’d be a bomb.'”

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Conservatives Approve Interim Report Slamming DOJ On New Black Panther Case
The conservative majority of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights today voted to approve what they are now calling an “interim” report on the Justice Department’s handling of the voter intimidation case against members of the New Black Panther Party.