Fox & Friends, the short bus of the news media

ThinkProgress
Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade has been embarrassing himself more than usual over the last few days on Fox & Friends. Yesterday, after news broke that the cap BP placed on its leaking oil well had to be removed because one of its robots bumped the well’s venting system, Kilmeade had some harsh words for the robot. “I’d love to talk to that robot that knocked…the top off the cap that was in the bottom of the Gulf yesterday,” Kilmeade said. “What was that robot thinking?” he asked in disgust.

Then today, as Media Matters notes, the Fox co-host had had this dim-witted question for President Obama:
KILMEADE: The President took a matter of hours to pick a commander in Afghanistan so why is it taking months to plug the leaking oil?

HuffPost
On Wednesday morning's "Fox and Friends," Carlson was discussing whether Obama would fire General Stanley McChrystal for his controversial remarks in Rolling Stone.

She said that "this is what being president of the United States is all about. It's these tough, huge, monumental decisions."

Carlson then compared the role of the president to that of being a host on "Fox and Friends":
"It's just like our job...what's the role of an anchor during huge breaking news? You remember growing up? You'd tune to the television, and that one moment during the year, they would have to carry a story all along, it's the same thing as being the President of the United States."

Oh, the irony....

Sarah Palin in front of the Latin word for "truth".

* facepalm *

AZ Gov. Jan Brewer: clueless, stupid or racist?

MSNBC

Gov. Jan Brewer said Friday that most illegal immigrants entering Arizona are being used to transport drugs across the border, an assertion that critics slammed as exaggerated and racist.

"I believe today, under the circumstances that we're facing, that the majority of the illegal trespassers that are coming into the state of Arizona are under the direction and control of organized drug cartels and they are bringing drugs in," Brewer said.

T.J. Bonner, president of the union that represents border agents, said some illegal border-crossers carry drugs but most don't. People with drugs face much stiffer penalties for entering the U.S. illegally, and very few immigrants looking for work want to risk the consequences, Bonner said.

"The majority of people continue to come across in search of work, not to smuggle drugs," he said. "Most of the drug smuggling is done by people who intend to do that. That's their livelihood."

I'd like to know what sources Brewer has, considering that Border Patrol doesn't have figures on it.

Besides the obvious problems, it's frightening that the governor, in charge of law and order in her state, has little clue about the real issues surrounding illegal immigration.

Economist calls Neil Cavuto an "asshole", correctly, on-air after Cavuto's insult

Huff Post

AFL-CIO's chief economist Ron Blackwell, who was making the point that spending money is a fairly well-tested way of spurring economic stimulus, didn't take well to a slight from deficit hawk Neil Cavuto. The conversation between the two was already pretty cantankerous when Cavuto asked where Blackwell actually had earned his degree: "A baking school?" Cavuto wondered. "Where are you cooking up these numbers?"

Blackwell proceeded to call Cavuto an "asshole"... on live air.

Ron Blackwell: Why don't you let me finish my thought.

Neil Cavuto: You never answer a basic question.

Ron Blackwell: I'm answering you right now.

Neil Cavuto: Why will spending work?

Ron Blackwell: These programs created jobs but not net creation. we lost more jobs because of the recession than were created by these programs.

Neil Cavuto: Wait a minute, Ron, you're the chief economist there. Where did you get your degree? A baking school? Where are you cooking up these numbers?

Ron Blackwell: Oh that's an insult. You're a joker. You're an asshole.

The right-wing hypocrisy machine claims Dave Weigel

This is kind of wonky, but a favorite writer of mine, Dave Weigel, was forced to resign from the Washington Post because of comments he made on a supposedly-private listserv bashing Republicans. I understand the conflict-of-interest, as Weigel is supposed to be covering the conservative beat, and his objectivity seems to be compromised.

However, what came first, his objectivity being compromised or his becoming fed-up with Tea Party bullshit?

Here are snippets of what he said:

So what did Dave Weigel do on this private listserve that was so terrible? He made an (admittedly tasteless) joke about Rush Limbaugh’s heart failing. He wrote, about covering the Tea Party, “Honestly, it’s been tough to find fresh angles sometimes–how many times can I report that these [tea party] activists are joyfully signing up with the agenda of discredited right-winger X and discredited right-wing group Y?” He said that the motives behind some Tea Partiers and conservatives were racist and premised on maintaining white privilege. He pointed out that “There’s also the fact that neither the pundits, nor possibly the Republicans, will be punished for their crazy outbursts of racism. Newt Gingrich is an amoral blowhard who resigned in disgrace, and Pat Buchanan is an anti-Semite who was drummed out of the movement by William F. Buckley. Both are now polluting my inbox and TV with their bellowing and minority-bashing. They’re never going to go away or be deprived of their soapboxes.” He said about conservative blow-hard Matt Drudge that “It’s really a disgrace that an amoral shut-in like Drudge maintains the influence he does on the news cycle while gay-baiting, lying, and flubbing facts to this degree.” He pointed out that the mainstream media suffers from “this need to give equal/extra time to ‘real American’ views, no matter how fucking moronic, which just so happen to be the views of the conglomerates that run the media and/or buy up ads.” He said Glenn Beck was racist. He was satisfied and laughing when a right-wing operative who made a career of harassment, intimidation and law-breaking was finally caught breaking into Senator Mary Landrieu’s office. He used the term “ratfuck.”

As I said, I understand the issue with his impartiality. However, let's look at the following comments from the right:

“Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?”

“Look, let me put it to you this way: the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it.”

“They’re 12 percent of the population. Who the hell cares?”

“Take that bone out of your nose and call me back”?

... all from Rush Limbaugh

"Hillary Clinton cannot be elected president because ... there's something about her vocal range.... She's the stereotypical bitch, you know what I mean?"

- Glenn Beck, who also called the President of the United States a racist.

Or let's talk Pat Buchanan.

So why is it OK that the right wing media is allowed to fan the flames on a daily basis, but Weigel is forced out for it? Is it because he works for the Washington Post, a legitimate newspaper? Maybe. One can, and should, argue that the standards should be higher for him than for bloggers like Drudge. But Pat Buchanan works for CNN! Glenn Beck works for Fox, who likes to pretend to be a mainstream news service - at least when they're trying to get Helen Thomas' front row seat.

Was Weigel wrong in his assessments? No. Was he dumb to put those thoughts in writing? Yes. Is there a double-standard at work here? Absolutely.

Senate Republicans (and Ben Nelson) screw Americans while supporting Big Oil

Cesca

Well, that's it. No more unemployment extensions. No more COBRA subsidies. And the Republicans are entirely to blame.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Thursday that Democrats are giving up on trying to break a Republican filibuster of a bill to reauthorize several expired domestic aid programs, including extended unemployment benefits.

The Republicans like Rand Paul think you should just go out and get a job. Just get one. Out there. Somewhere.

This detail should make everyone lose their shpadoinkle:

Reid and Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), in an effort to mollify a handful of conservative Democrats and moderate Republicans, have spent the past several weeks trimming the bill to reduce its deficit impact. But after jettisoning several provisions to help the old, the poor and the jobless, reducing the bill's ten-year deficit impact down from $134 billion to just $33 billion, the bill is still sinking. Not a single Republican is willing to lend support and Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson is still holding out, leaving Democrats two votes short of the 60 needed to overcome the GOP filibuster.

$33 billion. Do you remember the dollar amount of the annual subsidy paid to Big Oil? $38 billion. That's right, the Republicans voted to continue paying corporate welfare to companies like BP, but they filibustered a bill of nearly equal dollar value paid to unemployed Americans. The Republicans. $38 billion to oil companies? YES! $33 billion to unemployed Americans? NO!

Fox News' Shep Smith asks Napolitano "what's it like standing up for BP?" and "blaming the government" for the oil spill

Kudos to Shep Smith for standing up to the corporate position his bosses at Fox have taken and calling "bullshit" to the misrepresentations and outright lies presented by Faux News.


Media Matters via Hammerito

Hypocrisy Watch: Teabaggers don't get it

From ThinkProgress, we have Missouri farmer David Jungerman posted a sign on a semi-truck trailer accusing Democrats of being the “Party of Parasites”.



Nice. however, Jungerman has received more than $1 million in federal crop subsidies since 1995. Trying to defend himself from charges of hypocrisy for criticizing others for getting government help while taking government subsidies paid for by taxpayers, Jungerman said, “That’s just my money coming back to me. I pay a lot in taxes. I’m not a parasite.”

Right......

This cult all want small government... for everybody else. When it comes to their needs, well, government is just fine.



This is Matthew Perdie. According to Politico: "On Tuesday, the 24-year-old video editor celebrated his year anniversary of setting out from Long Island, N.Y. to walk across the country in support of small government.

And 3,600 miles and 8 pairs of shoes later, he's almost done, slated to arrive in Santa Monica, C.A. on July 4."

Right. Protesting big government by walking 3600 miles on taxpayer funded roads. Walking without fear because of taxpayer-funded police. If he was so interested in small government, then why didn't he go through the woods, to show how we don't need those government-funded roads? I'd also be interested in finding out how Mr. Perdie has managed to take 14 months off of work.

Colbert on Glenn Beck, in 2 parts

Health care support rises, except among those who already have gov't health care

Cesca

Support for healthcare reform continues to rebound, according to a new Gallup poll. 49 percent of Americans are now saying the new law is a "good thing," with 46 percent opposed.

Here's the infuriating part:

On the basis of age, the largest well of opposition is found among seniors, 60% of whom call passage of the bill a bad thing, similar to the 57% in April. By contrast, attitudes are more favorable than unfavorable among young and middle-aged adults.

Senior citizens, ostensibly on Medicare, really don't like this law. The Greatest Generation and Baby Boomers are once again screaming, "Mine! Mine! Mine!" I can't imagine why America is so screwed up right now.

(With apologies to the sensible and rational boomers among us.)

Earthquakes.... blame Obama

Jon Stewart hits GOP for endorsing and then abandoning Barton

McChrystal throws petty bombs at the Obama administration

General Stanley McChrystal went on the record with Rolling Stone to blast almost all of the key administration key players in Afghanistan. The key question on everyone's mind today is "will he have to be sacked?".

Needless to say, the wingnuts will seize on this to try to prove that Obama doesn't know how to run a war. However, as Spencer Ackerman points out, there's almost no substantive criticism of the administration. It's grade school griping from a group of McChrystal aides that call themselves Team America. In fact, the only real substantive criticism is that McChrystal isn't letting them be brutal enough with the civilians.

The amazing thing about it is there’s no complaints from McChrystal or his staff about the administration on any substantive ground. After all, McChrystal and his allies won the argument within the White House. All the criticisms — of Eikenberry, of Jones, of Holbrooke, of Biden — are actually just immature and arrogant snipes at how annoying Team America (what, apparently, McChrystal’s crew calls itself) finds them. This is not mission-first, to say the least.

In fact, you have to go deep in the piece to find soldiers and officers offering actual critiques — and what they offer is criticism of McChrystal for being insufficiently brutal. Everyone of them quoted here is a mini-Ralph Peters, upset because McChrystal won’t let them “get our fucking gun on,” as one puts it.

This is really stupidity of the highest order on the general's part and calls into question his judgment.

Time's Joe Klein

This is an extraordinary man, with the perfect skill set necessary for the mission in Afghanistan: a thorough knowledge of counterinsurgency and deep experience in special operations. But there is another side to McChrystal: he is so focused on his real job that he hasn't spent sufficient time learning how to play the public relations game.

What is surprising is his willingness to express these opinions on the record, and that he allows his staff to do the same. The lack of discipline and the disrespect he has shown his Commander-in-Chief are very much at odds with military tradition and practice.
I suppose he will have to be sacked now. He is not irreplaceable. There are more than a few fine generals in the Army, including Lt. General David Rodriguez, a McChrystal deputy with vast experience in Afghanistan. But it is a terrible setback, a diversion from the business hand at a crucial moment in the conflict. And it is a real tragedy, because Stanley McChrystal is precisely the sort of man who should be leading American troops in battle.

Glenn Beck wants a private military, shows his hypocrisy

Beck suggests that perhaps we'd be in better shape in Afghanistan if we had hired a private military to do it. Ummm....

I won't go the easy route (though I understand the temptation) to ask why Beck hates the American troops. I would like to know why he thinks the fact that they wear an American flag on their arms makes them less successful than a private army?

However, I will agree with Beck on his final point, where he says that "all people go bad with power". Obviously he's suggesting governmental power, but I think we have to look in his back yard, at private power. We can start with him, but that's not the end of the list.

BP
Blackwater
Goldman Sachs
Citi
Enron
Bernie Madoff
Monsanto
Halliburton
Adelphia
Tyco

Why does Beck so differentiate between bad government (which is a huge problem) and bad corporations? Why do corporations get a pass? Hypocrisy, perhaps?

Rush Limbaugh suggests hungry school kids learn how to dumpster dive until school starts in August

Reacting to an AOL News piece that says: "Record Number of US Kids Facing Summer of Hunger", Rush came up with a uniquely compassionate conservative response: hungry kids should learn to dumpster dive.

{T}here's always the neighborhood dumpster. Now, you might find competition with homeless people there, but there are videos that have been produced to show you how to healthfully dine and how to dumpster dive and survive until school kicks back up in August. Can you imagine the benefit we would provide people?

Nice. there's a warm spot in hell for you, you tubby drug-addict bastard.