Submitted by whynowwhyme on Tue, 02/09/2010 - 4:18pm.
BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
by Jeffrey Joseph As President Obama prepared to watch the Super Bowl over the weekend, he presented a challenge to GOP leadership to meet with him on the subject of healthcare reform. Hoping that he was just posturing, FOX's Gretchen Carlson and Steve Doocy responded by maligning the president's efforts thus far in a preemptive attempt to undercut any potential summit.
Discussing the GOP approach to the bipartisan effort, Steve Doocy mentioned that Reps. John Boehner and Eric Cantor have already expressed a lack of interest in the healthcare reform process unless the president concedes to "start over." Rather tellingly, the FOX chyron briefly read "PRE-SUMMIT POSITIONING," which described the GOP predisposition toward circumventing any ideas but their own quite aptly. Yet while identifying a need to participate in some way in the meeting lest the "party of no" criticism rang too true, Carlson went on to say, "I understand that the Republicans want to start over and start from scratch because they were basically sidelined through the whole discussion initially."
Submitted by whynowwhyme on Tue, 02/09/2010 - 1:49pm.
BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
by Jeffrey Joseph Almost as if on cue, the conservative-dominated pundits of FOX News responded to Sarah Palin's telepalmer gaffe by doing the only thing a "balanced" network could do -- defending her inept actions with implausible rationales.
The damage control began early on FOX & Friends as Steve Doocy made a passing reference to "writing on the hand." For a moment, Doocy appeared to take a shot at his FOX colleagues that would go undiminished by the usual conservative spin. Enter Gretchen Carlson, who made an almost comical attempt to twist the obviously hypocritical incident from Palin into a subtle criticism of President Obama. As Carlson saw it, "She did it on purpose, yeah. Because it’s an exact opposite of reading off the teleprompter with a script written for you with every word in a sentence and here she’s just taking crib notes on her hand. It makes her look like she can just talk off the cuff and she just jotted down a...couple notes before she went out to give a big, long speech."
Why Carlson believed Palin would work so hard to overtly criticize President Obama for reading off a teleprompter, criticisms she delivered during a prepared speech, makes little sense on its own, but to credit Palin for an ability to "talk off the cuff" when having to refer to notes during an interview with pre-screened questions pushes the plausibility of even FOX's usually outrageous assertions. Perhaps Carlson actually offered the explanation less as an out for Palin and more as a subtle self-satire for the way she and her FOX colleagues rush to defend the right. Such an explanation would have just as much merit as Carlson's hypothesis taken at face value, at least.
Submitted by meg on Tue, 02/09/2010 - 12:42pm.
BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Meg White The American Family Association (AFA) kindly sent out an action alert yesterday to its concerned constituency warning about the coming Armageddon for our troops if the military policy banning gay people from openly serving in the military is repealed. It began thusly (emphasis mine): Gays showering with straights? Absolutely. If President Obama, congressional Democrats, and homosexual activists get their wish, your son or daughter may be forced to share military showers and barracks with active and open homosexuals who may very well view them with sexual interest. Talk about creating a hostile work environment for people who practice normative sexuality! Wait, stop the presses. Did I just read that President Obama is trying to force our troops to have gay sex in the shower?! Of course, instead of imagining gay military porn as the AFA might want me to, I'm imagining the angry people who subscribe to this trash getting all riled up about those dirty homos and their sexy shower time after opening their inbox: "No thank you, sir! I would much rather have my son or daughter continue to be forced to share military showers and barracks with repressed homosexuals! That's the only kind of naked homosexual I want to see. ...Er, not that I want to see naked homosexuals, of course. I mean, gross." Who thinks this stuff up? Hopefully this will be a lesson to AFA President Tim Wildmon: Don't tell your supporters to imagine gay people, sculpted by military training, taking group showers. It makes them very uncomfortable, OK?
Submitted by mark karlin on Tue, 02/09/2010 - 9:07am.
BUZZFLASH EDITOR'S BLOG
By Mark Karlin
In this time of nano-second news cycles that have little if any historical context, it is easy for some to forget that the GOP art of character assassination has been its hallmark for decades, patricularly the last 20 years. But BuzzFlash, celebrating its 10th year online on May 11th, doesn't forget it for a moment. It's a large reason that I started BuzzFlash in 2000.
I was sick and tired of the Republicans using personality misrepresentations of Democratic leaders -- which the
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Tue, 02/09/2010 - 8:48am.
A BUZZFLASH GUEST COMMENTARY By Bill Berkowitz Frank Luntz’s World of Word-craft
If one man can single-handedly poison the debate over significant issues in America that man is Frank Luntz, the right-wing messaging guru who intends to turn the battle over regulatory reform into a repeat of the fight over healthcare reform.
Submitted by pmcarpenter on Tue, 02/09/2010 - 5:27am.
THE FIFTH COLUMNIST by P.M. Carpenter
That Washington is broken is clear enough. What frightens, however, is that increasingly it seems beyond repair.
Dysfunction has become institutionalized, a morbid polarization has replaced mere opposition, and pure self-interest has subordinated and smothered the nation's overarching interests.
We once comforted ourselves that, while frustrating, these are typical of a republic's traditional ways. But no longer. Day by day, issue by issue, we are coming to understand that these are symptomatic of a fatally diseased authority.
Read More
Submitted by findingavoice on Tue, 02/09/2010 - 5:24am.
FINDING A VOICE by Ann Davidow
There was a fascinating article in the NY Times (1/31/10) that suggested “America’s New Hope” could be “The Afghan Tribes.” In addition to the distinctions within the Afghan tribal system outlined in the article was a general description of how the system works. “Tribal authority is exercised by elders at all levels - - from families to villages to district councils to councils that lead tribes…Their biggest political asset is their reputation; if they attract financial support for a village project like a road or a well, their standing…soars. If they fail to get the aid, they lose face…They can also lose face by breaking an agreement or failing to deliver on a promise to those they represent.”
An intriguing element of the quote is how closely it mirrors our own political system minus of course our centralized national-government construct and a Constitution that codifies the responsibility of legislators to serve all the people. The spectacle of Alabama’s shameless Shelby holding up Obama nominees in a blatant attempt to have his earmarks honored should give us pause in portraying Afghanistan as a savage enclave of primitive clans; our leaders may be less physically violent, but they savage our political process and productive governance nonetheless. In this country pork projects have been de rigueur for years, and they aren’t always bad things. It is the hypocrisy and attempts to justify pet projects as vital to our national security that set partisans like Shelby apart.
Conservatives, Republicans, Tea Partiers, however they define themselves, call for lower taxes and smaller government, without being overly specific about how to achieve such goals. Mark Skoda, chairman of the Memphis Tea Party, refused to condemn former congressman Tom Tancredo’s remarks on the convention’s opening night, when he referred to President Obama as a “committed Socialist ideologue” and disparaged people he said “could not spell the word vote or say it in English.” Neither did Skoda acknowledge the prevalence of signs depicting President Obama as a Socialist or Hitler at Tea Bag rallies. He said freedom of speech trumped all other concerns and that both sides engaged in ugly rants occasionally, carrying signs not shooting bullets. But, contrary to popular wisdom, words can be as damaging as sticks and stones. Tea Party propaganda in tandem with right-wing pundits degrades us as a people and renders logic irrelevant.
What, for example, do tea partiers envision in terms of smaller government and lower taxes? How do they imagine government can continue underwriting the precious Medicare so many of them cherish? And what of succeeding generations, our children and grandchildren Republicans are so fond of brandishing in their attempt to shout down health-care reform or pay-go stipulations for legislation or financial-markets reform? How much are these fiscal fanatics prepared to cede to our elders instead of investing in the future of our young people and creating new home-grown industries?
Skoda expressed the typical arguments favoring Capitalism and profit-making, especially when questioned about the cost of tickets for the Tea Party Convention and the fee Sarah Palin is rumored to have received as its keynote speaker. He spoke instead of the great strides Palin has made from her humble beginnings. Un-remarked was the obvious fact that if she hadn’t been chosen as John McCain’s running mate she’d still be swimming in her small parochial Alaskan pond catching glimpses of Russia from her state. And in justifying the profit motive, Skoda cited the huge salaries football players and other celebrities earn. The difference is that people in the entertainment world, outside of Fox News that is, don’t claim to be part of a “grass-roots” movement.
The sad truth for Tea Baggers and the general public alike is that leaders like Dick Armey will try to fool us all again into believing that unbridled Capitalism is our last best hope. Unregulated markets, clearly contributory to the global collapse, are held up as a model for economic success, even though former Fed Chairman, Alan Greenspan, has admitted to being in error when he assumed markets would self-regulate.
Unfortunately today, name-calling and meaningless labels have replaced rational discourse. People who have no idea what the terms they use mean speak loudly about ‘taking their country back’ as if it were theirs alone. A lot of us may be fed up with the way Washington works, but the most useful thing Tea Baggers and others could do would be to call out players like Richard Shelby whose behavior illustrates how engaged many elected officials are in pursuing tribal affairs, often for personal political gain.
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Submitted by BuzzFlash on Mon, 02/08/2010 - 5:53pm.
BuzzFlash Guest Commentary
By Dee Evans
So, Sarah Palin using crib notes in the palm of her hand during a Question and Answer segment on live television is no big deal. When did that happen???
I was completely astonished to hear Chuck Todd of MSNBC tell Andrea Mitchell this morning, “well, we’ve all used notes.” Well Chuck, I have news for you.
Submitted by whynowwhyme on Mon, 02/08/2010 - 4:22pm.
BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
by Jeffrey Joseph
FOX continues to deny, despite all available evidence, that it did anything to promote the Tea Party movement. Still, FOX's latest pundit, Sarah Palin, delivered the main speech on Saturday night (an appearance for which she was paid $100,000) one that revealed Palin as not only a liar and misinformer but also reinforced the hypocrisy in her criticism of President Obama. Palin, in a speech delivered from prepared remarks, complained about the president's handling of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, occasionally known as the underwear bomber, claiming that he "lawyered up" and would not provide further information. Reports from FBI Director Robert Mueller and Director of Intelligence Dennis Blair suggested quite the contrary. According to them, Abdulmutallab has and continues to provide valuable intelligence, even after the US granted him the same constitutional rights Palin worried would protect him too well. Another invalid concern of Palin's had to do with what she perceived as President Obama's inability or unwillingness to use the term "war." Hardly an original accusation, Palin's sentiments echoed those of former Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Neither apparently did the research to recognize President's use of the terms more than half a dozen times throughout his State of the Union speech, an especially troubling lack of attention paid by someone FOX bothered to bring in to analyze the speech before and after its delivery.
Submitted by meg on Mon, 02/08/2010 - 1:31pm.
BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Meg White I imagine commentators all around the nation are looking at the Illinois lieutenant governor's race and shaking their heads, saying, "Only in Chicago could a guy who dates and threatens prostitutes, takes illegally-obtained steroids and tries to sexually assault his ex-wife win the Democratic nomination." But I request a revision. The phrase should be, "Only in America." The truth is, the disgraced Scott Lee Cohen, who used the Superbowl as a cloak of darkness under which to announce he's pulling out of the November elections, is fundamentally no different than Carly Fiorina or Michael Bloomberg. Their only real qualification for office is their money. In a bizarre and painful-to-watch press conference at a bar on Chicago's far northeast side last night, Cohen announced his withdrawal, as his pre-adolescent son sat sobbing into the microphones lined up in front of his father. The sad fact is that this whole ugly scene could've been avoided.
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