I didn’t see this in time to put it in this week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza, but here is an interview from NPR”s On the Media with James O’Keefe—you know, that kid who keeps releasing surprising sting videos that later turn out to be misleadingly edited.
At the end of the interview, On the Media has a little editing fun of their own.
The Republican War on Workers:
Red State Update catches up with things.
Going after NPR:
Thom: Rep. Jan Schakowsky’s tax on millionaires and billionaires.
Lawrence O’Donnell: Michelle Bachmann fails history.
Young Turks: New tax rates for the rich?
ONN: Man becomes GOP frontrunner after showing no interest in government:
Liberal Viewer: Daily Show asks if Gitmo is prison or zoo.
Young Turks: Big God, Small Government — Senator DeMint (R-SC).
Libya:
Newsy: Republicans go sour on Sarah Palin.
Pap with Joshua Holland: GOP’s Union Busting is Theft..
The Beauty of Donald Trump:
Lawrence O’Donnell to Glenn Beck viewers on the apocalypse: It’s not happening.
Cenk: Glenn Beck claims “Obama sympathizes with terrorists”.
For those with vaginas:
ONN: Panel of caged average Americans weigh in on economy.
Tragedy in Japan:
TYTUniversity: Wingnutcase David Horowitz ‘Nazi, racist’ Muslims speech & student interview.
Shooting Illegals like Pigs:
Young Turks: Sarah Palin destroyed by conservatives.
Bill Maher: Governing with the G.O.P. is like rooming with a meth addict (via TalkingPointsMemo):
White House: West Wing Week.
Sam Seder: Tim Pawlenty’s amazing vocal stylings.
Ed and Pap: The The Republican court-packing scam.
Young Turks: She’s baaaaaaaak…Sharron Angle runs for congress.
Newsy: Will Hillary Clinton exit the political stage?
Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.
Remember when the nutcase Republicans were saying stupid shit about the IRS collecting personal health information in order to enforce Obamacare? Take, for instance, this doozy from Fox Nation:
IRS Hiring Thousands of Armed Tax Agents to Enforce Obamacare?
[…]
Under the new law, the IRS is required to fine taxpayers thousands of dollars if they do not purchase health insurance. In order for the government to enforce compliance, tax authorities will need information, for the first time, about people’s health care.
Wow…you can just envision an IRS agent pointing a gun at your head telling you to divulge intimate medical details about yourself. Gosh…that sounds scary.
(I’m only surprised they didn’t claim that Agents would be armed by mass confiscation of guns following passage of Obama’s next legislative assault on America: new gun control laws.)
At least there were no gun-wielding IRS agents in the congressional Republican’s take on it:
A new analysis by the Joint Economic Committee and the House Ways & Means Committee minority staff estimates up to 16,500 new IRS personnel will be needed to collect, examine and audit new tax information mandated on families and small businesses in the ‘reconciliation’ bill being taken up by the U.S. House of Representatives this weekend.
“When most people think of health care reform they think of more doctors exams, not more IRS exams,” says U.S. Congressman Kevin Brady, the top House Republican on the Joint Economic Committee. “Isn’t the federal government already intruding enough into our lives? We need thousands of new doctors and nurses in America, not thousands more IRS agents.”
Of course, the whole thing was a lie manufactured to capitalize on fear of the IRS in order to sway public opinion against health care reforms.
Or was it a lie? (Via MoJo):
Under a GOP-backed bill expected to sail through the House of Representatives, the Internal Revenue Service would be forced to police how Americans have paid for their abortions. To ensure that taxpayers complied with the law, IRS agents would have to investigate whether certain terminated pregnancies were the result of rape or incest. And one tax expert says that the measure could even lead to questions on tax forms: Have you had an abortion? Did you keep your receipt?
Wait…this is just hyperbole invented by MSNBC or spewed by a flawed analysis from a minority party House committee, right?
In testimony to a House taxation subcommittee on Wednesday, Thomas Barthold, the chief of staff of the nonpartisan Joint Tax Committee, confirmed that one consequence of the Republicans’ “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act” would be to turn IRS agents into abortion cops—that is, during an audit, they’d have to detemine, from evidence provided by the taxpayer, whether any tax benefit had been inappropriately used to pay for an abortion.
[…]“Were this to become law, people could end up in an audit, the subject of which could be abortion, rape, and incest,” says Christopher Bergin, the head of Tax Analysts, a nonpartisan, not-for-profit tax policy group. “If you pass the law like this, the IRS would be required to enforce it.”
Keep classy, G.O.P. congresscritters!
The expression may be hackneyed, but…this really is a classic case of Wingnut Projection.
Remember folks…when the Republicans accuse Democrats of something outrageously over-the-top, you can be pretty sure it’s because they are planning to do something similar. (Or are actually doing it already…You know, like Newt Gingrich going after Clinton for adultery.)
And that, oddly enough, leads to my financial tip of the day: If Republicans make gains in 2012 in the Senate or the Executive-branch, then before they are sworn in…take out a big fat live insurance policy on Granny.
No…this isn’t about Japan. It’s about SeaTac and American travelers:
The Transportation Security Administration is re-analyzing the radiation levels of X-ray body scanners installed in airports nationwide, after testing produced dramatically higher-than-expected results.
The TSA, which has deployed at least 500 body scanners to at least 78 airports, said Tuesday the machines meet all safety standards and would remain in operation despite a “calculation error” in safety studies. The flawed results showed radiation levels 10 times higher than expected.
You know who is going to be gloating over this, don’t you?
I, for one, will refuse to allow my daughter through one of those scanners, and will refuse to walk through one myself. […] I mean, honestly… would you trust TSA to bombard you or a loved one with ionizing radiation?
You know who is laughing over this, don’t you?
The “terrorists”. You know…the ones who “hate our freedoms.”
“They” have scared the living shit out of politicians, driving them to a state of frenzied security overreaction. It isn’t just the trillion dollar wars, the costly military build-up, the absurdly bloated domestic security infrastructure…those things that have drained our coffers with little substantive return on investment. It isn’t just the disgrace of our government getting caught committing torture in our names and starting wars under false pretenses that have killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people.
For our dignity, it’s also a “death” by 1,000 cuts. We’ve succumbed to ludicrous restrictions and procedures for air travel and we’ve accepted those increasingly invasive inspections.
We’ve taken it to the extreme of “mainstreaming” the use of full body scanning using ionizing radiation administered by non-radiologists on equipment that, it turns out, was being inspected erroneously.
Ultimately we, the American electorate, by putting up with this shit, are self-terrorists.
I always opt out…and go for the free TSA massage.
Update:
Commenter Oxbrain takes me to task for fear-mongering. I’ll respond here, because I believe it will add some clarity to a post that was minimally about radiation and more about overreaction to terrorism.
“Your title is “Radiation “emissions are 10 times higher”” Taking the quote out of context as it is, this is a blatantly false statement that is obviously intended to strike at a fear of radiation.”
The title is not a statement. But I understand the point. The title is alarmist…I mean, given the context of concerns over the situation in Japan. But the purpose of the over-the-top title was to draw eyeballs. Incendiary titles are a tradition in blogging. I just wish they could all be as good as “Asshole inflamed over anuses”.
“I can’t imagine the mental disconnect required to try using an irrational fear of radiation as an argument against our irrational fear of terrorism.”
I appreciate your point, I really do. But what is rational about fear of radiation is that mistakes can, and will, happen. (Yes…even by a government agency.) That the particular mistake (one of several) highlighted in the article was not a radiation health threat, as the article made explicit, isn’t much comfort. It was still a mistake. The tests yielded numbers 10 times too high.
Apparently, someone at the TSA charged with reviewing the test results from the contractor, wasn’t surprised, or even curious about readings that were, apparently, ten-times too high. That’s not good.
And that wasn’t the only mistake. The TSA report cited other problems with the inspections:
(For context, I’ll just note that a missing placard on an aircraft renders it legally unairworthy.)
These errors add poignancy to Goldy’s question: do you trust the TSA to expose you to ionizing radiation?
So…yeah, I think it works using the irrational fear of radiation as an argument against the irrational fear of terrorism. Clearly people’s irrational fear of terrorism is so…well, irrational, that people succumb to it over their irrational fear of radiation and their rational fear that mistakes can happen.
Please join us tonight for an evening of politics under the influence at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally. We meet at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00 pm, but feel free to show up earlier for dinner.
Not in Seattle? There is a good chance you live near one of the 215 other chapters of Drinking Liberally.
In case this passed under your radar, there is an election today:
Online voter applicants who have received an emailed confirmation of voter eligibility may vote online until 9 p.m. Tuesday. The King Conservation District is also providing an “in-person” voting option from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.Tuesday at the district’s offices located at 1107 SW Grady Way in Renton.
That’s right…a King County election with email voting and a single polling place. Goldy rants about it here.
Time change for Tea Baggers: set clocks back 400 years. So 2 AM tomorrow becomes 1611, and don’t be late for witch drownings/church.
— Jon DeVore via Twitter.
(Man…I sure wish Jon would post his stuff—even really short stuff—on HA again!)
Ann Telnaes: Gov. Huckabee lays an egg.
ONN: Small town throws pride parade for openly gay resident.
The Republican War on Workers:
Thom: The Good, the Bad, and the Very, Very Ugly.
Mark Fiore: How to be a political pundit.
Disaster in Japan:
Newsy: NASA study finds ice caps melting at a much faster rate.
Lawrence O’Donnell: What Newt mean to say.
Maddow: Republican fake family values.
UBC Comedy: Fuckin Tea.
Newsy: Illinois executes the death penalty.
Obama announces Gary Locke for Ambassador to China:
Sam Seder: Republicans to America: Poor kids don’t have enough pain.
The Republican War on Muslims:
Stephen: Angry at Huckabee (via Crooks and Liars).
Newsy: Republicans vote to kill net neutrality.
Young Turks: Newt had affair because he loves America.
Obama welcomes The Chicago Black Hawks.
ONN: Oklahoma doctors can legally pretend to give abortions.
Jon: Indecision 2012–weak Republican contenders (via OneGoodMove).
The Great NPR Controversy:
Whodathunk: Evangelicals denounce Glenn Beck as a “New Age” Mormon because of new feel-good book (via Crooks and Liars).
Young Turks: Why Republicans cut education.
Newsy: College student’s voting rights at risk.
White House: West Wing Week.
Ann Telnaes: Obama signs executive order to close for indefinite detention at Gitmo.
Cenk: Newt just loved America too much:
GritTV: Paris Hatcher on keeping an eye on anti-abortion antics.
Newsy: The Dalai Lama retires from political role.
Young Turks: Will Glenn Beck be fired?
Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.
There are a couple of things happening this weekend that you might consider being part of.
Are there others? Leave a comment.
The Wisconsin Republicans have rammed through a bill that strips collective bargaining rights from public employees. The new legislation only allows collective bargaining for wage increases up to the rate of inflation. In other words, public employees will only be allowed to bargain over how much of a pay cut they will take each year.
Isn’t that special.
There are questions about the legality of the conference committee meeting. The brief meeting itself is well worth watching:
A complaint has been filed, which would be unlikely to void the law, but give another cause, and one based on violations of the law, for the campaigns to recall G.O.P. Senators.
And there are also questions about the constitutionality of the legislation. Regardless of the legal challenges, the legislation will probably become, and stay, law. At least it will until Wisconsin no longer has a Teabagger for a Governor with a G.O.P. controlled Senate and Assembly.
Following the Senate vote last night, the cowardly Republicans were whisked away in a semi-commandeered Madison Metro bus, while protesters surrounding the bus screaming, “Shame!” and “Cowards!”:
Recall campaigns are underway for six the eight Republican Senators currently recallable. The first phase is a 60 day signature collection period that has been going remarkably well—roughly 15 percent of the needed signatures had been collected by last weekend.
Greg Sargent has an early release of polls conducted by SurveyUSA in the eight districts:
When asked if they would vote for Hopper or someone else if a recall election were held right now, 54 percent said they’d vote for someone else, versus only 43 percent they’d vote for Hopper.
In Kapanke’s district, the numbers were even worse: 57 percent said they’d vote for someone else, versus only 41 percent who said they’d vote for Kapanke.
It gets even more interesting. The poll was taken yesterday, before last night’s events, and fifty-six percent of voters in Kapanke’s district, and 54% of voters in Hopper’s district, said if their Senator voted for Walker’s plan, it would make them more likely to vote for someone else.
Finally, by all measures, the fundraising for the recall campaigns has been nothing short of astonishing:
As of this morning, according to Ben Smith, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Democracy for America had raised $750,000. As of this afternoon, MoveOn’s ActBlue page for the recall reports around $860,000 of donations from around 27,000 people; the Daily Kos page reports around $340,000 from around 12,500.
As Goldy pointed out, all it takes is money.
At least I think this is live:
Rob McKenna
1125 Washington Street SE
PO Box 40100
Olympia, WA 98504-0100
Dear Rob,
You must be as excited as I am with Newt Gingrich’s conference call today.
Newt Gingrich told supporters on a conference call “we are leaning toward a yes” on a presidential run, CNN has learned.
[…]Also interesting: Gingrich expects former Sen. Zell Miller (D-GA) to be a co-chair “once we put the campaign together.”
Brilliant…adding Zell Miller to the campaign is just the ticket to refocus the press on something besides Newt’s messy marriages and adultery in the service of his country. It’ll inject some crazy-ass excitement into Newt’s campaign.
Gingrich’s bold bipartisan move is a helpful precedence for your forthcoming gubernatorial campaign. You, too, can rise above partisanship while injecting some crazy-ass excitement into your own campaign.
May I suggest making Lou Guzzo your campaign chair?
Lou did it for Dixy Lee Ray; he can do it for you. He has lots of really good ideas.
Lou will know how to keep people from thinking too much about your anti-labor agenda and your lawsuit to strip affordable health insurance from millions.
And it’ll be just plain fun…so think about it.
Yours verily,
Darryl
Horsesass.org
Here is what we learn about today’s arrest of a suspect in the MLK-day bombing from the Seattle Times (my emphasis):
An FBI source in Washington, D.C., said one man was arrested east of Spokane. Agents, including a bomb expert from Quantico, Va., were preparing to search a house where others associated with the suspect were living, the source said.
The suspects are apparently affiliated with white supremacists.
Interesting…these two paragraphs imply that there was something about today’s arrest—perhaps a statement from that FBI source—that linked the suspect up with a white supremacist group.
I wanted to know more about the evidence for the connection besides simple geographic proximity. And what about the other of the “suspects.” Only one person was mentioned as being arrested.
So I searched other media sources for more details. Here is what I find in the AP account (my emphasis):
KHQ-TV of Spokane reported that federal and local law enforcement officers had surrounded a home near Colville, Wash., about 80 miles northwest of Spokane. Two T-shirts found inside the bomb were tied to that rural area.
Additional details were not immediately available.
The FBI has said nothing about possible suspects, but public opinion from the beginning focused on some of the white supremacist groups that have brought notoriety to the region in the past three decades. The area once served as headquarters for Richard Butler’s Aryan Nations, whose members were lured by the small number of minorities.
The AP piece implies that the affiliation with white supremacist is purely conjecture based on geographic proximity to such groups.
A few minutes after that the same Seattle Times article was edited and lengthened. Here is the revised version of the excerpt from above (my emphasis):
An FBI source in Washington, D.C., said one man was arrested Wednesday outside a home near Colville, Stevens County. Agents, including a bomb expert from Quantico, Va., were preparing to search a house where others associated with the suspect were living, the source said.
The suspect is believed to be affiliated with white supremacists, the source said.
Look at all that editing of the first paragraph. And now there is only one suspect believed affiliated with white supremacists and the FBI source in Washington made the claim about affiliation. (Here is a before and after image.)
Fascinating…I’ve not come across an article in the MSM being live edited to such an extent. But now I won’t feel quite so bad when I make small corrections to my posts on Horsesass. And maybe I don’t need to footnote my changes, strike-through my errors, or even fess up after making correctinos. Hell…I can just compose live.
The Seattle Times has set the new standard.
Please join us tonight for an evening of politics under the influence at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally. We meet at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. We start at 8:00 pm, but feel free to show up even earlier for dinner.
Not in Seattle? There is a good chance you live near one of the 214 other chapters of Drinking Liberally.
President Obama is selecting current Commerce Secretary and former Washington state Governor Gary Locke to be the next Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China:
The official says that “as a Pacific Rim governor and Commerce Secretary he helped lead an historic increase in trade with China. As Commerce Secretary, Locke has delivered on the president’s goal of doubling U.S. exports in the next five years (up 17 percent in 2010), led the push for patent and export control reforms and presided over a Census count that came in 25 percent under budget – returning more than $2 billion to the Treasury.”
Eager to share our brilliant political commentary and blunt media criticism, but too genteel to link to horsesass.org? Well, good news, ladies: we also answer to HASeattle.com, because, you know, whatever. You're welcome!
