Anyone guess what’s wrong with this screenshot from Fox News?
Yep, the geniuses on staff at Fox and Friends thought that the ‘Douglas’ in the Lincoln-Douglas debates was Frederick Douglass, the freed slave who went on to become an author and politician, and not Stephen A. Douglas.
God help us all.
Jumpin’ Jesus on a Christmas tree.
All those Douglases (or Douglasses) look alike to me.
They are just spreading FUD. Fear Uncertainty and Doubt.
So either the Faux and Friends staff went to underfunded Public Schools, and you can see the consequences of that. Or the private schools the staff went to, to avoid the public schools, should be giving the staff a refund for being lousy educators.
Nice collars, by the way.
Yeah…so? I mean, FAUX News is a conservative comedy network, isn’t is?
Hmph. Fredrick sorta has Kirk’s chin.
IT WAS A SIMPLE MISTAKE!!!!
PS–
Har-Har-Har
Pretty stoopid.
My great-great granddaddy went to one those debates. He was a Civil War Captain for the good guys (North).
Pretty interesting.
My mom still has a letter he sent to great-great grandmaw about his trip to the debate.
Hence…my Republican Roots.
Although today I consider myself a Conservative….not a Republican.
Mr. Clinical, you are positively super incredible. America loves you.
That’s good Cyn, because Republican certainly doesn’t mean Conservative these days. Unless they have redefined conservatism to mean a great deal more government intrusion into virtually everyone’s lives and the concept of pre-emptive warfare.
Fox news – they can’t understand current events – why would we expect them to understand history?
They can’t even figure out that torture is against the law – we signed the geneva conventions so they are legally binding – but if the OLC of the justice department decides that any law can be broken because there might be terrorists – wel, then there goes the constitution.
Faux News – they not only don’t understand the news (they have only a fair understanding of the facts), they balance the news by having right wing and far right wing commentators.
Wow, just imagine if it had been Lincoln versus Frederick Douglass. Imagine what the debates would have been like. That would make an interesting alternative reality novel. Murdoch could publish it and make the movie. Ben Stein could defend it as real history.
8 Not to mention gargantuan federal deficits.
As you see it, what does it mean to be a Conservative? What do Conservative stand for? How is that different than Republicans?
I can remember when people who called themselves “journalists” had at least a sixth grade education. Ah, the good old days.
As long as people are talking about Rev. Wright, we should also talk about the Republican Party’s intimate association with Rev. Sun Myung Moon, whose activities include drug trafficking, illicit arms dealing, slavery, and money laundering. Plus he thinks he’s Jesus Christ reincarnated. But he wears a flag pin in his lapel, you see.
Speaking of confusion over Republican history:
I had a discussion with a Republican friend the other day when he insisted that Thomas Jefferson was a Republican. I thought he might be confused by the fact that at the time, his party was called the “Democratic-Republican Party” (in contrast to the “Federalist Party”. Even Wikipedia shortens it to “Republican Party” in Thomas Jefferson’s biography, which is also pretty inaccurate in several other respects.
But the truth is, my friend never heard of the “Democratic-Republican” party. He just thought that since Jefferson was one of the “founding fathers”, he MUST have been a Republican. He just got angry when I tried to point out to him that the modern-day Republican party didn’t exist until the mid 1850’s, running their first candidate (Fremont) in the 1856 election.
(Sigh). And he’s the product of a private, church-based educational system.
In other words, he’s a socially stunted, intellectual retard?
Blue John–
Conservative to me means smaller, loss costly, more cost-effective, less intrusive government at all levels.
I believe government should apply these basic principles to Public Safety/Defense and Infrastructure….and that’s about it.
I believe in a flat tax system ala Steve Forbes to pay for these basic things.
I’m actually against NAFTA & GATT…always have been ala Patrick J Buchanan (a true Conservative!)
Bush is not a Conservative. However, neither are Hillary or O-blah-blah. McCain either…although much closer to my beliefs than the Dems.
Frankly, I’ll bet many of the KLOWNS on this Blog and I actually agree on many issues when it comes to the role of government in our lives. I believe Government has too often been the problem…not the solution.
I believe the Dems having control of the Governor’s Mansion in Olympia for 28 years is a bad thing…just like I would feel if the R’s had it that long. Too much entrenched bureaucracy….good old boys & girls.
I believe a 3rd Party will emerge that captures Conservative/Libertarian type ideology…..very soon. Looking at the popularity ratings of Bush and even worse ratings of the Democraticly controlled House & Senate, it is clear to me that people don’t trust or like the current 2-party system.
Thanks for asking.
I thought that was when a Towncar debates a Fir Tree.
Wow, has it really been 28 years since John Spellman?
Alllllright!!!
Looks like the Republican Party is trying to re-invent Abraham Lincoln here. Changing Lincoln from the Great Emancipator to the Great Klansman.
Poor Mr. cynical: Like a typical “libertarian” you go for the simplistic explanations and jingoistic viewpoints.
Regulation is good when it is done right. without regulation we have:
The overreaching in the banking industry (shady and illegal operatations) that lead to collapse.
Monopolies that control the goods (see high oil prices and record oil prices).
Lack of adequate health care and skyrocketing prices for health care that does less and protects less people (and is more inefficient).
Teddy Roosevelt was a trust buster becaue he – like most real americans – realized that monopolies controlled too much and had too much power to be trusted – that true free enterprise did not exist even back at the turn of the last century.
You also ignore the great libertarian laissez faire regine of Herbert Hoover and the republicans who brought us the great depression.
Thanks – but NO thanks. Real americans have rejected this backward thinking – governemnet does have a purpose to protect us and keep opur water clean, our kids safe and educated and out toys and food safe.
Citing Pat Buchanan as a role model shows that:
You know very little about Buchanan’s racist, anti-semetic views and his pathetically stupid opinions (such as Hitler was no threat to the US). Not to mention his role as an opposition researcher for Nixon, how he said that Nixon should have burned the tapes and how he thinks Joe McCarthy was a great guy.
17 Cynical
So I am sure that after 12 years of Republican presidents you supported Bill Clinton in 1992.
Interesting. To help me visualized what your ideal society would end up being like, is there a country out there in the world that follows these values? Or at least, what nation is the closest, in your opinion?
And no, I’m NOT going to follow up with a stupid “why don’t you move there” comment.
@23
I would say Switzerland, Holland, and Denmark are three good examples. They have a history of neutrality during war and economic libertarianism. However they are also very liberal in their laws that regard morality, which is why American Conservatives are often ideological hypocrites when they talk about “small government.” And it’s why the people who always talk about shrinking the government here often end up making it much bigger instead.
CNR spews
“Real americans have rejected this backward thinking – governemnet does have a purpose to protect us and keep opur water clean, our kids safe and educated and out toys and food safe.”
Did you read what I wrote….Safety/Defense & Infrastructure dumb ass.
Government has done a piss poor job of educating our kids. Private schools have done much better. They have also done a pretty poor job of keeping our toys & food safe.
Just created huge, ineffective bureaucracies based on FEAR & other EMOTIONS…not results.
Regarding Patrick Buchanan–
Show me your so-called “proof” that he is a racist?? KLOWNS like you get your facts from Daily Kos bloggers!
Buchanan was 100% correct on NAFTA & GATT.
O-blah-blah is also a racist.
Look at his comment about his WHITE granny.
Was that stupid??
Daddy LoveCanal–
I voted for Ross Perot in 1992 and 1996.
There are mistakes often made in broadcast news. I listen to Thom Hartman over at Air America quite often, and some of the things he says are pretty laughable.
For instance, the other day, he was bemoaning how the Celts overran Norse culture. Well, anybody who knows jack-diddly about the vikings knows that they were the ones doing the overrunning! The Celts never set foot into Scandinavia, yet the vikings pretty much harassed the British Isle for centuries. As a matter of fact, Norwegian vikings, sailing West to founding Iceland, stopped by Ireland along the way to collect a few slaves and women. These captives melded into the Icelandic society, and I guess that explains why the Icelanders drink so heavily: crappy, dark winters and the genetic predisposition towards drinking that comes from being descendants of Norwegian vikings and Irish Celts!
25 “(government) have also done a pretty poor job of keeping our toys & food safe.”
Well, lately…yeah. Seems there’s been some pretty, shall we say, selective enforcement of safety and consumer protection regulations (to say nothing of governance of financial institutions!) when they happen to get in the way of the fat cats making another fast buck.
I have mixed feelings about Pat Buchanan. In years gone by, he was clearly aware of where his paycheck was coming from. Maybe people can change for the better with time, and Pat seems these days to be driven more by his Catholic conscience. The man sure doesn’t have much nice to say about the current crop of self-proclaimed “conservatives”.
27 You contentions regarding the Celts and the “Northmen” is at lease interesting. A good subject to take up some time when Mr. St. Clair is in attendance.
29
Yeah, I haven’t seen any of his stuff in a while. Must be a bagpipe convention somewhere.
@25: All the stuff on Buchanan in the Nixon white house and his quotes are easily available on wikipedia and other sources. Buchanan has often uttered racist and antisemetic things – including his statements on Reagan going to honor a Nazi “war hero”.
If Pat Buchanan is your libertarian hero – that tells me a lot about how pathetic your arguments really are…
I notice all the libertarian crap about less government doesn’t apply to the banking mess, the oil company mess, monopolies, trade agreements (against NAFTA, but for free trade?? can’t have it both ways) or the environment. Pollution is fine – don’t let governement regulate it.
by the way – public schools have been a conerstone of this country. the only problem with them is that we don’t put our money where our mouth is and support them. Class sized in the US are larger than most anywhere else. The problem is the waste of money on defense – we spend more than any other country in the world and get less for it. Still waiting to hear what country is liberatarian and really working well….byt the way – all of europe has governemnt run health care that coasts less than our sorry health care with all the beaurocratic red tape of the insurance companies.
Mr. Cynical, is there a nation out there that is doing your ideals of “smaller, loss costly, more cost-effective, less intrusive government at all levels. I believe government should apply these basic principles to Public Safety/Defense and Infrastructure… and that’s about it.”? If not perfectly, who is doing it the best, in your opinion?
The Lincoln-Douglas Adams Debates?
31 It’s also worth pointing out that historically, the private schools have been able to cite higher numbers for academic achievement and college placement of their graduates because they have the option of dealing with the “square pegs” by kicking them out and leaving them for the public schools to deal with.
Near universal access to schooling (except of course, selectively by race until the last few decades) has been a part of the American experiment almost from the beginning. The acceptance of the claim that public schools are some sort of left-wing late-20th-century social experiment is simply a tribute to the effectiveness of the neofascist propaganda machine repeating the same lie long enough that people have started to accept it. This also happened to a degree a while back with the drivel about “secular humanism”, and we’re now witnessing the same sort of thing with “intelligent design”.
[Moved]
correctnottobright barfed@21: Buchanan had pathetic views on Hitler.
Well aren’t you lefties having pathetic views about Saddam?
Regarding public vs. private schools:
I went to public schools my entire life, but my wife went to church schools for high school and college. She told me that in her experience, there were two types of kids in the church schools: those that wanted to be there, and those who were sent there by their parents in a futile attempt to get somebody else to “make them behave”.
@6 “Although today I consider myself a Conservative….not a Republican.”
This has to be the Mother of All Copouts. For years, you’ve unapologetically shilled for the GOP and its minions on this board, and now that 71% of of the public says your party is an unmitigated clusterfuck, you go “Who … me? I don’t know those guys.”
Good catch about the Fox error.
But guess what?
Frederick Douglass was not a “freed” slave — he escaped. He was the agent of his own destiny. Nobody freed him. As long as we’re correcting mistakes….
36 Saddam? He’s dead.
Osama is still alive.
Why?
38 Hey, Roger….if he’s beginning to come to his senses, go easy on the guy and let him work it out, huh?
Rog–
I was never a Bush fan…although I voted for him twice because I considered Gore a pathetic, psychotic KLOWN and he proved it with his fictional novel called something like “A convenient pack of lies & misrepresentations” or something like that.
Kerry…panderer to the far-left and soft on terrorism. Indecisive.
Couldn’t the same be said of public schools? That there are students there that want to learn and students there because their parents want someone else to make them behave?
But let’s get to the real question, which of you have a better education?
Poor Mr. cynical voted for bush twice – so much for being a libertarian. Can we blame you for the corruption, the trade deficit, the war in Iraq and the huge budget deficits – yes. Gore would never have done those stupid things.
Poor Puddy – I, and many others, have NEVER said Sadaam was a good guy. On the other hand, there are plenty of dictators we love…like Musharaf. There just was never a good reason to invade Iraq and all the excuses (WMDs, peremptive strike, mushroom cloud, bring democracy to the middle east) were lies that fooled the stupid republicans.
Correctnotright: Where did I say you said it?
Jim McDimwitt, David Bonior, Sean Penn, all your heroes!