Join the Movement to Boycott MSNBC NBC Russert Matthews Olbermann....

The unrelenting ranting, raving, spewing, hate-Hillary hysteria by so many in the press and the backroomers at the DNC/democrat national committee continues. At the very least we can take simple but concrete action which targets the main spewers of what one commenter called the unrelenting mysogynistic nightfest at MSNBC.

Take action against biased media, especially the knuckle-dragging slugs at MSNBC & NBC; join the boycott against Russert, Matthews, Olbermann, and their Obaminions.

It's time to make waves.

You can get the free code to post the banner above at WoMenBoycottMSNBC.com.

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Related: Savage Politics had some very interesting and very provocative commentary, including:

This entire election has been a sham. An almost comical farce in which the Mainstream Media, along with the ideological Left fringes within the Democratic Party have decided AHEAD OF TIME, who should become President of the United States. In this manner, and with full knowledge and intent, they have decided to re-write history, dismiss entire demographics, and besmirch the reputation of countless individuals, for the sake of political power and the ‘almighty dollar’. .... this election is NOT about the Clintons’, it is about AMERICA. It is about SELF RESPECT.

ALL Americans must understand that the Media and the Democratic Party did not insult Hillary Clinton as a person, they insulted what she REPRESENTED to all of her supporters. They insulted her ‘CLASS’: White Women (and men) in particular, and Latinos in general. These two important groups were told by countless pundits that their power was minimal, that they did not matter in the “grand scheme of things”, that Latinos and Whites were being “racists” when they voted for a White woman by 60%, while they simultanously characterized other groups (AA) who voted for Obama by 90% as “informed and motivated by the issues”. Many democratic insiders (Brazile et al) wrote columns in which they made the ridiculous case that Latinos and Whites were not as important as young and Black voters, and that “they can stay home” in November if they wish. Unfortunately for them, they seem to have overplayed their hand too far.

Wow. I didn't hear or read the stay at home part anywhere, but this message from the DNC, the Obama campaign and Obama supporters has been loud and clear and continues to be that way: We don't need you, we don't care what you want/need/think. Go away. Stay away. Stay home. Whatever.

Better yet: write in Hillary in November.

Complete post at Savage Politics

Cult of Personality + American Sexism + Media Bias + Groupthink = ???

Racism, misogyny and character assassination are all ways of distracting voters from the issues.

Hate Springs Eternal

By PAUL KRUGMAN
OP-ED COLUMNIST
February 11, 2008

In 1956 Adlai Stevenson, running against Dwight Eisenhower, tried to make the political style of his opponent’s vice president, a man by the name of Richard Nixon, an issue. The nation, he warned, was in danger of becoming “a land of slander and scare; the land of sly innuendo, the poison pen, the anonymous phone call and hustling, pushing, shoving; the land of smash and grab and anything to win. This is Nixonland.”

Krugman: Even the Democratic Party seems to be turning into Nixonland: the land of slander and scare, the politics of hatred.

Most of the venom I see is coming from supporters of Mr. Obama, who want their hero or nobody. I’m not the first to point out that the Obama campaign seems dangerously close to becoming a cult of personality. We’ve already had that from the Bush administration.

The quote comes from “Nixonland,” a soon-to-be-published political history of the years from 1964 to 1972 written by Rick Perlstein, the author of “Before the Storm.” As Mr. Perlstein shows, Stevenson warned in vain: during those years America did indeed become the land of slander and scare, of the politics of hatred.

And it still is. In fact, these days even the Democratic Party seems to be turning into Nixonland.

The bitterness of the fight for the Democratic nomination is, on the face of it, bizarre. Both candidates still standing are smart and appealing. Both have progressive agendas (although I believe that Hillary Clinton is more serious about achieving universal health care, and that Barack Obama has staked out positions that will undermine his own efforts). Both have broad support among the party’s grass roots and are favorably viewed by Democratic voters.

Supporters of each candidate should have no trouble rallying behind the other if he or she gets the nod.

Why, then, is there so much venom out there?

I won’t try for fake evenhandedness here: most of the venom I see is coming from supporters of Mr. Obama, who want their hero or nobody. I’m not the first to point out that the Obama campaign seems dangerously close to becoming a cult of personality. We’ve already had that from the Bush administration — remember Operation Flight Suit? We really don’t want to go there again.

What’s particularly saddening is the way many Obama supporters seem happy with the application of “Clinton rules” — the term a number of observers use for the way pundits and some news organizations treat any action or statement by the Clintons, no matter how innocuous, as proof of evil intent.

The prime example of Clinton rules in the 1990s was the way the press covered Whitewater. A small, failed land deal became the basis of a multiyear, multimillion-dollar investigation, which never found any evidence of wrongdoing on the Clintons’ part, yet the “scandal” became a symbol of the Clinton administration’s alleged corruption.

During the current campaign, Mrs. Clinton’s entirely reasonable remark that it took L.B.J.’s political courage and skills to bring Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream to fruition was cast as some kind of outrageous denigration of Dr. King.

And the latest prominent example came when David Shuster of MSNBC, after pointing out that Chelsea Clinton was working for her mother’s campaign — as adult children of presidential aspirants often do — asked, “doesn’t it seem like Chelsea’s sort of being pimped out in some weird sort of way?” Mr. Shuster has been suspended, but as the Clinton campaign rightly points out, his remark was part of a broader pattern at the network.

I call it Clinton rules, but it’s a pattern that goes well beyond the Clintons. For example, Al Gore was subjected to Clinton rules during the 2000 campaign: anything he said, and some things he didn’t say (no, he never claimed to have invented the Internet), was held up as proof of his alleged character flaws.

For now, Clinton rules are working in Mr. Obama’s favor. But his supporters should not take comfort in that fact.

For one thing, Mrs. Clinton may yet be the nominee — and if Obama supporters care about anything beyond hero worship, they should want to see her win in November.

For another, if history is any guide, if Mr. Obama wins the nomination, he will quickly find himself being subjected to Clinton rules. Democrats always do.

But most of all, progressives should realize that Nixonland is not the country we want to be. Racism, misogyny and character assassination are all ways of distracting voters from the issues, and people who care about the issues have a shared interest in making the politics of hatred unacceptable.

One of the most hopeful moments of this presidential campaign came last month, when a number of Jewish leaders signed a letter condemning the smear campaign claiming that Mr. Obama was a secret Muslim. It’s a good guess that some of those leaders would prefer that Mr. Obama not become president; nonetheless, they understood that there are principles that matter more than short-term political advantage.

I’d like to see more moments like that, perhaps starting with strong assurances from both Democratic candidates that they respect their opponents and would support them in the general election.

Krugman could've also mentioned the phenomenon of GroupThink (Irving Janis), which also infected the Kennedy administration, and certainly every republican one since then. And don't forget the Republicans are still pining for the Cult of Personality and pure fantasy surrounding Ronald Reagan.

Krugman's online column here.

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Technorati Tags:
Before the Storm, Adlai Stevenson, Dwight Eisenhower, Rick Perlstein, Nixonland, racism, Reagan, Cult of Personality

Kudos to David Shuster's B.S. Detector

Bless David Shuster's keen laser-like eye for hypocrisy.

GOP hypocrisy? Click image above or direct Video Link: http://video.msn.com/v/us/fv/msnbc/fv.htm??f=00&g=2df39653-2eb2-4b19-a4bc-bee20666e4df&rf=buzzzed.blogspot.com

Hat-tip to Daily Kos

David moved in for the jugular. He asked her, what is the name of the last soldier from her district killed in Iraq. Congresswoman Blackburn was forced to admit that she didn't know. David then told her. He was 18 years old (will check for this on C&L so I can get his name). He then reiterated his puzzlement about why it is that Congresswoman Blackburn knows so much about MoveOn.org, yet doesn't know the names of KIA from her own district--this was after she claimed that she and her staff "keep in touch every day" about what is going on with service people from her district.

THIS is how you respond to the Repubs about The Ad. David, you the man!!!

.....

Finally, and the heart of what this is really about:

The soldier from Ms. Blackburn's district was named Jeremy Bohannon. He was killed in Iraq on August 9, 2007 and was just 18 years old. Our prayers for him and the loved ones he left behind.

Technorati Tags:
GOP hypocrisy, David Shuster, dailykos, video, moveon ad, blackburn

What's Wrong With America? Why Americans Should Not Elect ANY Republicans to ANY Office Again.

An Important Reminder About What's at Stake in 2008

AFL-CIO Democratic Debate, Aug. 7, 2007


A retired steelworker who was forced to retire due to a disability and who lost his pension and his health care coverage asks John Edwards what's wrong with America and what will you do to change it? Edwards responds with what he'd do and stresses the importance of unions and universal health care.

Run time: 02:44
direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaBvGEklBvg

Clearly Edwards meant this gentleman is an example of the consequences of Republican policies including: Greed; Profits Before People; Accountability is for Suckers; American Voters are Suckers; Americans Vote Against Their Own Economic Interests in the Hysteria of Right-Wing Hate and Fear... and many others -- which ones come to mind for you?

Technorati Tags:
economic justice, economic stress, health insurance, inequality, injustice, John Edwards, presidential forum, uninsured, universal health care, voter responsibility, working families, Keith Olbermann, youtube

Pres. Candidate Tommy Thompson Reverses Gay Discrimination Position

Post-debate appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher regarding his debate statement at the Reagan Library on MSNBC that it's "okay" to fire gay employees simply for being gay.

Republican Presidential Candidate Says He Misspoke at Debate: Hearing Aid Wasn't Working

He either flip-flopped or misunderstood the question or something...either way, Thompson, former head of Health and Human Services and former Governor of Wisconsin, says he opposes discrimination of any form in the workplace.

Let's see if that satisfies the right-wing nuts of the right-wing repugncon party or if he changes his stance again, claiming his hearing aid malfunctioned while being interviewed by Maher on HBO.

Regrets, Schmegrets

From the ever witty Mr. Fish, LA Weekly




Our thoughts & deepest sympathies are with the V-Tech families and community.

CBS Radio to Imus: Buh-bye Bigot!

Heads up alert: Breaking News.
Imus shown the CBS Radio door. Finally.

Don't let it hit your racist sexist misogynistic homophobic totally bigoted prejudiced ass on the way out the door disingenuous dirtbag!

Don't have all the details yet. Does this mean he and his henchmen (lynchmen?) KKK rightwing nutjob bigotry promoting point-headed sheet-wearing sidekicks McCord and McGuirk (and Rosenberg) are also gone from CBS Radio? And that all are gone from the flagship station of WFAN in NYC? That's not completely clear as of this writing.

More details to follow.

You see? We can accomplish change when we all work together!

Power to the people.

Imus No Longer to be Simulcast on MSNBC

Imus has been daring MSNBC to boot him for several years; apparently he got his wish. NBC news with Brian Williams, as reported by Rehema Ellis: the President of the NBC News Division (which oversees MSNBC), Steve Capus, has decided and announced tonight that as guardians of the NBC News Division name, Don Imus is no longer welcome on MSNBC.

Imus has derided MSNBC and associated NBC managers for years bullying and calling their staff, employees all sorts of put-downs/names and criticizing them, causing visible tensions — to the point that last summer staff celebrated the summer hiatus of the Imus program and had a countdown bemoaning the Imus show return in the fall.

Time for WFAN and CBS Radio to step up to the plate. They've had their run; time for it all to end. The world has changed. See previous entry on how to contact them.

MSNBC/NBC story here.

Footnote 1: Jossip has done a good job of documenting the flap resulting from the bigot's unconscionable slurs and corporate media's slowness to take action (because they have made so much money from this crap).

Footnote 2: Steve Capus — not a very impressive decider or leader. In fact, during a just-held interview with David Gregory on Spitball (hardball) it sounded very much like Mr. Capus would have been happy to allow the Imus Show's business-as-usual to continue — he's a self-avowed Imus fan — but apparently he was pressured from above to discontinue the relationship.

Boos to Steve Capus, thus to MSNBC, NBC: thumbs down, jeers, poop-head award, typical white male privilege, etc. Hard evidence of extremely poor leadership which allowed and countenanced the bigoted behavior for as long as it was allowed to go on. Steve Capus: Hope you're the next to go down for poor leadership, perpetuating bigotry and failing to be a leader with a backbone you spineless coward.

Speak UP! Send Feedback to CBS Radio, WFAN, MSNBC, NBC

Tell CBS Radio what you think about the latest in sexist, racist, misogynistic Imus crap: http://www.cbsradio.com/contact/webhelpform.html

Tell WFAN sports radio which employs knuckle dragging KKKers Bernard McGuirk, Charles McCord and Sid Rosenberg — the ones who frequently instigate and truly believe the vile crap which spews out of the Imus show and the CBS Radio programs: http://wfan.com/pages/122916.php (go to the Instant Fan feedback form).

Tell MSNBC what they can do with Imus. You can find snail mail addresses at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10285339/ or send an email GeneralComments@feedback.msnbc.com

Tell NBC here http://www.nbc.com/Footer/Contact_Us/


Don't forget to tell them that you are aware that the usual Imus knuckle-dragging right-wing pointy-headed sheet-wearing sidekicks: McGuirk, McCord and Rosenberg are a major part of the problem too.

Two Top Artists Cancel Their Appearances on Imus?

Mary Chapin Carpenter and Patti Smith have apparently quietly cancelled their April appearances on the Imus show. As late as the Tuesday, April 10 edition of the MSNBC-Imus enewsletters, Imus and MSNBC were promoting the April 11 and April 20 appearances of Carpenter and Smith respectively. However, the April 11 edition of the newsletter (sent out approximately 5:00PM on the 10th) no longer had references to either Carpenter or Smith.

The Imus Show appearance is no longer on Carpenter's website although it was previously listed there according to the google cache dated April 4.

Carpenter's new CD is "The Calling" — while Smith was set to perform songs from her new offering "Twelve." Both are known for being politically progressive as well as for their artistry and incredible music.

Numerous major advertisers including Staples, Proctor & Gamble and Bigelow Tea have pulled their ads due to the racist, sexist, misogynist statements (and lame apologies and excuses) by Imus, which were instigated by his producer Bernard McGuirk. Republican presidential candidates John McCain and Rudy Guiliani, as well as the current administration have indicated their public support for Imus.

Gretchen Wilson is still listed in the the April 11 newsletter as the live performer scheduled for May 10. Her new CD is entitled (ironically enough) "One of the Boys."

Headline! Breaking News! Chris Matthews Pronounces Barack Obama 'Sufficiently Black' for African Americans!

Well Bless my southern biscuit soul! One of the whitest most privileged entitled elite know-it-all honky commentators (we'll get to two-faced hypocrite in due time) says as of today that presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Barack Obama is now black enough after being in Selma and talking like a black southern baptist preacher. I'm so very sure Whitey Matthews has heard (much less actually knows) lots of black preachers of any denomination. They're probably his 'best friends'!

Aren't you glad Chris "Spitball" Matthews is so informed about what it means to be Black in America these days that he can tell the rest of us -- especially African American citizens and voters?

And he can do this -- apparently with no sense of his overweening ego -- because after all he is just so very informed and aware of blackness and identity -- he's such a culturally informed fellow that he is now THE all-knowing arbiter and definer (and decider) of such nuanced, complex and political subjects such as black cultural identity in Amerikkka. We'll have to wait, but we can presume he knows everything about Latino and Asian culture (among others) as well.

Yes Spitball is the same guy who fell in love with GW Shrub Bush and pronounced him the kind of potent leader America needed! A real man's man! A decisive decider! Oh, but that was just after 9-11 (and the seven-minute goat story), just after they created fake intelligence stories in order to bomb the hell out of Iraq, and right around the time Shrub announced "Mission Accomplished."

Chris was squealingly orgasmic when Shrub appeared with his flight-suit man-codpiece all hitched up. Here's what Spitball gushed after the Mission Accomplished photo-op:

President Bush looked good in that flight suit. Damn good. Very masculine, if you know what I mean. I mean, is there a Democratic candidate who would look that manly?

White-ball just slurps up that manly stuff -- well only if they're white men of course. And what is his obsession with Hillary Clinton? A racial-, sexual- and gender- identity obsessed privileged elite white man? -- gee what a shock. Can you say INSECURE and FEELING a bit THREATENED? Maybe it's simply that Classic white patriarchal knee-jerk response when women and people of color begin to shake things up even a little bit. White-ball probably has a really really teeny little one.

Here's the truth: Barack Obama can out-president and out-lead Shrub's six-plus years in one single day. And he doesn't need Chris Spitball wingnut Misinformer to pronounce him as sufficiently anything. Barack Obama has more manliness, leadership qualities and inner security as a strong black/biracial/American man in his little finger than Spitball has in his entire pathetic flaccid corporeal history.

In case you haven't noticed, Whitey Spitball is full of SH*T but that doesn't stop him from deciding who is of worth and value even when he has no clue about ... much of anything; he just likes to hear himself spout off -- Murphy's Law on full display. Whitey-ball is one of those people who 'know the cost of everything and the value of nothing' -- unlike the brilliant Senator Obama.

In fact, Matthews was named Media Matters MisInformer of the Year for 2005. He's on the path to repeat for 2007 I'd venture to guess.

Haw! That corporate-media-flack know-it-all white guy -- isn't he just the ever-lovin' limit? He just takes himself too seriously. Seriously.

Hat-tip to Boiling Mad

i do not 'heart' Keith Olbermann aka i ♥ Keith Olbermann

Update: 2008: since Keith has joined the Hate-Hillary uncritically Adore-Obama legions of his military industrial complex G.E./General Electric Masters, I no longer ♥ this cowardly sexist bandwagon joiner. Feh.

Keith Olbermann of MSNBC's Countdown "Delivers One Hell Of a Commentary on Rumsfeld"

Keith's right on the mark when he says we have no modern-day Churchills, not here, not anywhere that I have seen or heard. But Keith is getting pretty close to being our contemporary version of Edward R. Murrow. Bless his sweet soul and backbone!

With gratitude from Crooks & Liars + they have clip(s) of Keith's comments Video - WMV Video - QT

Keith had some very choice words about Rumsfeld's "fascism" comments tonight. Watch it, save it and share it.

Olbermann delivered this commentary with fire and passion while highlighting how Rumsfeld's comments echoes other times in our world's history when anyone who questioned the administration was coined as a traitor, unpatriotic, communist or any other colorful term. Luckily we pulled out of those times and we will pull out of these times.

Remember - Rumsfeld did not just call the Democrats out yesterday, he called out a majority of this country. [Rumsfeld's] wasn't only a partisan attack, but more so an attack against the majority of Americans.

Excerpts from the transcript of Keith's on-air comments:

The man who sees absolutes, where all other men see nuances and shades of meaning, is either a prophet, or a quack.

Donald S. Rumsfeld is not a prophet.

Mr. Rumsfeld's remarkable comments to the Veterans of Foreign Wars yesterday demand the deep analysis -- and the sober contemplation -- of every American.

For they do not merely serve to impugn the morality or intelligence - indeed, the loyalty -- of the majority of Americans who oppose the transient occupants of the highest offices in the land. Worse, still, they credit those same transient occupants - our employees -- with a total omniscience; a total omniscience which neither common sense, nor this administration's track record at home or abroad, suggests they deserve.

Dissent and disagreement with government is the life's blood of human freedom; And not merely because it is the first roadblock against the kind of tyranny the men Mr. Rumsfeld likes to think of as "his" troops still fight, this very evening, in Iraq. It is also essential. Because just every once in awhile? it is right -- and the power to which it speaks, is wrong.

In a small irony, however, Mr. Rumsfeld's speechwriter was adroit in invoking the memory of the appeasement of the Nazis.

For, in their time, there was another government faced with true peril - with a growing evil -- powerful and remorseless. That government, like Mr. Rumsfeld's, had a monopoly on all the facts. It, too, had the secret information. It alone had the true picture of the threat. It too dismissed and insulted its critics in terms like Mr. Rumsfeld's -- questioning their intellect and their morality.

That government was England's, in the 1930's. It knew Hitler posed no true threat to Europe, let alone England. It knew Germany was not re-arming, in violation of all
treaties and accords.

It knew that the hard evidence it received, which contradicted policies, conclusions - and omniscience -- needed to be dismissed. The English government of Neville Chamberlain already knew the truth. Most relevant of all - it "knew" that its staunchest critics needed to be marginalized and isolated.

In fact, it portrayed the foremost of them as a blood-thirsty war-monger who was, if not truly senile -- at best -- morally or intellectually confused. That critic's name ..... was Winston Churchill.

Sadly, we have no Winston Churchills evident among us this evening. We have only Donald Rumsfelds, demonizing disagreement, the way Neville Chamberlain demonized Winston Churchill. History -- and 163 million pounds of Luftwaffe bombs over England -- taught us that all Mr. Chamberlain had was his certainty - and his own confusion. A confusion that suggested that the office can not only make the man, but that the office can also make the facts.

Thus did Mr. Rumsfeld make an apt historical analogy. Excepting the fact that he has the battery plugged in backwards. His government, absolute - and exclusive - in its knowledge, is not the modern version of the one which stood up to the Nazis. It is the modern version of the government? of Neville Chamberlain. But back to today's Omniscients.

That about which Mr. Rumsfeld is confused.....is simply this:

This is a Democracy. Still. Sometimes just barely. And as such, all voices count -- not just his. Had he or his President perhaps proven any of their prior claims of omniscience -- about Osama Bin Laden's plans five years ago - about Saddam Hussein's weapons four years ago -- about Hurricane Katrina's impact one* year ago -- we all might be able to swallow hard, and accept their omniscience as a bearable, even useful recipe, of fact, plus ego.

But, to date, this government has proved little besides its own arrogance, and its own hubris.

Mr. Rumsfeld is also personally confused, morally or intellectually, about his own standing in this matter. From Iraq to Katrina, to the entire "Fog of Fear" which continues to enveloppe this nation - he, Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, and their cronies, have - inadvertently or intentionally - profited and benefited, both personally, and politically.

And yet he can stand up, in public, and question the morality and the intellect of those of us who dare ask just for the receipt for the Emporer's New Clothes.

In what country was Mr. Rumsfeld raised?

As a child, of whose heroism did he read?

On what side of the battle for freedom did he dream one day to fight?

With what country has he confused ... the United States of America?

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The confusion we -- as its citizens -- must now address, is stark and forbidding. But variations of it have faced our forefathers, when men like Nixon and McCarthy and Curtis LeMay have darkened our skies and obscured our flag. Note - with hope in your heart - that those earlier Americans always found their way to the light? and we can, too.The confusion is about whether this Secretary of Defense, and this Administration, are in fact now accomplishing what they claim the terrorists seek: The destruction of our freedoms, the very ones for which the same veterans Mr. Rumsfeld addressed yesterday in Salt Lake City, so valiantly fought.

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And about Mr. Rumsfeld's other main assertion, that this country faces a "new type of fascism." As he was correct to remind us how a government that knew everything could get everything wrong, so too was he right when he said that -- though probably not in the way he thought he meant it.This country faces a new type of fascism -- indeed.

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Although I presumptuously use his sign-off each night, in feeble tribute -- I have utterly no claim to the words of the exemplary journalist Edward R. Murrow.But never in the trial of a thousand years of writing could I come close to matching how he phrased a warning to an earlier generation of us, at a time when other politicians thought they (and they alone) knew everything, and branded those who disagreed, "confused" or "immoral."

Thus forgive me for reading Murrow in full:

"We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty," he said, in 1954. "We must remember always that accusation is not proof, and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear -- one, of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of un-reason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men; "Not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were -- for the moment -- unpopular."

Catch Keith on his informative, unique-in-perspective, cuts-through-the-BS (or at least points it out) show "Countdown" on MSNBC weeknights at 8:00 PM Eastern with various repeats later in the evening. Keith also has a blog, called appropriately enough "Bloggerman" where you can read the full transcript of his own words and in his original writing style (since I'm not sure where the C&L transcript emanated from).

I ♥ Keith Olbermann
Keith Olbermann, Countdown, MSNBC, Rumsfeld, Winston Churchill, Edward R. Murrow, dissent