Posted 6:22 AM by Scoobie Davis

Prediction
Next Saturday, the season opener for Miami U. and Ohio State is a game against each other. I attended both (I had a better time at Miami), but Ohio state has a better team (though Miami U. is no slouch. I will root for Miami but I think Ohio State will prevail: Ohio State 24, Miami U. 12.

Posted 9:00 AM by Scoobie Davis

Will post later today
UPDATE: I never got to it.

Posted 11:28 PM by Scoobie Davis

Moonie Reference on the Latest Entourage
Ari (Jeremy Piven) mentioned that his sister used to be a Moonie but was deprogrammed.

Posted 8:10 AM by Scoobie Davis

Frank Rich Kicks Ass and Takes Names
Click here

Posted 8:03 AM by Scoobie Davis

What I'm Reading
P.J. O'Rourke's parody of a Jack Chick tract titled, "Head Shop or Dead Shop?" from the December 1974 issue of National Lampoon.

Posted 6:48 AM by Scoobie Davis

Busy
Will post over the weekend.

Posted 9:57 AM by Scoobie Davis

The 40 Year-Old Virgin
I saw an advance screening of the film over a week ago. I laughed a lot. Confession: Having really liked Milos Foreman's Hair, I like The 40 Year-Old Virgin's tribute to it.

Posted 9:47 AM by Scoobie Davis

Latest Acquisition
The old Jack Chick tape set "Closet Witches" in which Rebecca Brown and Elaine Moses talk with the Chickster about their fight against Satan and his witches. They're mind-blowing.

Posted 10:21 AM by Scoobie Davis

The Lost Sean Hannity Conversation: I Told Sean Hannity off about the Sectarian Right's Bigotry and Venality
Before I began blogging in February 2002, I called Sean Hannity’s radio show in January 2002. I recorded it but lost the tape until about a week ago.

This conversation really illustrates a couple things:
1) Not that it’s news, but it illustrates that Hannity is a completely unprincipled liar; far from Hannity’s claim that members of the right have “to be perfect every time” they make a public statement, this call illustrates how Hannity can make false accusations and not pay a price. Good news, since I had the conversation with Hannity, blogs like mine have popped up and web sites like Media Matters for America have given Hannity’s TV and radio statements a paper trail. Hannity still lies but now he knows that people are out there recording and reporting on what he says.
2) Right-wing talk radio shows are a great conduit for information for talk radio listeners. Not everyone who listens to talk radio is a right winger; there are a lot of people on the fence. Calls like mine will cause them to do Google searches and discover that Hannity was the one who was “making things up.”

I called in as Jim from Los Angeles. Enjoy.

HANNITY: Jim, Los Angeles. Sean Hannity Show. What’s up, Jimbo?

SCOOBIE: Hey. What’s up, Sean?

HANNITY: Happy New Year.

SCOOBIE: I just heard you talking about how Democrats were supposedly attacking Christians for criticizing people like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson and I don’t see how you can make that kind of assumption.

HANNITY: Well, what I can tell is that I’m reading from Greg Pierson’s piece in the Washington Times yesterday and he was quoting Newsweek and Howard Fineman—their correspondent—how the Democrats are planning to demonize conservative Christians as being like the Taliban. According to Fineman, the Democrats are planning a daring assault on the most critical turf in politics, the cultural mainstream and the theory goes: our enemy in Afghanistan is religious extremism and intolerance. It is therefore more important than ever to honor the ideals of tolerance--religious, sexual, racial, reproduction—at home. The GOP quote is out of the mainstream and Democrats will argue that it’s too dependent on quote the intolerant religious right. In other words, they’re comparing Christians to the Taliban.

SCOOBIE: Yes, absolutely. First of all [laughing] don’t trust the Washington Times. It’s owned by Moon.

HANNITY: He’s quoting Howard Fineman. Howard Fineman is not a conservative.

SCOOBIE: Yeah, and the thing is that much of the sectarian right—I call it the sectarian right—is very Talibanesque. One thing I agree with President—

HANNITY: Whoa. Who is— Make your comparison. The Taliban, let us remind people, used to beat woman that would leave their homes without men. The Taliban wouldn’t let women go to school or go to work. The Taliban used to beat men if their beards weren’t a certain length. The most rigid interpretation of Islam that is out there. Explain. Compare and contrast for me where Christian conservatives are similar in any way.

SCOOBIE: Yeah, one thing I agree with President-select Bush’s September 18th speech before Congress--

HANNITY: Answer that question though. Where is that comparison? Compare and contrast.

SCOOBIE: George W. Bush criticized the Taliban for their mistreatment of Hindus but you have someone like Pat Robertson who said that Hinduism is demonic and that we shouldn’t allow that to come into the country.

HANNITY: First of all, I didn’t hear Pat Robertson say that. Now I know Jerry Falwell came under fire for comments he made after September 11th, but you gotta remember he apologized for those comments and he put them in context. He was speaking in a broader philosophical vein and if you don't accept his apology on that, that's fine. But you can't compare mainstream Christian conservatives with the Taliban. You can't make that comparison. It doesn't fit.

SCOOBIE: The thing is that these are not mainstream Christian conservatives. My mother is a mainstream Christian conservative. Pat Robertson is a nutcase and Jerry Falwell is a thief. These people are--

HANNITY: You know what I'm going to do: I gotta put you on hold her. This is important. We've got to work through this because there's a level of hatred toward Christian conservatives that I think is at the root of this.

[Bumper music and Hannity goes to the bottom-of-the-hour break]

[Bumper music and Hannity returns from the bottom-of-the-hour break]

HANNITY: I’m going to get to politics tomorrow—otherwise I would rush through it and I don’t want to do that. Back to Jim in Los Angeles. Jim, you still there?

SCOOBIE: Hi Sean.

HANNITY: Jim, here’s the question—that you have yet to answer this question. I gave you a list of how abusive the Taliban has been--in terms of their treatment of women, women who can’t go to school, women who can’t go to work, women who can’t leave their home without men, about men who must have beards a certain length, their extreme and fanatical interpretation of the Koran that believes that God has instructed them to kill who don’t believe, those that don’t agree with them—and I asked you to compare that to Christian conservatives and you make the comparison here where there’s some type of moral equivalency. You can’t do it.

SCOOBIE: Yes, I did. I pointed out that at least the Taliban allowed Hindus to come into their country. Pat Robertson said that Hinduism is demonic and we shouldn’t allow these people to come into our country. That’s religious bigotry-

HANNITY: Jim, you’re wrong because, for example, Christians are charged if they’re caught proselytizing. Remember these two girls we interviewed. Don’t dismiss that. Here in America, you can practice—and this is what freedom of religion is about—you can practice any religion you want—even an extreme religion, even what by definition is considered a cult.

SCOOBIE: Not if Pat Robertson had his way because he believes that anyone who’s not a Christian or a Jew is a second-class citizen and should not be allowed to hold office. We should oppose this kind of religious bigotry. That’s wrong.

HANNITY: You know, here’s the problem, ladies and gentleman around the country, in debating someone like Jim--

SCOOBIE: [loud annoyed sigh]

HANNITY: Jim, wait a minute, you’re obviously ignorant of your facts.

SCOOBIE: No, I’m not. You call Jerry Falwell the real deal. This man is a thief who steals from his flock.

HANNITY: Hang on for a second. Put him down for a second. Put him on hold. Don’t hang up, Jim, because this is important. [Hannity’s radio engineer temporarily pots down Scoobie’s audio] Number one, you’re ignorant because you don’t know Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell have been two of the staunchest supporters of Israel that are out there and outspoken in American society today. That’s fact number one. Number two, your criticism of Jerry Falwell as a thief is just—it’s clearly rooted in your own bigotry and hatred of him because of his religious point of view and his religious perspective. Jerry Falwell—you may not like his Christian perspective—but it doesn’t mean he’s a thief nor has he been caught stealing nor has he been accused of such and all you’re doing here is dropping these bombs in the hopes that somehow you can demonize their name and reputation. The person who is intolerant here is you.

SCOOBIE: Mr. Hannity, Jerry Falwell sold a video on his TV show to his flock that claimed that President Clinton was involved in drug smuggling and murdering people and he had this phony infomercial in which he claimed that an investigative reporter was fearful of his life. This was not an investigative reporter—this turned out to be the producer of the video itself. So he sold this phony, outrageous, libelous video at a high price—at a big markup—to his flock and he used deception and I call that stealing and that’s wrong.

HANNITY: Was President Clinton a criminal? Was President Clinton legally impeached? Was President Clinton found to have lied under oath?

SCOOBIE: Oh wow, the guy had sex and he doesn’t want to tell the whole world. Gee, is that the same thing as murdering people and drug dealing and the kind of thing that this scurrilous video says? That’s wrong.

HANNITY: President Clinton can’t practice law right now and when you talk about the Taliban women—the Taliban support al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda has been fighting against the Indian government in Kashmir. This is, they’re fighting against Hinduism, isn’t it?

SCOOBIE: Absolutely. And Pat Robertson and Falwell, they’re the biggest bigots for any religion other than Christianity.

HANNITY: Hey, listen, Jim. Everybody who has a particular religious faith believes that they have the right faith. I have never heard Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson say that they don’t believe in the principles of freedom of religion.

SCOOBIE: No, that’s wrong. Absolutely. Pat Robertson said that only Christians and Jews should hold office in the United States and that’s against the Constitution. [Note: Article VI, Clause 3]

HANNITY: Jim, you’re making this up.

SCOOBIE: [Angry] No, I’m not!

HANNITY: Jim, You’re making it up.

SCOOBIE: I can document--

HANNITY: Ladies and Gentlemen, Jim doesn’t like Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell. Okay. Fine, Jim. Don’t listen to them. Don’t listen to them. [Angry] But don’t make up phony lies about them. Give us either one quote from either Robertson or Falwell. Give us the source.

SCOOBIE: Hinduism Today is the source behind the Pat Robertson quote about Hinduism--

HANNITY: No, no, give me the source. What did he say and when did he say it and where was it quoted?

SCOOBIE: Well, I don’t have these things in front of me but I’d be glad to e-mail you all of this information.

HANNITY: [Sarcastically] Sean, I’ll e-mail you tomorrow some time.

SCOOBIE: I’m sorry. I’m hanging out on my couch. I don’t happen to have the exact quotes with me. That doesn’t mean that my quotes aren’t valid. They are and I can back it up. I’ll tell you what: if you want to call me up, I’ll have all of this information for you tomorrow.

[HANNITY DISCONNECTS SCOOBIE]

HANNITY: [Sarcastically] Alright. We’re going to make a point of it. We’ll call Jim tomorrow. Thank you, Jim for your sourcing of your ridiculous quotes.

Look, I know Jerry Falwell, like Jerry Falwell, and what he said at the time that the attack took place, he admits was wrong and he apologized for it. Just as Bill Maher apologized for his comments. As we had both of them on this program since then, one of the things that’s wrong in our society today is if somebody says one wrong thing on the radio, on TV, if you have a political disagreement with them, nobody wants to give you time for clarification, a chance to edify your comments, a chance to apologize for your comments. We’ve got to be perfect when we’re out there in the media. What really is going on here , there is an intolerance towards Christianity and an intolerance towards conservatism. When I make an accusation on this program, I back it up with facts. Let’s go to Steve in Jacksonville. . .

REALITY: Contrary to Hannity’s claims that I was "making things up," every accusation I made against Falwell and Robertson was true and I hyperlinked to documentation of Falwell and Robertson’s words and actions. The accusations I made against them are irrefutable.

UPDATE: Check out my other conversation with Hannity that contains many Hannity links.

Posted 9:07 AM by Scoobie Davis

Recovering
I am a bit hung over from beer and wine that I consumed at the LA Blogger Bash hosted by Steve of SteveAudio and Jane of Firedoglake. I'd like to also thank Steve's family for their hospitality. There was a great spread and great conversations. I spoke with LA's bloggers. Jane has a post on who was there. I spoke with everyone except for Arianna who left before I could talk to her. As far as I was concerned, it was more fun than the dozens of Hollywood parties I have crashed over the years.

Quick notes: I'll have the Sean Hannity transcript up today. If I don't put it up this morning, I will have it in the evening after I get off work.

A mystery solved: On Saturday, I received a notice from the post office on Saturday that I could pick up a parcel today from "Fadein." I wasn't expecting a package and I don't know anyone named Fadein. I picked up the package this morning and it was from Fade In magazine which I read on a regular basis. I was one of their winners of their Happy Endings Trivia Contest. I won a Happy Endings poster signed by the cast. Woo Hoo!

Posted 11:02 AM by Scoobie Davis

Media Matters on Fox News Shill Steven Milloy
Click here. I wrote about Milloy a couple years ago.

Posted 7:45 AM by Scoobie Davis

Cindy Sheehan
I haven't written about the right-wing echo chamber's war on Cindy Sheehan. The blogosphere is divided between those who are part of the right's echo chamber and those who care about telling the truth. Here are two pithy posts on the right's echo chamber: click here and here.

Posted 7:20 AM by Scoobie Davis

Why Is NewsMax Calling a Scam Artist a "Consumer Activist"?
"Reporter" Carl Limbacher used the term "consumer activist" to describe grifter Kevin Trudeau in the most recent edition of NewsMax. Does Trudeau advertise on NewsMax? I wonder.

Posted 7:26 PM by Scoobie Davis

Quixtar Blog
The other day I discussed Amway/Quixtar. I just found out about Quixtar Blog.
UPDATE: Here's another one.

Posted 9:26 AM by Scoobie Davis

Lo Siento
I know I promised to put the transcript of my old conversation with Sean Hannity but my schedule is a killer.

Here's a teaser of the conversation:

HANNITY: . . . Now I know Jerry Falwell came under fire for comments he made after September 11th, but you gotta remember he apologized for those comments and he put them in context. He was speaking in a broader philosophical vein and if you don't accept his apology on that, that's fine. But you can't compare mainstream Christian conservatives with the Taliban. You can't make that comparison. It doesn't fit.

SCOOBIE: The thing is that these are not mainstream Christian conservatives. My mother is a mainstream Christian conservative. Pat Robertson is a nutcase and Jerry Falwell is a thief. These people are--

HANNITY: You know what I'm going to do: I gotta put you on hold her. This is important. We've got to work through this because there's a level of hatred toward Christian conservatives that I think is at the root of this. [Bumper music and Hannity goes to the bottom-of-the-hour break]

After the break, I explained to Hannity why Robertson is a nutcase and why Falwell is a thief. I hope to have the entire transcript soon.

Posted 9:06 PM by Scoobie Davis

Busy Busy
I'm working and busy. Plus, I started transcribing my conversation with Sean Hannity (scroll down to last Sunday's post) and he and I talked a lot. I noticed a hell of a lot of non sequiturs and BS on Hannity's part. This guy is a piece of work.

Posted 5:57 PM by Scoobie Davis

Stuff came up. No posting today. Sorry.

Posted 8:32 AM by Scoobie Davis

Check Out This Site On Monday!
I finally found the lost Hannity tape. For those of you familiar with this blog, I like to call up right-wing talk radio stuffed shirts and tell them how it is (check out the sidebar under "Phone Calls"). One of my favorite calls was one that is not listed on the sidebar. In December 2001, (two months before I began this blog), I recorded a call I made to Sean Hannity's radio show; the content is better that my other call to Hannity. I have so much stuff that I lost it for awhile. I finally found it and I will transcribe it. The call really shows what an assclown and hack Hannity is.

Posted 9:55 AM by Scoobie Davis

Robert Parry on the Unnecessary Failure of ACT
Every Democratic strategist should read it. Click here

Posted 9:12 AM by Scoobie Davis

Reason Number 495887 to Be Opposed to Rick Santorum
He's a huge supporter of Amway, the multi-level marketing scam. I have written about Scamway previously (read my post,"Scamway: The Republican Money Machine Built on Fraud").

The Republican party will continue to benefit from its alliance with this cult-like institutionalized fraud as long as national Democrats stay silent about it. What we have is a massive con game that funds people out to destroy the Democratic Party, but national Democrats are largely silent. The son of Scamway co-founder Rich DeVos is running for Michigan governor next year. If Democrats are smart, they would create a victims group (how about calling it Amway Survivors for Truth?) that will not only sink the DeVos and Santorum candidacies but expose Amway as the fraud it is. If Amway is spending its money on defending itself, it can't fund reactionary politicians (also, GOP politicans will think twice about accepting money from Amway). It's a no-brainer.

Required reading: Eric Scheibeler's shocking book about the Amway/Quixtar cult Merchants Of Deception is available online.

Posted 12:40 PM by Scoobie Davis

My Favorite: "Worst Prez--Ever"
Click here

Posted 12:07 PM by Scoobie Davis

Steve Cobble Has a Great Idea
Click here.

Posted 11:09 AM by Scoobie Davis

Dilemma
I have degrees from both Ohio State and Miami University. The football season opener for both the Buckeyes and the RedHawks is against each other on September 3 at Ohio Stadium in Columbus. Who should I root for?

Posted 8:40 AM by Scoobie Davis

Rhymes with "Kenny Boy"
Is Dennis Hastert in trouble? I don't know but the Raw Story has the lowdown on a forthcoming Vanity Fair article that makes some suggestions that he is. Foreshadowing: Hastert's nickname in the recorded calls is "Denny Boy."

Posted 3:24 PM by Scoobie Davis

Right-Wing Bloggers Hoodwinked by Phony Report Put out by Phony Voting Rights Group
Brad Blog has the goods on the Republican front group, American Center for Voting Rights (ACVR) and its sham report on voter intimidation and how much of the right-wing blogosphere fell for it. What I found most revealing was how transparently phony this GOP front group was; it was if they didn't make an attempt to fake us out. It took me two seconds to do a Google search that shows the group is a front group. Also, the title of the "study" on the group's web site is a dead giveaway: "Democrat [sic] Operatives Far More Involved In Voter Intimidation And Suppression In 2004, Thousands Of Americans Disenfranchised By Vote Fraud On Election Day." For those of you who don't know, a favorite habit of wingnuts is the pejorative use of the word "Democrat" instead of "Democratic" as a adjective (e.g., Bob Dole's famous "Democrat Wars" comment in 1976). This is just sad.

UPDATE: The Moonie Times on the fraudulent ACVR (typical Moonie Times):

Election fraud
A nonpartisan group yesterday released a report that said paid Democratic operatives were far more involved in voter intimidation and suppression activities than were their Republican counterparts during the 2004 presidential election.
The American Center for Voting Rights Legislative Fund (ACVR) report, "Vote Fraud, Intimidation & Suppression in the 2004 Presidential Election," said neither party had a clean record on the issue, but Democrats were worse.
Examples include paid Democratic operatives charged with slashing tires on Republican get-out-the-vote vans in Milwaukee and an Ohio court order stopping Democratic operatives from calling voters and telling them the wrong date for the election and faulty polling-place information, according to the report.
The report further found that thousands of Americans were disenfranchised by illegal votes cast and a coordinated effort by members of certain "nonpartisan" organizations to rig the election system through voter-registration fraud in more than a dozen states.
The ACVR Legislative Fund is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that neither supports nor endorses any political party or candidate. [emphasis mine]

Roger Ailes has more on the group's alleged bipartisanship.

Posted 11:18 AM by Scoobie Davis

I Liked This Post
(Via the Daou Report), From the Roots on the GOP Senate prospects' rough week.

Posted 9:39 AM by Scoobie Davis

Another Blogger Banned Me
My feeling are hurt--not really. I was surfing the right-wing blogs and found a post on LaShawn Barber's blog that approvingly cited an article in WorldNetDaily by Michelle Malkin accusing a financial backer of Air America of financial misconduct.

So I wrote the following in her comments section:

I don't know if some of the people who are behind Air America engaged in financial chicanery or not. One thing I know is that if they did, Michelle Malkin is the last person who should complain. Take a look at who has given her a paycheck:
1) The "Reverend" Sun Myung Moon. Moon, the self-proclaimed messiah, has been able to fund his media empire through charity scams. The MO is to have his brainwashed followers pose as charity workers an solicit funds from people on the street. I live in LA and just in the past year, I have been approached by at least half a dozen Moonies who tried to solicit money--ostensibly for charity--but it went to allow Moon to live like a king and become a huge Washington power player.
2) Joseph Farah. In the 1990's, Farah and an unscrupulous "journalist" Chris Ruddy fed paranoid billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife stories that Bill Clinton was responsible for murdering dozens of people--the urban legend known as the Clinton Body Count (see Snopes.com for more info). As a consequence, an alarmed Scaife funded Farah and Ruddy to report on these "mysterious deaths"--a comedy of errors reported in the Columbia Journalism Review by Trudy Lieberman--see my post for a brief synopsis

For my efforts, my post was not listed in the comments section; instead, Barber posted the following: "I've dealt with you before, "Scoobie," and you're a vulgarian and not welcome on this blog."

The reason that she thinks I'm a vulgarian is that I once read a post on her blog that fulsomely praised Malkin and I linked to it on my blog and jocularly suggested (in a rather crude fashion) that the relationship between Barber and Malkin was a bit cozier that it really is. As a consequence, my readers wrote crude things on the comments sections of Barber's Malkin-praising post. As a consequence, I am banned from the comments section of her blog.

Posted 9:04 AM by Scoobie Davis

48 Percent Ain't Bad
For one thing, it shows that the Ohio GOP is in big trouble. Rumor has it that upon hearing the final vote tally, Bob "Lucky Seven" Ney had a panic attack that was allayed by some video poker at a London casino.

Posted 5:27 PM by Scoobie Davis

Celebrity Sighting?
I was walking in Westwood Village and when I walked past the Mann Regent Theatre (Map Here), there was a man standing there who looked a lot like Rob Reiner. I didn't say anything to him.

Posted 8:12 AM by Scoobie Davis

Break a Leg, Paul
I am rooting for Paul Hackett in today's special election (OH-02). Swing State Project has the details.
UPDATE: Thomas on Rush on Hackett. Kos has more.

Posted 10:39 PM by Scoobie Davis

Slacker Monday
Guess who didn't feel like posting today?