Posted 9:59 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must View
Jon Stewart on Fox News:

Posted 2:01 PM by Scoobie Davis

Romney's Linguistic Dog Whistle, Part Two
A couple weeks ago, I pointed out how Mitt Romney was subtlely appealing to the wing-nut GOP base through a grating grammatical error, namely the use of the word "Democrat" as an adjective--as in "Democrat [sic] Party."

He did it today on Sean Hannity's radio show (again). Romney was discussing Operation Hilarity (Democrats and progressives voting in the GOP primaries for Santorum). Here's what Romney told Hannity: "Look, this is, this is the old kind of dirty tricks that you've seen in politics before and the idea of trying to drum up Democrat [sic] voters to come in and vote against me, that's just the wrong way to go."

Posted 1:56 PM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
Brad Friedman on Charlie White

Posted 12:29 PM by Scoobie Davis

New Purchase
The Fox Effect: How Roger Ailes Turned a Network into a Propaganda Machine. I have read about 40 pages and have learned some important information I didn't know--e.g., that in the 70's, Ailes worked for a Coors-funded right-wing TV news organization called Television News Incorporated (TVN). TVN's idea of fair and balanced news was to red-bait Martin Luther King. Yuck!

Buy the book.

Posted 9:04 AM by Scoobie Davis

David Brock's The Fox Effect: How Roger Ailes Turned a Network into a Propaganda Machine

I plan to buy the book. It will be released on Tuesday. Watch the promo video.

Posted 3:39 PM by Scoobie Davis

I Support Daily Kos' Operation Hilarity!
Read all about it here. I'm voting for Santorum in the primary.

Posted 9:35 AM by Scoobie Davis

Recent Evidence that Romney is Pandering to the Wing-nuts
Last week, Mitt Romney was interviewed on Sean Hannity’s radio show. Every time Romney referred to Democrats or the Democratic Party, he engaged in the de rigeur wing-nut practice of using the word “Democrat” as an adjective. Even Hannity usually uses the word “Democratic” as an adjective. Here are the instances from the interview in which Romney pandered to the far right: “We’re not going to let him [Obama] forget that for his first two years in office, he had a Democrat [sic] House and a Democrat [sic] Senate, that he did not need a single Republican vote to push through his healthcare plan, Obamacare.”

ADDENDUM: It’s not surprising that during Hannity’s interview with Romney that Hannity, in his attempt to portray President Obama as a secularist, trimmed an Obama quote in mid-sentence to give a different meaning to what Obama actually said. Here’s the Obama quote that Hannity aired: “Given the increasing diversity of America’s population, the dangers of sectarianism are greater than ever. Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation . . .” Hannity trimmed the quote in mid-sentence. Here’s the complete sentence: “Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation–at least, not just. We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, and a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.”

Hannity is an old hand at trimming quotes in mid-sentence in order to give the quote an entirely different meaning. Check out this hilarious clip of Jon Stewart taking Hannity to task for using a truncated quote to suggest that President Obama was giving “a voice to 9/11 sympathizers.”

Posted 8:48 AM by Scoobie Davis

Intrade: Obama's Reelect Chances Over 60 Percent!
Here's Intrade's chart. Just a short time ago, his chances were below 50 percent:

Posted 9:53 AM by Scoobie Davis

Birtherism Bounces Back
Proof that you can't keep a good conspiracy theory down. Check out the stats here

Posted 10:42 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must Reads
Frank Rich, "Who in God’s Name Is Mitt Romney?" and Salon.com's interview with Arthur Goldwag, author of the new book The New Hate: A History of Fear and Loathing on the Populist Right

Posted 9:55 AM by Scoobie Davis

Obama Campaign's Online Ad: the Bikini Graph
I recently saw an Obama campaign online ad featuring the bikini graph. I couldn't find the ad but here's the bikini graph: