US Political News Blog

2012-01-17T10:59:00.000-08:00

Book Review of Mark Levin’s Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America

I checked out Mark Levin’s book Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America, which was released today. That’s time I can’t get back but at least I can review it. Although the book is pretty unimaginative stuff, it’s sure to sell well to the teabaggers (to paraphrase Paul Krugman, this is a stupid person’s idea of an intelligent book). I submitted a two-star review to Amazon.com. If you have an Amazon account and you like the review, feel free to give it some positive feedback. The review (with links) is at the end of this post.

ADDENDUM: Levin is a talk radio show host. He is a standard Rush clone. He got the radio gig because Hannity is his friend. One of the things I find amusing is that Levin is feuding with Michael Savage (Levin and Savage compete with each other on the 6-9 PM EST time slot). They trade on-air personal attacks, e.g., Levin calls Savage (born Weiner) “little wiener” and Savage refers to the high-pitched Levin as “Groucho Marx’s grandmother after a hysterectomy”). Anyhow, I wrote about Levin versus Savage (click here and scroll down).

The review:

Meretricious Pseudo-scholarship
Mark Levin’s Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America is a flawed book, not just because of points that Levin gets wrong but also because of the book’s glaring omissions that refute the premises of the book. This book is the kind of pseudo-scholarship that has characterized the American reactionary counterestablishment—the forty-year effort by the hard right to create alternative institutions that appear to be legitimate think tanks, journalistic outlets, and educational institutions but whose “research” could never withstand the scrutiny of impartial peer review. It’s not surprising that Levin has been part of this counterestablishment; he is the head of the Landmark Legal Foundation, a right-wing legal group that only exists because of largess from the Koch Brothers, Richard Mellon Scaife, and the now-defunct John M. Olin Foundation.

The majority of Levin’s book is a literature review of some of the core works that address utopianism, namely, writings by Plato, Thomas More, Thomas Hobbes, and Karl Marx. These sections of the book are generally adequate though the reader would be better informed by reading academic books on these theorists and their works. Levin is also correct to point out the utopian view that a perfect world is imminent often has led to extremely dystopian societies.

What is particularly flawed about Levin’s book is that it is devoted to arguing that FDR, the Obama administration, and modern progressivism epitomize this dysfunctional utopianism and that the modern right is inherently anti-utopian. For instance, Levin absurdly claims, “[i]ndeed, [Franklin] Roosevelt’s worldview harks back to Thomas More’s Utopia, a precursor to Marx’s workers’ paradise, where the individual’s labor and property are ultimately possessions of the masterminds and subject to their egalitarian design.” It is also a stretch, at the very least, to lump a pragmatic reformer like Obama in with totalitarian utopians. While this line of argument is manifestly ridiculous, it fits into the tea party’s stock narrative that Obama is a Kenyan anti-colonial Marxist who seeks to turn American society into a socialist utopia.

At the same time, Levin’s attempt to portray American conservatism as a bulwark against utopianism is completely baseless. Indeed, much of the contemporary American right’s embrace of utopianism happened right under Levin’s nose when he was working in the Reagan Department of Justice. It was under Reagan that the American right began endorsing the following crackpot utopian movements: 1) The Unification movement; 2) the neo-Confederate “Lost Cause” movement; and 3) theocratic millenarianism (the online article “The Theocratic Chain of Misery” illustrates how these pernicious movements symbiotically support each other).

Although Reagan himself wasn’t a utopian and supported these causes for cynical electoral reasons, the dangers of the fanatics he welcomed into the conservative movement are real. Reagan praised self-proclaimed Messiah and cult leader Sun Myung Moon’s dubious journalistic outlets (Reagan’s vice president George H.W. Bush later called Moon “the man with the vision”). Reagan shamelessly pandered to those in the “Lost Cause” movement who romanticize the paradise lost of the antebellum South; among other things, Reagan called Jefferson Davis one of his heroes (amazingly, some people still wonder why so few blacks support the contemporary Party of Lincoln). Reagan also gave credence to chiliastic fundamentalists, such as Jerry Falwell and Hal Lindsey, who had prayed for a worldwide nuclear apocalypse in the belief it would lead to The Rapture (the moment that God sweeps True Believers into the utopian ecstasy of Heaven, leaving behind nonfundamentalists to dodge unmanned moving vehicles). Incredibly, Reagan invited Lindsey, the author of the asinine apocalyptic best-selling book The Late Great Planet Earth, to address Pentagon strategists about the prospects of nuclear war with the then-Soviet Union. Clearly, contrary to Levin’s argument, it is the contemporary American right that champions fanatical and dangerous utopian movements whose actions could lead to horrific consequences.

2012-01-13T10:24:00.000-08:00

Must Read
Robert Parry on Katharine Seelye

2011-12-28T07:49:00.000-08:00

Must Read
Frank Rich on the GOP as the "Molotov" party.

2011-12-23T07:49:00.000-08:00

Happy Festivus!
1. My favorite Christmas essay: "All Hail Pottersville" by Gary Kamiya
2. My favorite X-mas film: Bad Santa (directed by Terry Zwigoff (also, see Zwigoff's Crumb and Ghost World). Second Favorite Christmas film: Go. Third Favorite: A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas
3. Favorite Christmas TV episode: Futurama's "Xmas Story"
4. Favorite Christmas song: "Christmas Wrapping" by the Waitresses:

2011-12-17T08:50:00.000-08:00

Congrats to Fox News for being Misinformer of the Year 2011
Read about it here. Fox & Friends is the worst of the worst.

2011-12-13T09:18:00.000-08:00

Lisa Simpson and I went to the Same University
Well, kinda. I went to Miami of Ohio in Oxford (and had a fucking blast despite the buzzkills who also went there) and she went to Miami of Ohio of Pluto.

2011-12-10T09:05:00.000-08:00

Penn State Has Suffered Enough having to Suffer a Fool Like Lanny Davis!
News Item: "Ex-White House counsel Lanny Davis to advise new Penn St president appointed amid sex scandal"

I've previously written about what an assclown Davis is. Read Lloyd Grove's profile of Davis.

2011-12-08T06:54:00.000-08:00

Today, Ann Coulter, 50, is now a Half-Century Old
someone should take her aside and tell her to skip the miniskirts from now on.

2011-12-06T10:40:00.000-08:00

The Good Guys Won (This Time)
Paul Schurick: Robert Ehrlich Aide Guilty Of Conspiring To Suppress Black Voter Turnout

2011-12-04T11:16:00.000-08:00

Election 2012
The "bikini chart":

AND according to Intrade the chance of becoming the GOP nominee: Mitt Romney 46.0 %; Newt Gingrich 34.6%.

2011-11-30T15:45:00.000-08:00

Must View
The prankster who impersonated David Koch in a phone call with Wisconsin governor Scott Walker resurfaces in this priceless anti-Walker ad, "Standing up to Scott Walker":

2011-11-30T11:59:00.001-08:00

Ouch
A car window sticker I saw today was blue and white and had the words "State Penn"

2011-11-29T09:20:00.001-08:00

Must Read
Good news for the Scott Walker recall petition drive.

2011-11-28T08:31:00.000-08:00

Must Read
I just finished Michelle Goldberg's book, Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism. It's good but scary.

2011-11-28T07:54:00.000-08:00

An Open Letter to Genevieve Wood of the Heritage Foundation

Dear Ms. Wood,

I saw you on the PBS public affairs panel show To the Contrary the other day. The topic of discussion was drug testing of welfare recipients. You defended the practice by pointing out that your employer, the Heritage Foundation, had required you to take a drug test as a precondition of employment.

When I heard this, I thought, “What the fuck is the deal with that?!” I mean, did some Heritage Foundation lackey actually stand over you and watch you piss in a jar? That’s really kinky (albeit an unerotic, creepy type of kink).

However, the issues run deeper. Why would a phony think tank that exists for the sole purpose of producing pseudo-scholarly position papers that support right-wing talking points (see postscript) need to have its gravy train riders drug-free? Rush Limbaugh was able to competently deliver wing-nut boilerplate even though he was taking enough hillbilly heroin to keep the entire state of Kentucky stoned to the bone. Providing phony research for the hard right must be the easiest gig on God’s green earth. For fuck’s sake, it’s petty for Heritage to deny its operatives an opportunity to take the edge off their feelings of existential angst when they’re cooking the data to argue that the tax code has given the top one percent of income earners a raw deal over the past 30 years.

Also, when I watched you on TV, you seemed to be wound up way too tight. You could use some weed. Do a few bong hits, loosen the corset, unclench your sphincter muscles, and pop in a Harold and Kumar DVD. You’ll feel better.

Sincerely,

S

Postscript: Candid Statement about the Heritage Foundation’s Real Agenda by Burton Pines, Vice President for Research for the Heritage Foundation: “We’re not here to be some kind of Ph. D. committee giving equal time. Our role is to provide conservative policy-makers with arguments to bolster our side.”

2011-11-27T11:46:00.000-08:00

Must Read
Eric Alterman, "Next Stop on the GOP Crazy Train: 'Newtsville'":

In their new book, The Anointed: Evangelical Truth in a Secular Age, Randall Stephens and Karl Giberson explain the nature of intellectual insularity of so many in this world, in which “the teachings of dubiously credentialed leaders are favored over the word of secular experts in the arts and sciences.” Considering the example of evolution, they write, “Anointed leaders convince their followers to reject evolution by undermining the credibility of the scientific community. The resulting widespread distrust of the scientific community—often portrayed as atheistic, anti-religious, ideological—undermines the credibility of everything the scientific community says, including its conclusions about climate change, the dangers of fracking, the importance of ecosystems, the need for vaccinating children, and so on.”

The authors describe “what amounts to a ‘parallel culture,’” where people like alleged “historian” David Barton (whose formal education consists of a degree in religious education from Oral Roberts University) and psychologist James Dobson (tennis team captain at what is now Point Loma Nazarene University) proffer phony-baloney history lessons that distort almost everything professional historians know to be true about America’s founders.

Reporters representing reliable media outlets are supposed to defend the discourse from the virus of this ignorance. But for a variety of reasons they no longer do so. Part of the explanation can be found in the foolish willingness of so many reporters to treat Fox News, Drudge and various talk-radio hosts as respectable voices in the debate without regard to their motives or qualifications. A second, no less significant problem is the tendency of even the most sophisticated political reporters to treat the entire process as a contest between rival teams and ignore the substance of their arguments and policies, as if politics were simply a spectator sport with fewer (and perhaps crazier) fans than the Mets or the Red Sox.

2011-11-22T09:02:00.001-08:00

Must Read
Fox News Dumbasses: Study finds that Fox News Viewers know less than people who don't watch any news

2011-11-22T08:23:00.000-08:00

In a little over 2 weeks, Ann Coulter hits the half-century mark
Just a reminder

2011-11-17T09:50:00.000-08:00

Keyword Searches People Used to Get to This Site
Every once in a while I put up a list of odd keyword searches that people use to get to this site (I do this based on my Statcounter stats). The last time I posted a list is here). Anyhow, here is the list of Google searches:

Is Amway a devil company? [The answer is "yes" ]
10 reasons democrats hate Fox News
is jeffrey kuhner a moonie
fred ricart curling iron up his butt by wife
erik prince amway
callista bisek old pictures
moonies are fucking idiots
marianne ginther
Tammy Bruce nude
michael+savage+quack
jeffrey kuhner birth control
rumors the Clintons are in league with satan
kellyanne conway implants
is marianne ginther alive?
fred ricart net worth
sean hannity dirty secret
rush limbaugh sean hanity relationship
robert kiyosaki amway
stewie curse out peter
ms michele fucking
sun myung moon net worth
why do liberals hate fox news? [answer is here]
ann coulter see through top [come on, Coulter turns 50 next month]
paul ryan miami of ohio transcripts
did rush limbaugh ever admit to homosexual experience?
fox news deconstruction

2011-11-15T08:37:00.000-08:00

Must Read
James O'Keefe's buddies turn on him.

2011-11-12T09:23:00.000-08:00

Must Read
This year's fake "War on Christmas" season has begun. Also, check out my on-air conversation with Bill O'Reilly about the War on Xmas.

2011-11-09T09:43:00.000-08:00

Must Read
Nate Silver on the hurdles that Newt Gingrich faces in his quest for the GOP nomination. Also, check out my hilarious on-air conversation with Sean Hannity about Gingrich's habit of trading his wife-for-the-time-being in for a new model every few years.

2011-11-09T09:05:00.000-08:00

When in Doubt, Blame the "Democrat [sic] Machine"
Read Eric Kleefeld and Alex Pareene on Herman Cain's attempts to blame his troubles on liberals.

2011-11-07T10:41:00.000-08:00

The Anti-Union Robocall from Pat Boone (Ohio Issue 2)
A relative of mine in Ohio received a robocall from Pat Boone urging a yes vote on the anti-union Issue 2 ballot referendum. Boone has been an advocate of Amway and has emceed events for the Reverend Sun Myung Moon.

2011-11-05T09:04:00.000-07:00

Must View
Stephen Colbert on Rush Limbaugh and racism. Also, this is one of my many posts on Limbaugh's racism.

2011-11-05T08:42:00.000-07:00

Must Read
Paul Waldman on the right's definition of racism:

1. The primary victims of racism are white people.

2. The most vicious form of racism is when a white person is falsely accused of being a racist.

3. On rare occasions, a black person can be a victim of racism, but this only occurs when a prominent black conservative is criticized for, well, for pretty much anything. In that case, the criticism can only be motivated by the racism that liberals feel in their hearts, unlike conservatives, who all believe in the equality of all people.

2011-11-03T09:50:00.000-07:00

Must Read
David Weigal on the three arguments Republicans are using to the defend Herman Cain.

2011-11-03T09:28:00.000-07:00

Playboy’s College Issue (i.e. my opportunity to increase hits to this site)
The November issue of Playboy is the college issue. The main pictorial is “The Girls of the Southeastern Conference. There are a lot of babes in the SEC. The pics are hot.

Based on the photographs, my top pick is Ashleigh Drew of Arkansas. First Runner-up: Liza Benson of Tennessee. Second Runner-up: Tori Tate of Tennessee. Third Runner-up: Tessa Fowler of South Carolina; Fourth Runner-up: Tatum West of Arkansas

Honorable Mention: Jessica Bentley, of Florida; Lisa Marie, Nina Valerie of Georgia; Goldy Cass of Mississippi State; Kassidi Olaes, Maggie Taylor and Brooks Lee of Mississippi; Jackie Pines, Johnna Dominguez, and Alex Sanders of Alabama; Kimberly Vires of Kentucky; Rachel Timmens of Vanderbilt; Jordan Reese of Arkansas; Sophia Beretta of LSU; Liliana Cook, Haley Ann, Kylee Noel, Brandy Evans, and Kaitlyn Ryan of Auburn; and Faith Melissa Lansford of South Carolina.

2011-11-02T10:03:00.000-07:00

New Jack T. Chick Tracts and Crusader Comic Book
The Chickster is at it again with two new comic tracts: 1) "The Awful Truth," another Catholic-bashing tract and "Your Big Moment," a knockoff of "This Was Your Life" in which the protagonist is an African-American woman.

There's a new Crusaders comic book titled "Jesuits." The artwork is by long-time Chick Publications artist Fred Carter. The entire comic book isn't online but a sample is here. Chick puts the fun in fundamentalism.

2011-10-27T08:45:00.000-07:00

Must View
Anonymous has a new anti-Fox News YouTube video. I bet Roger Ailes, who is paranoid during normal times, is quaking in his boots:

2011-10-26T10:32:00.000-07:00

Must Read
Ed Kilgore, James Vega and J.P. Green whose article has the longest title I've encountered in a long time: "Wake up, commentators. The most dangerous group of 'right-wing extremists' today is not the grass-roots tea party. It is the financial and ideological leaders in the Republican coalition who have embraced the extremist philosophy of 'politics as warfare.'"

2011-10-26T09:24:00.000-07:00

Must Read
Michael Winship on Rush Limbaugh and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA):

Instead, as is his usual way – in other words, not having any idea what he’s talking about — Old Motormouth Limbaugh recently defended the Lord’s Resistance Army on his radio program because they “are Christians. They are fighting the Muslims in Sudan.”

His defense came solely because anything or anyone Barack Obama is against must ipso facto be OK. President Obama has sent 100 military advisors to Africa to try to help end the LRA’s atrocities once and for all. But in the Gospel According to Rush, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, even if said friend engages in murder and mutilation

2011-10-24T09:23:00.000-07:00

Must View
Anonymous declares war on Fox News for their jaundiced reports on Occupy Wall Street. The name of the campaign: Operation Fox Hunt

2011-10-20T09:38:00.000-07:00

Must Read
Check out my Amazon.com review of Pat Buchanan's new book Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025?

2011-10-18T10:20:00.000-07:00

Must Read
Andrew Breitbart tried to destroy OWS

2011-10-13T10:37:00.000-07:00

Wisconsin Banana Republicans Are Trying to Game the Electoral College
Click here

2011-10-08T11:36:00.000-07:00

Must View
Moveon.org interviews Jesse LaGreca, the guy who took on Fox News' Griff Jenkins. He will also be a guest on ABC's This Week with Christiane Amanpour

2011-10-07T10:19:00.001-07:00

Must Read
Melinda Warner on 15 years of Fox News.

2011-10-06T11:44:00.000-07:00

Must Read
I just reviewed J. Christian Adams' book Injustice: Exposing the Racial Agenda of the Obama Justice Department on Amazon.com. Read the review here.

I cite a review of the book by Media Matters for America that can be found here.

2011-10-04T10:46:00.000-07:00

Must View
You gotta see this guy take on Fox News' Griff Jenkins!

UPDATE: His name is Jesse Lagreca

2011-10-04T10:18:00.000-07:00

Must Read
Eric Boehlert on the difference between the Occupy Wall Street Movement and the Tea Party.

2011-10-03T10:12:00.000-07:00

Must Read: The Koch Brothers are in Trouble
(via The Washington Monthly) Bloomberg Markets Magazine: "Koch Brothers Flout Law With Secret Iran Sales." This hope this is big.

2011-10-03T09:56:00.000-07:00

Must Read
Media Matters for America asks, "Who Is J. Christian Adams?" It's not a pretty answer.

2011-09-30T13:37:00.001-07:00

Must Read
New Post on the Sun myung Moon blog.

2011-09-30T13:13:00.000-07:00

Must Listen: Undiluted Paranoia
Rush on suspended elections, etc. I don't know if he's completely nuts but just playing to the wing-nut base. Thank God we have Media Matters to record this stuff.

2011-09-30T10:11:00.000-07:00

Must Read
Ed Kilgore, "The truth about voter suppression"

2011-09-27T10:19:00.000-07:00

Same-day Resgistration for Me but Not for Thee
Joan McCarter has the story.

2011-09-26T09:21:00.000-07:00

Must Read
Christopher Borick on the Banana Republicans in Pennsylvania

2011-09-26T08:47:00.000-07:00

At Least We Own Sean Hannity's Wife's Name
Back in 2005, I started a Google bomb of Sean Hannity's name. It worked for at least a couple years. The top ten sites for a Google search of "Sean Hannity" were overwhelmingly negative (and informative). In the top ten was a link to my post regarding my hilarious on-air conversation with Hannity about Republican sexual hypocrisy.

Alas, it didn't last. With the exception, of Media Matters' page on Hannity, none of the original links are there for the top ten Google searches.

However, there's good news: we own Hannity's wife's name. If you google "Jill Rhodes Hannity," "Jill Hannity," or "Sean Hannity's wife," in the top ten are links to my post (with her picture) as well a link to the site I created.

2011-09-24T10:07:00.000-07:00

Must Read
John L. Micek on the groups behind the attempted gaming of Pennsylvania's electoral votes.

2011-09-22T08:40:00.000-07:00

Get Back to Work!
I was going through my Statcounter stats and found that someone from the Bank of America in New York City go to this site by doing a Google search of "gore at monticello" (The person obviously had heard about the manufactured controversy started by wing-nuts (most notably) that Al Gore wasn't able to identify Ben Franklin and George Washington during a tour of Monticello. I debunked the myth here.

Considering all of B of A's woes, doesn't this person have more important things to do?

2011-09-21T08:30:00.000-07:00

Must Read
Robert Parry, "The Dark Legacy of Reaganomics"Also, read my page on the dark legacy of Reagan's racial policies.

UPDATE: Also, read Harold Meyerson on the GOP's plan to rig the electoral college.

2011-09-16T14:24:00.000-07:00

Must Read
New post on the Sun Myung Moon blog

2011-09-15T10:22:00.000-07:00

Must Read
Eric Alterman on the problem of media stupidity

2011-09-13T10:44:00.000-07:00

Must Read
David Corn of the 2012 GOP presidential candidates.

2011-09-10T09:43:00.000-07:00

Must Read
Al Franken takes on Hans von Spakovsky.

2011-09-02T07:18:00.000-07:00

Must View
Bill O’Reilly’s Cop Scandal: The Inevitable Taiwanese Animation

2011-09-01T15:30:00.000-07:00

New Jack Chick Tract!
"The Walking Dead?"

2011-09-01T09:49:00.000-07:00

Must Read
Rolling Stone's Ari Berman, "The GOP's War on Voting"

UPDATE: Listen to Berman on Pacifica Radio.

2011-08-31T06:34:00.000-07:00

Must Read
Gawker: "How Bill O’Reilly Tried to Get His Wife’s Boyfriend Investigated By the Cops." This sounds like a job for Fox security.

2011-08-31T06:24:00.000-07:00

Must Read
Yesterday when Dick Cheney's memoirs came out, I went to the bookstore and checked it out. I was one of the first people to write and Amazon.com review of the book. Check it out; it's in the two star-rated reviews. If you have an Amazon account, you might want to give it some postive feedback because the wingers have not been kind to it (but a lot of non-wingers have supported it).

2011-08-29T08:16:00.000-07:00

Must Read
Paul Krugman on the anti-science party.

2011-08-26T10:09:00.000-07:00

New Post on the Sun Myung Moon blog
Click here

2011-08-25T09:30:00.000-07:00

Must Read
Glenn Greenwald on Dick Cheney: "The fruits of elite immunity"

Also, Media Matters on Sean Hannity.

2011-08-24T10:16:00.000-07:00

Listen for Yourself!
A few days ago, I wrote about a completely loony and paranoid robocall I recieved from Wayne LaPierre and the National Rife Association. Media Matters for America has a tape of a telemarketer for the NRA reading from a script about the same issue. Cliff Schecter has more.

2011-08-23T09:30:00.000-07:00

New Post on the Sun Myung Moon blog
Click here

2011-08-18T11:29:00.000-07:00

Must Read
Media Matters for America has an exclusive on James Desborough, the former U.S. editor of News of the World who was arrested Thursday in London.

2011-08-17T14:04:00.000-07:00

More Bad News for Rupert Murdoch and News Corp
Let's hope it's true

UPDATE: more here

2011-08-15T08:44:00.001-07:00

Must Listen
Jim Hightower on Rick Perry

2011-08-15T08:04:00.000-07:00

Must Read
Charlie Reina "A New Fox? Don't Unlock the Henhouse."

In case you don't remember, Reina was the former Fox News producer who spilled the beans about how Fox News works in 2003 because of his disgust over comments that Chris Wallace made that said that Fox was "serious, thoughtful and even-handed."

2011-08-13T08:58:00.000-07:00

Under-the-Radar Fearmongering
I'm at a relative's house in a purple state and I received a robocall from Wayne LaPierre of the NRA warning me that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were "teaming up" with Cuba and Iran to pass an international treaty that would take away the guns of Americans. It turns out that LaPierre was referring to the Arms Trade Treaty which has nothing to do with Americans' right to bear arms.

These kinds of robocalls, along with spam emails, and talk radio are the reasons that half the GOP is batshit crazy (about half of Republicans surveyed believe that Obama was foreign-born and that ACORN stole the 2008 election for him).

2011-08-13T08:45:00.000-07:00

Weird Keyword Searches that People Used to Get to This Site
Occasionally, I do a post based on the odd keyword searches that people use to get to this site (the last post I did for this is here). Here is the latest group of keyword searches:

rush limbaugh goes into hannity's studio flipper pregnant
did ricart ford get a curling iron stuck in his butt {click here for an explanation]
Larry Winters crook [Winters is an Amway kingpin]
is Marianne ginther alive
how to join a powerful cult
george bush groom of the stool still used
callista bisek photo
kellyanne conway ,rick perry
sun myung moon net worth
did fred ricart's wife stick a iron in his butt
Callista Bisek are you kidding me
jerry falwell racist
hannity's secret perversions
jeffrey kuhner birth control
ann coulter see through nipples
sun myung moon coronation pics
sean hannity is dishonest

2011-08-11T09:19:00.000-07:00

New Posts on the Anti-Amway Blog
Click here

2011-08-09T10:54:00.000-07:00

I am praying to Jehovah, Allah, Xenu, and Zeus that this is true
Click here

2011-08-09T10:09:00.000-07:00

The Title Says it All
Alex Pareene, "If Rick Perry is seriously a presidential front-runner there's something wrong with all of us"

2011-08-08T09:32:00.000-07:00

Must Read and View
Media Matters for America on Fox News' history of mainstreaming of hate

2011-08-04T10:43:00.000-07:00

Must Read
Joan Walsh, "Destroying Democratic presidents"

2011-08-02T08:10:00.001-07:00

Must Read
Michael Lind on the neo-Confederate nature of the tea party meovment.

2011-08-02T08:05:00.000-07:00

Must Read
Brad Friedman on disenfranchisement apologist Matthew Vadum:

Matthew Vadum will lie about anything he needs to in order to collect his wingnut welfare paychecks apparently. American values such as democracy be damned. It's partisan politics (and paychecks) at all costs.

Vadum has, of late, taken over from the disgraced Bush/Cheney general counsel turned fake "voting rights advocate" Thor Hearne of the fake "American Center for Voting Rights" (ACVR), and the disgraced liar John Fund of the Wall Street Journal as the moment's GOP master of media misinformation meant to confuse the public about polling place Photo ID restriction laws passed by the GOP in statehouses around the country over the past few months in order to suppress the legal Democratic-leaning vote in advance of 2012.

2011-07-29T07:26:00.000-07:00

Zev Chafets up to his Old Tricks
Eric Boehlert of Media Matters on Chafets' whitewashing of James O'Keefe's underhanded tactics. No big surprise: Chafets previously wrote a puff piece on El Rushbo that allowed him to pen a hagiography of Limbaugh. Read my Amazon.com review of his godawful book on Limbaugh (click here and scroll down).

UPDATE: Conor Friedersdorf of The Atlantic has more.

2011-07-28T09:39:00.000-07:00

Must Read
Jon Stewart on Fox News victims.

2011-07-28T09:19:00.000-07:00

Rick Perry's Star is Rising (According to Intrade)
Succession advocate Rick Perry is becoming popular with Intrade bettors. Here's a chart from the last 120 days based on Intrade bettors wagering that Perry will be the 2012 GOP presidential nominee:

2011-07-27T11:37:00.000-07:00

Must Read
Katrina vanden Heuvel, "The GOP’s state-by-state crusade to disenfranchise voters"

2011-07-25T10:05:00.000-07:00

Must Reads
Tom Tomorrow on the Phone Hacking Scandal and Media Matters on how the right is responding to the Norway terrorist--here, here, and here.

2011-07-21T13:48:00.000-07:00

Must View
Stephen Colbert on alleged voter fraud.

2011-07-21T09:16:00.000-07:00

Exclusive: Sean Hannity Speaks about Rupert Murdoch's News International Phone Hacking Scandal
Until yesterday, Hannity has been silent about the scandal involing his boss and parent corporation. I happened to be listening to Hannity's radio show yesterday and a caller broached the subject. Hannity's response: "This is all a political witch hunt from my perspective."

2011-07-20T10:05:00.001-07:00

Must View
Jon Stewart on "piling on."

2011-07-18T11:08:00.000-07:00

Must Read
This could be huge: "Former Fox News Executive: Americans' Phones Were Hacked."

2011-07-18T10:29:00.000-07:00

Must View
Murdoch has nothing to say to Fox News anchor. On that subject, now that Murdoch is in deep trouble, someone should throw him an anchor.

2011-07-16T08:35:00.000-07:00

Must View
Eric Boehlert on the Murdoch/News Corp scandal and the way the right-wing media has ignored.

2011-07-14T10:55:00.000-07:00

The Sacrifices I Make for this Blog
I read Laura Ingraham's new book, Of Thee I Zing: America's Cultural Decline from Muffin Tops to Body Shots. Amazon.com review is here. If you have an Amazon account, give my review a thumbs up because the wing-nuts are savaging it.

2011-07-11T09:30:00.000-07:00

Must Read
Carl Bernstein, "Murdoch’s Watergate?"

But now [Murdoch’s media] empire is shaking, and there’s no telling when it will stop. My conversations with British journalists and politicians—all of them insistent on speaking anonymously to protect themselves from retribution by the still-enormously powerful mogul—make evident that the shuttering of News of the World, and the official inquiries announced by the British government, are the beginning, not the end, of the seismic event.

It couldn't happen to a more deserving person.

2011-07-10T13:32:00.000-07:00

Must Read
Why does this not surprise me?

2011-07-09T07:42:00.000-07:00

New Post on the Sun Myung Moon Blog
Click here

2011-07-05T08:53:00.000-07:00

Must Read
Michael Lind, "The Three Fundamentalisms of the American Right."

2011-07-02T10:06:00.000-07:00

Must Read
Roger Ailes’ Secret Nixon-Era Blueprint for Fox News

2011-07-02T08:29:00.000-07:00

New Jack Chick Tract
"Mean Momma"

2011-06-30T09:30:00.001-07:00

Must Read
Gene Lyons on the Dittoheads.

2011-06-29T10:57:00.000-07:00

Must Read
David Sirota, "Why people become chickenhawks"

2011-06-21T11:13:00.001-07:00

Must Reads
Media Matters for America has two good posts on the media and succession/treason and the clip that Fox News clipped.