Walter Dellinger: The DOMA Decision
Jason Linkins: New York Times, A.G. Sulzberger Draw Criticism For Their Coverage Of Wisconsin Protests
Chris Cillizza: Who had the Worst Week in Washington? Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa.
Russell Simmons: The Hypocrisy of Peter King
Michael Winship: Wackos of the World, Unite!
JHW22 recommends...Bruce Lindner: You Might Be A Republican If...
New Jersey Governor and resident walrus Chris Christie is doing his best to plummet his numbers to Scott Walker levels. But New Jersey firefighters and police officers aren't going to sit idly by and watch.
Bill O'Reilly has been getting pretty hot under the collar at all the Wisconsin protesters chanting "Fox lies" while their so-called "reporters" are on the ground at the state capitol in Madison. So what does The O'Reilly Factor do? They lie.
Here's the intrepid BillO and his crack staff using stock footage of some random protest while speaking about the people in the streets in Wisconsin to promote the illusion that the protests are violent. Notice the short sleeve shirts and the palm trees in the background.
Now that's some fair and balanced reporting, huh? And here I thought the Wisconsin state tree was the Sugar Maple. Someone had better correct Wikipedia!
UPDATE (3/3/11, 12:15pm): Mediaite has defended O'Reilly as "not lying" regarding the above video.
Had Fox News Channel, and in particular The O'Reilly Factor, been completely honest, instead of labeling the video "union protests" they would have specified the locality of each video. It's not so hard.The segment in question occurred during The O’Reilly Factor as Bill O’Reilly was discussing the anger in the union protests. At the top of the piece, he rolled footage of a number of the “union thug” videos that have become so popular on Right Wing news sites in the past few weeks. O’Reilly clearly identified the videos as collectively coming from “all over the country.” As many shows do, this B-roll footage was replayed again during the rest of the segment, including during an interview with Mike Tobin, Fox News’ reporter who’s been on the ground in Wisconsin.Here’s where the problem occurred. Tobin was discussing Wisconsin (since that where he’s been) while the general footage played in the background. Taken out of context, these few seconds would seem deceptive. But, if you’d already seen the full segment, you’d recognize what the footage was (besides, this same clip has aired on other Fox News programs like Glenn Beck and been identified as coming from California). Further, the protest footage from Wisconsin is clearly labeled “Madison” as well as date and time stamped, while the “palm tree footage” is labeled “Union Protests.” Confusing? Not really, though if one were to simply see the 43-second clip on YouTube, one could reasonably raise their eyebrows. A reminder of the importance of context.
POSTED BY JHW22
Today "an anti-choice group in Ohio is putting a 9-week old fetus on the witness list" in an attempt to find one more trick to make abortion illegal.
Even the Westboro Baptist Church.
It's unfortunate that these low life scum make a mockery of their god and whatever twisted religion they profess by acting out in profane, bigoted protests whenever and wherever the mood strikes, like at military funerals or Holocaust museums. But hey, hate groups have First Amendment rights just like anyone else, and if you want to look like a buffoon and call the President of the United States the Antichrist, that's within your rights as well. But that's what separates us from almost every other country in the world. And sometimes it's not easy.The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a grieving father's pain over jeering protests at his Marine son's funeral must yield to First Amendment protections for free speech. All but one justice sided with a fundamentalist church that has stirred outrage with raucous demonstrations contending God is punishing the military for the nation's tolerance of homosexuality.
Hey, I like Two and a Half Men as much as the next guy. It's mindless, crass entertainment that takes your mind off your troubles for 30 minutes a week... for 22 weeks out of the year. But can we please stop with the 24/7 coverage of Charlie Sheen blowing a brain gasket? I don't think my personal world is going to suffer if I lose 11 collective hours* of television entertainment per year. And that includes commercials.
When did the mind of America atrophy? When did we lose our way and become a civilization subsisting on reality television schadenfreude? And we can't even allow for legitimate news on supposed news shows anymore, as Stephen Colbert points out.
"When asked to stand guard at the doors that duty was turned over to the Wisconsin State Patrol because our deputies would not stand and be palace guards. I refused to put deputy sheriffs in a position to be palace guards."
Dane County, Wisconsin Sheriff David Mahoney on his decision to pull officers guarding the Madison Capitol building.
One simple question: why are the leading oil companies, whose profits topped $485 BILLION in a 5-year span, receiving tax subsidies from the government?DCCC: Despite the need to cut spending and reduce the debt, today House Republicans voted against cutting taxpayer spending on subsidies for Big Oil companies making record profits. Last week, House Republicans voted to slash education, research and public safety budgets that would lead to more than 700,000 jobs lost nationwide.
A have a friend who's been marching and protesting in Madison, Wisconsin for the last couple of weeks, trying to protect his union rights to collectively bargain. We met more than a few years ago working on a show together for an out of town tryout in Denver, and then again in New York City. He has since moved back to his native Madison to take an industry job and raise a family.
He wrote a stirring post on his Facebook page and gave me permission to repost it here.
I AM A WISCONSINITE.
I was born and raised in Wisconsin. At the time I did not think that made me very lucky. After I graduated from UW-Madison I moved to NYC and immediately considered myself a New Yorker. Even after moving back to raise a family I would, for a time, tell people I lived in Madison but just moved back from NYC because I felt it sounded cooler. I was wrong. There is nothing cooler than being a Wisconsinite.My family has always been politically active in Wisconsin politics and labor movements. I feel like my sisters and I spent a good portion of our childhoods at the Labor Temple on Park St. or handing out flyers at Farmer's Market. It didn't dawn on me at the time what it was I was involved in. My parents always worked for the community. They always fought for workers and those that stood to protect them. For me... it was just another rally or picnic. I didn't understand the fight that it took just to maintain what had been taken for granted by many.My mother spent over 10 years working at the WEAC headquarters in Madison where she also served as a union representative. It was something she was proud of. A little over a year ago she was diagnosed with brain cancer, the treatment of which has left her unable to work or even care for herself. That responsibility has landed mostly on my dad who is retired. Without the benefits that she worked and fought for we would not have been able to afford to treat or care for her now. She was a public worker. She was a union member. I grew up in the same house and can promise you, she did not bring home lavish pay.
This is not about money and numbers. It is about people. This is about the teachers that spend as much time with your kids as you do. It is about the nurses that care for you and yours when ill. It is about law enforcement and fire fighters. It is about the people of Wisconsin that make the state what it is.
The events of the last few weeks have been inspiring to the world. It has given me new respect for the people I have chosen to live with. It has given me faith in the power of the people. It has given me an opportunity to march with my father on one side and my son on the other. I know it means nothing to him now but some day he may look back at it as his first memory of the power of the people. We must fight on for him.
I am from Wisconsin. I always have been. Pretty cool huh?
James Uphoff, Madision, Wisconsin
Via GottaLaff:
Look, I can completely understand being an advocate for one side or another, but stupid stunts like this make the pro-life advocates look idiotic. And these are most likely the same people that agree with tort reform because they believe medical malpractice suits are are a "frivolous" waste of taxpayer money. Well how much money is being wasted on this debacle of a hearing?In support of a bill that proposes banning abortions after the first heartbeat (something that can happen within eighteen days of conception), the anti-abortion group Faith2Action has scheduled a nine-week-old fetus to testify as a legislative witness before Ohio’s House Health Committee.
NY Daily News: Hall-of-Famer Duke Snider, the last surviving regular of the 1950's "Boys of Summer" Dodgers, whose prolific home runs and center field defensive prowess earned him royalty status in Brooklyn and immortalization in song in Terry Cashman's famous baseball ballad, died Sunday in the Valley Vista Convalenscent Home in Escondido, Ca. He was 85.Snider had been in ill health the last couple of year from diabetes.
Click on portrait for a complete list of President Obama's Executive Orders, Presidential Memoranda and Proclamations
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