The List Of Targets?

Hot Air is one of the most read conservative blogs out there. They showcase the usual sophistry that is the hallmark of the conservative movement and are always willing to go to bat for their founder, Michelle Malkin. But this morning, I think they have crossed a line, one that Malkin herself has been known to do all too often - and with predictable consequences.

Guest blogger Anita Moncrief takes the standard route in claiming that ACORN and the "liberal media" worked in concert to get Barack Obama elected. And while rather monotonous in it's delivery of the tired and specious information, Moncrief goes one step further and publishes the home addresses of Obama donors.

I can clearly recall how Malkin has revealed private and personal information of persons that she blogged about and how that lead to death threats. Is this likely to happen in this instance as well? Considering the track record of conservatives, I would say the answer is most certainly yes.

The question should be asked - why would Moncrief post this list unless her desire was to see that some sort of action be taken against them? After all, you don't take the low road unless you want to stir the base emotions of your audience. The most recent case of a right-wing violence due to inflammatory and misleading information from conservatives isn't being reported on enough. Anita Moncrief should really be careful in what she is doing.

Witholding Misinformation

Apparently there are more "tapes" staring conservatives favorite "filmmaker" James O'Keefe. The only problem is, they can't be released just yet. What, a problem with the editing process? Need to add the "special effects"? Not so said intrepid mouth breather Andrew Breitbart.



So why can't the tapes be released? Are they part of O'Keefe's ongoing ( and justifiable ) criminal proceedings? This is the likely situation, but this is likely the same song and dance that we got during the ACORN dust-up. The intro to the tapes show O'Keefe as a pimp but while in the ACORN offices, he was dressed as a "politician". And it's not that difficult to find someone to dupe no matter who they work for. We haven't seen the complete, unedited, footage that O'Keefe shot, and neither has Breitbart - they were brought to him already edited.

What was cut out? Likely footage that would make this all seem much less sinister than it was presented as. The same will likely be true of the alleged HUD tapes.

The Fringe Is The New Center?

This says a great deal about the modern Republican party.

39% of Republicans want President Obama to be impeached

This isn't surprising, as there will always be talks of "impending articles of impeachment" for Democratic Presidents. But the reasoning used for impeachment is what is beyond comprehension. She my post from earlier in the week regarding the current "Impeach Obama" movement.

63% think Obama is a socialist

And these people also think that he's a Marxist, Totalitarian, Communist, Maoist. It's fair and safe to say without fear of contradiction that these people don't know what any of these titles really mean.

42% believe Obama was born in the United States

While this particular belief set is based both in racial divisive and nativist mindsets, no amount of proof will convince the 58% of Republicans that apparently align themselves with the "birther" movement.

21% think ACORN stole the 2008 election, 55% "not sure"

You can thank Fox"News" and conservative activists for this one, as there was never one instance of voter fraud in the 2008 election. At best, you had several instances of "registration fraud" perpetrated by minimum-wage temps ACORN used during the election season.

53% think Sarah Palin is more qualified than Obama to be president

For the life of me, I'll never be able to comprehend how and why people believe this.

23% want to secede from the United States

Again, you can thank conservative activists for this little gem. I remember Kieth Olbermann doing a piece on what it would be like if Texas seceded - and it didn't play out well for Texans.

73% think gay people should not be allowed to teach in public schools

This whole idea that "gay" is something you can catch is not only preposterous but laughably ignorant.

But it's the last one that makes absolutely no sense......

31% want contraception to be outlawed

Really? So the use of condoms would result in jail time? You would be fined thousands if you were on the pill? Talk about taking abstinence-only education too far.

Year Of The Conspiracy Theorist

In Part IV of my "best of the year/decade" series, we take a look at how the conservative movement embraced conspiracy theory as fact and made not only a laughing-stock of themselves, but somehow managed to take away the mantle of "lunatic-fringe" from the likes of Alex Jones.

1 - Orly Taitz


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Since she burst onto the scene, I've often asked myself how someone so completely unglued from the fabric of reality is not only allowed to practice law but has the mental capacity to do so. It is, for that same reason, the many of the members of the tea-bagger movement are seen as just as crazy and ill-informed as she is, considering they cite her claims as fact.

But it isn't just Taitz or the tea-baggers that continually espouse this assertion that Obama was not born in the US. Rush Limbaugh, one of the leaders of the conservative movement, gives voice to this inane prattling:

2 - Obama is the Anti-Christ



Conspiracy theories that involve the Bible and politicians are not new in the least. I can still remember people insisting that Reagan was the Anti-Christ because of the numerical value of his name.

Many cite the fact that this has some relative truth to it simply because it comes from the Bible. However, there are many passages within the Bible that are so vague, so lacking in context, that they could mean anything. After all, the entire book of Revelations was allegedly written by a man marooned on an island and was hallucinating.

3 - Obama is a Muslim



This has got to be one of the most crystal-clear examples of how racism and xenophobia were part of the campaign against Barack Obama and not just used as conspiracy theory. Also, it is the video above - actually the 13 second sarcastic response to the allegation - that birthers and religious paranoid delusional reference as a "confession" that Obama is in fact a Muslim.

4 - Beck's Communist Art Project



Of all the conspiracy theories that Beck puts forward on literally a nightly basis, this one has got to be one that has got to be one of his best. And by that, I mean his craziest. Well, the FEMA concentration camps were a good one, but he back-peddled on that one while he was trying to pass it off as fact - he just didn't have the courage at the time to listen to the voices in his head like with the art one.

Keith Olbermann had a nice response to this, I thought:



5 - Census workers are coming for you



This bit of conservative paranoia was brought to us from someone whom is almost as crazy as Orly Taitz and somehow managed to get elected to Congress.

In this one, we get a two-fer. Beck and Bachmann, in the initial throws of the "warn on ACORN", claim that they have control over the 2010 Census and that within the form there is information that will be used against you - perhaps placing you into one of Beck's FEMA camps.

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Conspiracy theory within the Republican party and it's voters has become the new fact, just as the fringe-conservative has become the traditional conservative. Not in my lifetime has a group of people been so willing to insist that their very freedoms, their liberties, and life own lives are in danger. And while some will cite the theories behind Sept. 11th and many actions that George W. Bush took during his two terms as President, those were never embraced as fact the way that conservatives are reacting now to Barack Obama.

Yes, the "Truther" movement was most certainly anti-Bush, it was - and continues to be - roundly rejected by liberals/progressives within the Democratic party. Aside from that, there were really no conspiratorial movements on the Democratic side, or at least none that were given such a monumental platform as those espoused by the modern conservative movement.

The Nuts Blaming The Nut

Chalk it up to the predictability factor, but a majority of Republicans ( not just the teabagger/conservative wing ) actually believe that ACORN stole the election for Obama.

...PPP's newest national survey finds that a 52% majority of GOP voters nationally think that ACORN stole the Presidential election for Barack Obama last year, with only 27% granting that he won it legitimately...The organization is generally unpopular though, with only 11% of voters viewing it favorably to 53% with an unfavorable opinion and 36% without one. The only politician we've polled on this year with comparably bad favorability numbers is John Edwards. The constant harping on ACORN by Republican politicians may sound nutso in some circles, but it certainly has hurt the organization's image and it looks like the anti-ACORN message may resonate with a decent portion of the American electorate. ACORN is probably well overdue for a rebranding.

So what do these results tell us about Republicans? For starters, this is not about race. Well, in as much as there is likely a marginal racial component, it's not likely that this is more about the voices of the few having such a large microphone to scream into.

ACORN has been demonized more than any other non-profit, community organizing group, than any in modern history. With literally wall-to-wall coverage of an organization that not many people had heard off before outside the metropolitan areas where the group operates, opinions from middle America - the cradle of conservative ideology - were formed and fomented from the reactionary prattlings of Fox"News" and conservative talk radio. Do you really think the average American actually did any research into ACORN's history?

So how could they have stolen the election? There is the reality of a small fraction of voter registration infractions, but that's registration, not actual votes being tabulated. And ACORN wasn't in charge of counting the votes, so that theory is out. There wasn't some massive data-mining operation where ACORN purged the names of voters from the rolls, as that tactic is reserved for those who wish to prevent people from exercising their right to a vote.

All that ACORN did was get people out there to vote who likely hadn't before. And entire, disenfranchised, group of people had little incentive to vote, as the last four years were controlled by a Republican administration that only served the more affluent within society.

The results of this poll show one thing quite clearly - that conservatives believe that Democrats, liberals, and progressives shouldn't be allowed to vote, because it means that they won't win when we all come together.

Another Cobb Classic

BlueGal also has this posted over at C&L, but wanted to pass it along to you over here as well. Andy Cobb is a YouTube political comedy genius.

Some Thoughts For Your Day

- Am I the only one that has noticed that, over the last couple of weeks, the DOW has been gaining really solid ground and is not that far from 10,000? Remember when conservative media outlets were all in a snit talking about "Obama's Recession" and watching the DOW as it dove down? Wonder what happened to those people.......

- Have you ever wondered where Glenn Beck's idiocy started?

- The power of amatuer video has been an invaluable resource over the last few years. Recently, Micheal Steele was speaking in Little Rock at Philander Smith College when a man posed a question that Steele / the college security detail apparently didn't appreciate.

- Michelle Bachman has hinted at reaching for higher political office in the recent past, and I for one hope that she goes for it. Everything this woman says and does is utterly amazing. She's a source of great inspiration for countless people. It's great to see that she puts her lunacy to such good use. The one thing I'm trying to figure out now is why she thinks people "vote with their feet".

- I wonder is John Boehner realizes that the very broad language in his bill to defund ACORN can include ANY organization that has taken federal money and taken part in illegal activities. I wonder how many organizations loved by and protected by conservatives would be hurt by this bill?

Some Thoughts For Your Morning

- Sarah Palin's sad attempt to hang onto any shred of notoriety found itself nestled in the odd confines of EBay recently. The disgraced former governor of Alaska was auctioning off a dinner with her to some poor sap willing to dish out more money than the average American makes in a year for the dubious "honor" of sitting across the table from her. However, this auction wasn't open to everyone. After all, this is about Palin donating money for tax-write-off purposes...........oh, I mean for "charity".

- A video has surfaced of a Fox"News" "producer" urging the crowd at the 9/12 rallies to cheer longer and louder when prompted. So, if Fox is allegedly impartial in these matters, then why would this woman be rallying the people? Oh, that's right..........

- Did you know that the CBO ( Congressional Budget Office ) that the right-wing conservative set has had such joy in referencing this past summer has released a new study that shows proposed Cap-and-Trade legislation would cost American families around $160 per year? That's 44 cents per day. Wonder why Mitt Romney is still using the already debunked $1761 per year number?

- Bill Moyers, whom my uber-conservative Aunt and Grandmother have been watching for years, recently did a piece on Dick Armey ( the point-man behind FreedomWorks ) and his current lawsuit to keep his government controlled healthcare plan. And, as we all know, Dick is also one of the point-men behind the "grassroots" Tea Party nonsense. But wait, don't they want government OUT of the healthcare industry? Ah, I love the smell of conservative hypocrisy on a Monday morning.

- Apparently, there was a wingnut convention somewhere in the US called the Values Voters Summit, and former governor Mike "I <3 Bass Guitar And Chuck Norris" Huckabee won the "straw poll" for potential presidential candidates. He even beat out Sarah Palin nearly 2 1/2 times over. Even though it's a poorly constructed and coneived idea ( because no matter what, a wingnut wins ) this just may say something of Palin's popularity at this point in the game.

- It seems that James O’Keefe, the VERY white guy that dressed completely unconvincingly as a pimp - yet somehow managed to dupe a few ACORN workers in the US - has a very interesting reason for going after the group. It doesn't sit well with him that ACORN registers minorites. And as we all know, most minorities are going to vote Democratic, as the Republican party has done nothing to make them feel like they were the same as white Americans since Lincoln ended slavery.

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O'Reilly Pretty Much Nails It

......sort of.

This is probably the only time that I'm going to partially agre with a premise that he sets forward. But check out this clip and you'll see where he gets it wrong.



Yes, Fox"News" and conservative talk-radio enjoy an enormous audience. And yes, the establishment media does cover their non-sense more than focusing on the actual subject at hand. But, where O'Reilly jumps completely off the rails is in his primary thesis.

Conservative media, no matter what form, can't seem to seperate the reality that just because you draw a massive audience that that DOES NOT mean your reportin is honest or based on fact. We are a consumerist culture and we crave entertainment. And, if that entertainment happens to be watching Glenn Beck completely losing the ability to discern fantasy from reality every evening on live TV, then so be it. The same goes for O'Reilly's program. It's info-porn. And considering The Factor's penchant for blondes and videos of women "behaving badly", that's not exactly an inappropriate title.

The trap we get into is this - if you ignore what Fox"News" and conservative talk-radio, then you validate their actions. But the flip side isn't much better. If you confront them, if you fight back, then they pull out their "the mainstream media is afraid of us so they smear us" meme. It's a win/win for them, because they don't care about the facts, they care about the ratings.

Some Thoughts For Your Morning

- Having completely ripped president Carter's comments from their original and clearly understandable context, the conservative Right is doing any and everything it can to deny that there is a racist foundation within a great percentage of discussions of Barack Obama. Why are these people even attempting to protect racist hate speech?

- Apparently, Glenn Beck thinks that if you call out someone's racist hate speech then you are no better than an Al Queda member who uses children as suicide bombers.

- What does it say about David "Man Diapers" Vitter when he comes out against ACORN's alleged assistance in setting up a brothel?

- It seems like conservatives are ready to start back up with their distortions regarding Cap and Trade legislation. They're still trying to use the completely debunked meme that it's going to cost families over $1700 dollars a year. MIT economists have already proven this isn't true

- When are Fox"News" and all those that love them going to realize that high ratings do NOT equal accurate reporting?

Some Thoughts For Your Monday Morning

- Why do people on the Right continually think that their Congressional representatives are going to vote with what their constituancy wants? This entire healthcare debate has been framed by the Right as to what "they" want, not what the voters in their districts want.

- While it is true that ACORN has problems with a handful of people ( which they have severed ties with ) there is somewhat of a hypocritical message that is being sent by conservatives - the Republican party in specific. While the Republican party, just within the last few years, has seen several sex scandals ( one involving an underage boy in the Mark Foley incident ) corporate corruption, drugs, and misuse of state funds, how do they have the right to lambast ACORN?

- Has anyone else noticed that Bill O'Reilly has been so marginalized since Glenn Beck got to Fox"News" that he's hardly a headlining act in the American psyche anymore? Sure, he's got his audience every night, but his relevance is all but gone.

- For those that watched the VMAs last night, and saw what Kanye West did to Taylor Swift, do you think that was planned? There's been some chatter on Twitter over the last few hours that it was. If so, I have to ask why? Why would West, a man that is widely known for his childish behaviors, want to continue validating those opinions? That's not exactly good marketing.

- How many blacks did you see at the "9/12" protests? I wasn't there, but I counted 2 that were interviewd by Beck. Diversity? I think not.

- And speaking of the continuing "tea-bagging" within the conservative movement, where were these same people when Bush more than doubled the national deficit? Where were they when Bush's tax cuts and the Iraq occupation cost more than double what proposed healthcare legislation will? Where were they when Bush clearly violated the Constitution, that these people claim to be scholars of, by using warrantless wiretapping on Americans?

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Some Thoughts For Your Night

- Did you realize that the Bush tax-cuts cost upwards of twice as much as the initial Obama vision of healthcare reform. And you know what, were still paying for that nonsense that did absolutely nothing for the economy.

- Conservatives favored a socialist form of healthcare for Iraq, but think it will the the death of America.

- Why does Glenn Beck think that everyone was so wonderfully happy the day after Sept. 11th?

- How can a teacher "forget" that Obama was giving a speech to school children? This happened in Nashville. Will post about it later.

- Why is it that conservatives are suddenly concerned about ACORN when the group has been around for nearly 40 years?

This Woman Is Still The Only Senator Representing Minnesota

Ever since Glenn Beck got his show on Fox"News", the network seems more eager than before to promote rampant conspiracy theory than ever before.

Michelle Bachman - quite possible the nuttiest person next to the Mad Hatter - was on Fox recently to discuss the 2010 Census with stereotypical "pretty-blonde-girl" Megyn Kelly. But there was a problem with their analysis.



Bachman has previously discussed her abject fear of ACORN with Glenn Beck, as well as her assumption that the long-form ACS ( which is going to only be distributed to approximately 0.0028% of Americans ) and the 2010 Census. Now, she's meshed all three together in her mind and convinced herself that if she fills out the census that someone's going to come to her home and take her away.

Nevermind that ACORN isn't even conducting the 2010 Census. Nevermind that Bachman and Kelly on attempting to make their audience believe that the ACS and the 2010 Census are the same - which they aren't. The questions that Bachman is expressing fear over have been in place for quite some time.

Think Progress details some of these.

Most importantly, the questions that Bachmann is so concerned about — questions she suggests might somehow lead to internment — are not new questions (not to mention they frequently overlap with information given to the IRS every year). Census questions on race have been asked since 1790; home language since 1890; rent since 1880; and income since 1940. The Census has asked what kind of heating fuel heats Americans’ homes since 1940.

Here's her and Beck going on into their little delusional, fantasy-world.



The 2010 Census has a FAQ as well as a page on how their data is protected.

It's this same abstract, illogical, blathering that creates a fear within people that leads to some nutty things. It's not a grand leap of rational thinking to assume that some person, quite possibly in a staunchly conservative region of the US, is going to assault a census taker - should that person be so amped-up with Beck and Bachman's rhetoric.

Here's a simple question for Bachman, Beck, and Kelly - did they have this much of a problem with the 2000 Census?

Does Fox"News" Consider Bloggers Legit Media Now?

Griff loves the "do you believe in the 1st Ammendment" line.

It will be interesting to see how Fox plays this out, if they even bother using Griff's footage.

Still, With The Voter Fraud Business?

John Fund is hell-bent on convincing any and all that have the stomach enough to listen to him that registration fraud is the same as voter fraud. He even goes so far to say that the Vote From Home campaign that was started in Ohio was illegal. Check out a diary on Daily Kos from one of the Vote From Home organizers to see what really happened.

Considering that voter fraud is real, people should realize that to actually turn a falsified registration into a falsified vote requires many hurdles, multiple hoops, and twists and turns to navigate with little incentive to do so. Even if those fake registrations happen to turn into fake votes, the result would be nearly imperceptible.

Of course, Republicans are quite commonly linked with election tampering. They use voter-caging and massive voter-purge operations. These are what should be focused on.

Something that I have noticed through all the coverage that ACORN got from Fox and conservative blogs is that there were never specifics mentioned. They got a hold of their "they registered a Dallas Cowboys football player and Mickey Mouse" schtick and never went much further than that.

Still, With The ACORN Business?

It seems that most Republicans can't tell the difference between "voter fraud" and a "falsified registration". Not only that, they are still peddling this nonsense that Obama is somehow complicit in all this.

Sarah Palin, giving the same stump-speech to the willfully ignorant that bothered to show up to hear her speak in Bangor, Maine had this to say:

In this election, it’s a choice between a candidate who won’t disavow a group committing voter fraud, and a leader who won’t tolerate voter fraud

She continued:

We believe that America is not the problem, America is the solution

source

While the "talking points" regarding Obama and ACORN are not only flimsy, but patently false, it's still fun to watch Republicans completely avoid issues of merit.

Here's something interesting to consider.

When was the first time you heard about ACORN?

When I ask that question, most people say it was only within the last few months.

When asked if they thought Obama had something to do with the organization, many think that he works for them or actually created ACORN.

Also, it's these same people who get their news primarily from Fox.

Predictability at it's finest.

More Shreaking Nonsense From The McCain / Palin Mob

It's to be expected.



While you hear the proto-typical talking-points being shouted from the crowd, it's interesting to hear one man attempt to link the financial crisis and ACORN.

In-point-of-fact, it has been documented that ACORN was not mentioned in the bailout bills initial language nor the final draft:

When the provision was still being discussed as part of the financial bailout bill, Salon.com's Gabriel Winant reported that ACORN's legislative director said the organization's housing advocacy affiliate, ACORN Housing, is "considering applying for funds from the Housing Trust Fund, but will probably choose not to do so," and even if it did, it would have to go through the same application process as any other group.

Also, the statements that somehow link the CRA ( Community Reinvestment Act ) to the financial downturn are patently false as well:

Despite the fact that CRA appears to have increased bank and thrift lending in low- and moderate-income communities, such institutions are not the only ones operating in these areas. In fact, with new and lower-cost sources of funding available from the secondary market through securitization, and with advances in financial technology, subprime lending exploded in the late 1990s, reaching over $600 billion and 20% of all originations by 2005. More than half of subprime loans were made by independent mortgage companies not subject to comprehensive federal supervision; another 30 percent of such originations were made by affiliates of banks or thrifts, which are not subject to routine examination or supervision, and the remaining 20 percent were made by banks and thrifts.

Just another example of the willfully ignorant that support McCain and Palin.