Vote With Your Feet: Olbermann Calls for Boycott
of Businesses Displaying Fox News

post from Crooks and Liars on 02 June 2009 12:00:33 PM. © Crooks and Liars

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[h/t to Heather.] On Countdown, Keith Olbermann talked about the power of words and why Bill O'Reilly and the Fox News Channel are at least partially responsible for the assassination of Dr. George Tiller. As his guest, he had author Frank Schaeffer, who wrote "Crazy for God" about his years in the religious right.

Yesterday, Schaeffer wrote a heartfelt apology apology at Huffington Post for his part in forming the anti-abortion movement. Keith contrasted his apology with the response by Bill O'Reilly, in which Billo blamed - well, just about everyone but himself and Fox News.

Keith spoke thoughtfully about hate speech and how it influences people, then posed this question:

So, what to do? Viewer boycotts mean little. You are already here. You are not watching Fox News channel. Advertiser boycotts are of limited value, most make barely a dent in a company. Besides which, in this economy, an advertiser who found its sales boosted by association with malaria would start breading mosquitoes.
If there is a solution, it is perhaps an indirect boycott. It is probably your experience, as it has been mine that stores, bars, restaurants, waiting rooms, often show Fox News on their televisions. Don't write a letter. Don't make a threat. Just get up and explain if they will not change the channel, leave the place and say calmly why it is you are taking your business elsewhere.
If you know a viewer of that channel, show them this tape, or just the tape of the attacks on Dr. Tiller that set the stage for his assassination. Fox News channel will never restrain itself from incitement to murder and terrorism. Not until its profits begin to decline, when its growth stops. So, not so much a boycott here as a quarantine, because this has got to stop.

I'd like to add that I already do this, and it really does have an impact. After all, businesses aren't going to anger the few customers they have left.

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Pawlenty Not Running

post from Talking Points Memo on 02 June 2009 12:00:00 PM. © Talking Points Memo

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a GOP presidential possibility, will not seek a third term next year, WCCO is reporting. Pawlenty will hold a press conference this afternoon.[...]

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nning.php

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Special Election Coming In NY-23

post from Open Left - Front Page on 02 June 2009 11:56:28 AM. © Open Left - Front Page

President Obama has nominated Republican Representative John McHugh to be Secretary of the Army. It[...]

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McChrystal: Detainee Abuse Initially Informed by
Rumsfeld Memo

post from Firedoglake on 02 June 2009 11:54:38 AM. © Firedoglake

Blogging live from the McChrystal hearings.[...]

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Roeder Called Himself "Citizen Of The Republic Of
Kansas"

post from TPMMuckraker on 02 June 2009 11:49:00 AM. © TPMMuckraker

Yet more details about the extremist background of Scott Roeder, the suspect in the George Tiller murder.

USA Today reports that Roeder "called himself a citizen of the Republic of Kansas who didn't want to pay income or Social Security taxes or register his car."

And it adds the name of another right-wing group to which Roeder at one time belonged: "One Supreme Court." According to a source who tracked militia organizations, the group claimed its members were "sovereign citizens" not subject to federal and state laws.

It had already been reported that Roeder had been a member of Freemen, a right-wing militia group which espoused a similar ideology.

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The Tiananmen Square Massacre Of June 4, 1989The
Ongoing Supression Of Freedom In China

post from Texas Liberal on 02 June 2009 11:44:05 AM. © Texas Liberal

What happened in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989?(Above–The “Goddess Democracy” in Tiananmen Square in 1989.)In Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, the Chinese government massacred a large number of their own people who were protesting for greater political freedom. Here is how the BBC reported events in Tiananmen Square in June of 1989.The Chinese people do not yet [...]

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e-4-1989-the-ongoing-supression-of-freedom-in-china/

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Is Gay Marriage Evil

post from Moue Magazine on 02 June 2009 11:42:59 AM. © Moue Magazine

I'm thinking maybe gay marriage is dangerous for society.[...]

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Fox & Friends falsely links Durbin to
"pay-to-play" scheme

post from Media Matters for America - Latest Items on 02 June 2009 11:41:15 AM. © Media Matters for America - Latest Items

Discussing a June 1 Associated Press article which reported on a 2008 discussion between Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) about the then-vacant Illinois U.S. Senate seat on the June 2 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, co-host Gretchen Carlson asked, "Was it another pay-for-play sort of situation?" The on-screen text during the segment falsely claimed that the AP reported Durbin has been "accused in [a] pay-to-play scheme" involving Blagojevich. In fact, the AP article did not include any suggestion that Durbin was involved in a "pay-for-play scheme" or that Durbin would have benefited personally from the proposal that Blagojevich "floated" to him, according to the article. A second on-screen graphic during the segment read, "Did Dem Strike Illegal Deal? AP: Was to Trade Post for Concessions." However, the AP article does not provide any indication that Durbin struck an "illegal deal" with Blagojevich, either.

According to the AP article, Blagojevich "told fellow Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin he was thinking of naming Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to the seat vacated when Barack Obama won the presidential election." The article further reported that "[a] Madigan appointment would have been a political shocker because the governor had been warring politically with her father, powerful Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan" and that Blagojevich wanted "concessions ... in return" for selecting Lisa Madigan, including "progress on capital spending projects and a health care bill that were stalled in the Legislature." On December 30, 2008, Blagojevich appointed former Illinois state legislator Roland Burris to fill the vacant Senate seat.

The AP article included no suggestion that Durbin was involved in a "pay-to-play scheme." Regarding Durbin, the AP reported only the following:

Blagojevich told fellow Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin he was thinking of naming Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to the seat vacated when Barack Obama won the presidential election, according to two Durbin aides who spoke on condition of anonymity.
[...]
The 10-minute conversation took place Nov. 24 as Durbin was in his car using his cell phone, according to the aides. One aide said Durbin considered the idea an "innocuous compromise" and offered to help, but was told by the governor to "do nothing," and never heard more on the matter.
The aides spoke on condition that their names would not be used out of respect for the custom that Senate aides most often allow their bosses to be quoted. They gave their account in response to questions as reports circulated as to exactly what was said by Blagojevich and others on tapes made by FBI agents who wiretapped Blagojevich's home and campaign offices last fall.
Blagojevich attorney Samuel E. Adam declined to comment Monday and Durbin's office would offer no further comment. Mike Madigan's spokesman Steve Brown did not immediately return a call and a spokeswoman for Lisa Madigan said she did not have any immediate comment.
According to the Senate aides, Durbin was delighted to hear that Blagojevich was thinking of naming Madigan to the seat. He believed she would be a popular figure in Illinois and stood perhaps the best chance of holding the seat against a Republican.
Durbin volunteered to call the attorney general or the speaker to get the ball rolling and possibly broker an agreement, the aides said.
And that, as far as they know, was the end of the matter, the aides said. They said the Nov. 24 conversation was the only one between Durbin and Blagojevich last fall.

From the June 2 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends:

CARLSON: In the meantime, Blagojevich still tied up in the whole wiretapping controversy. And now Senator Dick Durbin, also from Illinois -- could he be tied up in this as well? Apparently they have him on tape back in November calling from his cell phone in his car and talking potentially about who he thought should get the Senate seat when Barack Obama became president. And it was somebody who would have been a political shocker, Lisa Madigan, who was an archrival of Blagojevich, and who --
BRIAN KILMEADE (co-host): Who wants to run for governor against him.
CARLSON: Yes, and also had been very critical of the governor. So, if, in fact, she had gotten that seat, there would have been a lot of questions. Now there are questions about whether they were asking for concessions on pet projects in order to put Madigan in that seat. Was it another pay-for-play sort of situation? Well, we don't know all the details yet.
KILMEADE: Governor Blagojevich and Dick Durbin talking for 10 minutes -- that's the main story.
STEVE DOOCY (co-host): Right.
KILMEADE: At the end of it they said don't do anything -- tells him not to do anything. And I don't think they really got along too well --
DOOCY: Right.
KILMEADE: -- to begin with, because Senator Durbin told the governor don't name a senator for Barack Obama's seat.
DOOCY: Sure.
KILMEADE: You're not capable of doing it. He did it anyway.
DOOCY: Yeah.
KILMEADE: So, I don't think their relationship was too -- too fantastic.
DOOCY: And, you know what? She didn't wind up with the job. So that tells you something.
KILMEADE: But could end up as governor.

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Khmer Rush Strikes Again

From the Wassau (Wisconsin) Daily Herald ...The Republican Party of Marathon County has stripped its spokesman of his title less than three months after he wrote a column critical of conservative talk radio star Rush Limbaugh.Kevin Stevenson said he[...]

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Republicans Won't Be Back Prior To 2014

There has been a lot of talk about the demise of the Republican Party. The Dog has, himself, been part of this talk. Whenever this topic comes up there are those that point out the various times where the Republican Party or even the Democratic Party[...]

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-prior-to-2014

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