Open Thread

post from Crooks and Liars on 03 July 2012 11:30:18 PM. © Crooks and Liars

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Ha! Key of Awesome writes a summer jam based on Times Square interviews. Open thread below...

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Open thread for night owls: Bill O'Reilly
nopologizes to Caroline Fredrickson

post from Daily Kos on 03 July 2012 11:30:07 PM. © Daily Kos

Poor Bill O'Reilly. Throughout the March 26 appearance of his guest, Caroline Fredrickson, he treated her with hostility. Ultimately, with a sneer, he pfffted! her arguments about how the Supreme Court would rule on the Affordable Care Act. He promised if he was wrong, he would apologize to her and admit that he is an idiot. He was wrong.

Called upon by various parties to live up to his promise, on Monday, he offered a 10-second nopology in which he said he wasn't really sorry and then pivoted into the usual left-baiting bombast about one of the organizations that asked him to live up to that vow.

Everybody makes bad predictions. You can read them in comments and diary posts here every day. We all do it. Nothing to apologize for when speculation smacks into reality. What made O'Reilly's remarks to Fredrickson so obnoxious was the absolutism, the no-way-I-could-possibly-be-mistaken-YOU'RE-an-idiot tone he chose. She is hardly his only target. Unprovoked, fact-free eye-pokes are his stock-in-trade.

His overall mistreatment of her ought to have been the subject of a genuine apology running the whole five-plus minutes on Monday. But nope, not a word. The issue, he repeatedly made clear, was totally the product of leftist partisans out. to. get. him.

Vintage Bill. The usual toxic spew. Not only did he use the nopology to repeatedly stab various critics, he also brought on the show one of his favorite sycophants, Bernie "Baseball Bat" Goldberg, to help him out by telling him how unfair the whole matter was and stroke his ego for few minutes.

O'Reilly and I both attended parochial school, he much longer than I. So I know he has heard more than a few times what real repentance, really being sorry, requires: An act of contrition, introspection about one's misbehavior and a vow to avoid repeating whatever action led to the need for contrition in the first place. Instead, what we got was a claws out, teeth-bared snarling blast at the left punctuated by his sanctimonious snickering.

O'Reilly's hostile treatment of Fredrickson will no doubt be repeated with future guests. It's a feature not a bug. Anyone who anticipates getting an apology when he or she is mistreated?whether O'Reilly promises to offer one or not?might as well be counting on "fair and balanced" and "no-spin" to become reality at Foxaganda instead of the biggest pile of manure in North America.

Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2009:

Andrea Mitchell offers a different read on today's events than most have thus fair, saying sources close to Palin are claiming that she has told them that she is "out of politics, period" and that they are free to throw their support behind other 2012 candidates.
(Video Link
Who knows if Mitchell is right, but if she is, it would make a heckuva lot more sense than this being the opening of the 2012 campaign, as Bill Kristol suggested to Fox.
Update (2:53 PM): The plot thickens -- Palin's spokeswoman seems to suggest Mitchell's sources are wrong, saying "this is a fighting move."

Tweet of the Day:

"No evidence of mermaids, says US government" http://t.co/...
? @pourmecoffee via TBUZZ

Tune in Monday to Friday from 9-11 AM ET for Daily Kos Radio, hosted by David Waldman a/k/a KagroX. You can listen here.

Here is Tuesday's entire podcast. And here is me talking about American Indian voter registration and voter suppression.

High Impact Posts. Top Comments.

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-owls-Bill-O-Reilly-nopologizes-to-Caroline-Fredrickson

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C&L's Late Night Music Club with Frank Sinatra

post from Crooks and Liars on 03 July 2012 11:00:10 PM. © Crooks and Liars

Title: It Was a Very Good Year Artist: Frank Sinatra

What music do you listen to when in a sentimental mood?

September of My Years

Artist: Frank Sinatra Price: $11.98 (As of 07/03/12 12:25 pm details)

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Late Night: RIP, Andy Griffith.Face in the Crowd
A Perfect July 4 Movie

post from Firedoglake on 03 July 2012 11:00:09 PM. © Firedoglake

Today marks a momentous milestone in American history--and I don't mean Tom Cruise's 50th birthday that's been overshadowed by Katie Holmes' on point divorce action which raised other not-so-happy-issues related to matters concerning a certain sci-fi[...]

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Fox & Friends picks a fight with Jon Stewart.
This'll go well.

post from Daily Kos on 03 July 2012 10:15:08 PM. © Daily Kos

Fox & Friends is the Fox News network's most transparent talking point factory. If you want to know what Roger Ailes wants said, on any given day, you can just tune in and watch as the three dimmest bulbs in the Fox News studios woodenly wedge it into conversations, or gleefully introduce "stories" generally not peddled anywhere else in the media firmament. Today's edition is, roughly paraphrased, that Comedy Central's Jon Stewart makes a lot of money, so it's hypocritical of him to not like Mitt Romney. The jerk:

?I watch him every night and think he?s very funny,? said Weinstein, adding however that ?just because you?re a comedian but you have a political show doesn?t mean you can avoid scrutiny like everybody else. So we looked into his record and while he, as you just showed, he decried Mitt Romney for making $57,000 a day, he himself, according to estimates, makes $41,000 a day. So not too much of a difference between him and Mitt Romney on that level. But in fairness, of course, he was talking that Mitt Romney makes this amount but supports ? doesn?t support the Buffet Rule. But I think the real interesting question is how Jon Stewart feels on income inequality and how he actually treats the staff.?

... which devolves into saying that, well, if Jon Stewart likes the Buffett Rule so much, then why doesn't he just give his money away, huh? Huh? (This is a killer conservative talking point, because it is widely understood that rich people should only pay taxes if they feel like it, and should not have to pay them if they don't feel like it, which is a wonderful suggestion that only applies to the filthy stinking rich and not to any of the rest of us, because they are better than us.)

Nothing seems to irritate rich conservatives (God help me, when I think of the money the Fox & Friends tools probably rake in, while complaining about the money Jon Stewart makes, while defending how much money Mitt Romney makes, and so on) more than a wealthy American suggesting that wealthy Americans ought to pay more taxes. The point is, of course, not that people are outraged over Mitt Romney being wealthy?they're pissed off that he made that money doing nasty things to other people. That's the problem. If Jon Stewart made his money by opening a factory to turn adorable puppies into overpriced meals marketed towards senior citizens (unrelated note to self: trademark Soylent Seamus, immediately) then yes, I think people would be pissed at him too.

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ight-with-Jon-Stewart-This-ll-go-well

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Questions for Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney and Other
Opponents of Health Care Reform: Where Are Your Facts

post from Firedoglake on 03 July 2012 10:07:55 PM. © Firedoglake

The Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on Thursday has caused a rush of panic from the opponents of universal health care. Lots and lots of claims about what the law does are being tossed around, and many of these claims are what you[...]

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Tuesday Stuff

post from The Liberal Doomsayer on 03 July 2012 10:04:00 PM. © The Liberal Doomsayer

(Here are more vids from my hideous new blog, courtesy of those numbskulls at Blogger :-(...

RIP Andy Griffith, an American icon who did us a political favor here, among his other accomplishments (if only the Dems had pitched the Affordable Care Act as ?Medicare for all? ? sigh)...

...and I would say that Number 44 is on the proverbial beam here, as opposed to Willard Mitt...

...and I don?t know what on earth came over Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder here, vetoing three bills to combat the thoroughly non-existent scourge of ?voter fraud,? but I think he actually deserves some credit ? however, this tells us why we shouldn?t be so quick to forgive...

...and here?s a catchy little summer tune.

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http://liberaldoomsayer.blogspot.com/2012/07/tuesday-stuff.html

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In Memoriam, Andy Griffith

THE EGOMANIACAL LONESOME Rhodes was played by Andy Griffith in the film masterpiece “Face in the Crowd.” The always stellar female lead played by Patricia Neal, the woman who took Lonesome down.

Looking back on the film and Griffith’s raging, brilliant tour de force performance, it seems a warning and foreshadowing of an industry yet to be born, which came in the age of Reagan that brought us deregulation and spawned the likes of Rush Limbaugh, but especially Glenn Beck, and the right-wing hate radio horde who have been so destructive to our politics.

“Face in the Crowd” was Andy Griffith’s finest acting hour, a once in a lifetime role.

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http://taylormarsh.com/blog/2012/07/in-memoriam-andy-griffith/

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The global warming "special effects".

I am no expert on global warming, but do I believe what most smart people have to say about the subject. That, coupled with the fact that the people who are on the right wing side of the debate believe that the world is four thousand years old, made it pretty easy for me to choose sides.

Anyway, regardless of where you choose to come down on this issue, you have to admit that something really screwy is going on with our weather.

I think that the folks on the right approach this debate with an economic agenda. To them, it's all about jobs and less regulation. I am down with cleaner renewable energy sources. Bring on the wind and solar age. I have no problem with saying goodbye to fossil fuels. Only a fool would believe that the EPA should not regulate greenhouse gasses and that they do not have a negative effect on our environment. Unfortunately, there are a lot of foolish people among us. (You don't have to drive a gas eating Chevy. Give it time and there might be some really nice electric cars on the market in the very near future.)

Take it away Bill McKibben:

"We can now admit it: global climate change is one big hoax. But let?s give credit to the special effects experts who have given us wildfires, downpour, and record heat this past month writes Bill McKibben.

Please don?t sweat the 2,132 new high temperature marks in June?remember, climate change is a hoax. The first to figure this out was Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, who in fact called it ?the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people,? apparently topping even the staged moon landing. But others have been catching on. Speaker of the House John Boehner pointed out that the idea that carbon dioxide is ?harmful to the environment is almost comical.? The always cautious Mitt Romney scoffed at any damage too: ?Scientists will figure that out ten, twenty, fifty years from now,? he said during the primaries.

Still, you have to admit: for a hoax, it?s got excellent production values.
Consider the last few weeks. Someone turned on the rain machine up in Duluth, Minnesota, where they broke all their old rainfall records (and in an excellent cinematic touch flooded the city zoo with so much water that the seal escaped and swam down the road. You can make this stuff up). And when that was over, the production team hastened to the Gulf of Mexico, turning on the giant fans to conjure up Tropical Storm Debby?the earliest fourth storm of the season ever recorded, which dumped ?unthinkable amounts of rain? on central Florida. (Giveaway movie moment: the nine-foot gator that washed into a Tampa swimming pool).
The special effects guys were doing their best in Colorado: first they cranked up the heat, setting a new state record at 115 degrees. And then came the fire stunts! They looked real enough?one Waldo Canyon resident wrote a harrowing account of driving his SUV across soccer fields to escape the blaze, with ?a vision of hell in his rearview mirror.?

But there were giveaways it was all faked: for one, the ?flames? perfectly framed the famous chapel of the Air Force Academy, and on the very day the new cadets arrived.." [Source]

Great! Now I have to wonder if we really did land on the moon.

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http://field-negro.blogspot.com/2012/07/global-warming-special-effects.html

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Tea Party Report: Poor Right-Wingers Don't Want
That ObamaCare, Nuh-Uh

Susie Sampson asks what appear to be fairly representative examples of right-wing Southern males (and one female) what they think of the Supreme Court's health-care ruling this week. It's amazing the things you learn from these folks. (Did you know that Lincoln destroyed the country?)