Wednesday, 8/6/14, Public Square

Hypocrisy of the right-leaning media

David Frum makes a smart observation: When Dan Rather fell for a hoax about Bush’s war record in 2004, CBS kicked him to the curb. Now that Andrew Breitbart has published doctored videos that make a Department of Agriculture employee appear racist—and cost her her job—will he have to do the same? “Breitbart is the conservative Dan Rather,” Frum writes, “but there will be no discredit, no resignation for him.” Indeed, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and other conservatives are actually blaming President Obama and the NAACP for the whole brouhaha while neglecting to mention that Breitbart is the one who disseminated the video in the first place. Frum draws a connection to the right’s fury over leaked emails from Journolist, an email list-serve for several liberal journalists, that showed a few journalists expressing a wish to quash stories about Jeremiah Wright during the 2008 election. “Only, of course, the Wright story was not quashed—unlike the story of Breitbart’s role in Sherrod’s firing, which has been, at least among conservatives.”

Read more here.

Reconciliation only for GOP

Thanks to the 2006 and 2008 elections, conservatives no longer control the American government. They do, however, continue to essentially control the American media. As a case in point, you’ve probably heard that part of the Obama administration’s plan to pass health reform is to use the budget reconciliation process. The reason you’ve probably heard is that the press has been obsessed with the topic, repeatedly labeling it a “controversial” move that would “ram” legislation via an end-run around the normal legislative process.”

In fact, though most bills do not go through the reconciliation process—typically because their subject matter makes them ineligible—the process has been invoked frequently since 1980. And the reason it’s remained obscure until 2010 is that until the health-care debate, the press never saw fit to go into conniptions over congressional procedure.

Some of the mainstream media coverage of the reconciliation issue has been bad. Some of it, like this excellent NPR story, has been good.

Continue reading here.

Rush is Gay?

According to this web site there are rumors about Rush’s sexual orientation.  Say it isn’t so!  A man who claims to have been romantically involved with Rush, says none of Rush’s four marriages were ever consummated.

It couldn’t be true, could it?

Saturday, 08/08/09, Public Square

This made me think of the Republian Party.  They don’t have a leader (well unless you count Rush or Palin or other ludicrous pretenders) and they are envious.  I think it explains the ‘birthers,’ the ‘tea-baggers,’ and the ‘health-care reform disrupters.’

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Sarah, Limbaugh and the Republican Listening Tour

Behaving in an even more ridiculous way than we’ve grown to expect, Rush Limbaugh has declared that Former Governors Jeb Bush (FL) and Mitt Romney (MA) are embarrassed by Sarah Palin.  He went on to say Bush and Romney “hate” and “despise” the Alaska Governor and former running-mate of John McCain.

Limbaugh defended Palin and heralded her as the “most prominent and articulate voice” for conservatism.

Yep, he said she is articulate.

So have the drugs finally destroyed his last brain cell?  Is he being paid by the Democratic National Committee as an ambassador for the Democratic Party?  Is it possible he can’t see ridiculing his own party and leaders make the party and himself look even worse?  Does he simply say whatever may create the greatest controversy and gain the most listeners?  If that is so, then we must consider the mentality of those people who hold him in awe.

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