I've just taken notice of all these various nationwide campaigns that have been launched encouraging a boycott of BP, theoretically designed to punish them for the ongoing ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
I understand the desire to express outrage over the mess, but I think the underlying premise here is a faulty one. When people launch boycotts of Glenn Beck, they are hoping to force him out of business. Is that the goal here? Suppose, against all odds, that this boycott is tremendously effective and all Americans stop purchasing fuel from BP. This would cause BP to declare bankruptcy, and if that happens, who is gonna pay for the cleanup?
Perhaps I'm missing a key point behind the logic of these calls for a boycott, but it seems that the American people should be hoping for the continued financial success of BP...at least until the people impacted by this spill are back on their feet.
FOX News asks the important questions: "Is it better to not go to college at all than to get this kind of education?"
If less people would go to school or if we had more conservative professors, we might be able to generate some of that anti-gay sentiment that Tucker Carlson seems to be craving.
Smith College announced today that their commencement speaker will be MSNBC and Air America's Rachel Maddow and the reaction of the students is out of this world...
Another excited reception today was the one Dick Cheney's surprise visit to CPAC warranted...They do know this guy supports gay marriage and advocated decreased military spending, yes? Doesn't that make him one of those much-maligned RINOs? Or is simply being unpopular enough to make you a Republican now?
"There's a lot of opposition to the military's call for repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell. And all the naysayers are scared of the same thing - gay penis."
I just saw this segment on Current TV, and it completely broke my heart. There are few things in this world that are sadder than starving glue-sniffing children orphaned by AIDS that bathe themselves in bloody water runoff from a slaughterhouse.
If there are sadder things, I have no interest in seeing it, thank you very much.
MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan calls out Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, and particularly Glenn Beck's assertion that the snow storm on the east coast proves global warming is a hoax. Complete with his own chalkboard!
The GOP is usually the perfect minority party. They don't have any solid ideas and "No" fits conveniently on a bumper sticker. Not being in power usually grants them the ability to hide their lack of ideas.
Unfortunately for the Republicans, Democrats pointed out that they haven't been providing their own ideas, and they finally did. The result? They propose a budget that absolutely decimates both Social Security and Medicare.
That's right. The same folks who five months ago were warning that Obama's plan to make Medicare more efficient would be the equivalent of "pulling the plug on Grandma," are not advocating for what equates to a complete abolition of the project.
And they're doing it with a straight face. At first, they tried avoiding talking about it, and instead focused on the budget they proposed last year. The budget that was universally panned for NOT INCLUDING ANY NUMBERS.
And it's all because liberals are secretly Nazis, all according to the National Review wacko Jonah Goldberg.
The Daily Show followed Rachel Maddow's excellent piece yesterday in mocking the effort from FOX News and other Republican organizations to present the snow storm on the East Coast as if it is evidence that climate change is a hoax. Be warned of global darkening!
You know we live in a pretty amazing world when a snow storm is presented by a political party as serious evidence that global climate change is a hoax perpetrated on the American people by Al Gore and his profiteering.
In the way that only she can, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow explains the absurdity of the idea that "In politics right now, whatever we are looking at right this instant disproves everything else we know about the world."
A snow storm does not disprove global climate change just as:
One person winning the lottery does not disprove a poor economy
Rain in the desert does not mean deserts do not exist
A healthy person smoking a cigarette does not mean they're healthy
The existence of monkeys does not disprove evolution
The Daily Show last night had a very funny segment on last night that had John Oliver traveling to Hawaii to join Michael Steele for the winter meeting of the Republican National Committee. The clip has Republicans explaining precisely why those rich elitist liberals are so disconnected from the average American while simultaneously staying in a hotel that has its own private submarine.
Remember the pretty cheerleader who got the flu shot and then was only able to walk backwards or run after that? Here's the video of the original segment detailing her story:
Inside Edition recently did a follow up, and it seems like she has made a complete recovery! Except for that Australian accent, of course.
Last night on The Colbert Report, Stephen dedicated his The Word segment to pointing out the insanity of the image that conservative commentators are creating of Barack Obama. He's been President for a year, but has done absolutely nothing EXCEPT dismantling the very fabric of America.
The White House Press Office today sent out a link to this YouTube video of a Los Angeles urban rescue team in Haiti pulling a survivor out of a collapsed building while onlookers chant "USA! USA! USA!" I must say I prefer this to seeing images of the international community burning our flag or stomping on pictures of our president.
CBS' Katie Couric toured the devastation in Haiti and brought back one of the most heart-wrenching videos I've ever seen featuring a recently orphaned Haitian boy clutching her arm screaming "WHY?! WHY?!" to god.
If this guy is somehow able to convince the people of Massachusetts that he is at all moderate and defeat Martha Coakley, I get the strong impression that Scott Brown will only be a one-term Senator. I suppose that's a benefit of being unheard of a month ago. It takes a little while for the skeletons to fall out of the closet.
My media worlds collided a bit on Thursday when Jon Stewart of The Daily Show blasted Rachel Maddow of MSNBC and Air America by comparing her statements on the disastrous Haiti earthquake to those made by Rush Limbaugh and the Reverend Pat Robertson:
Pat Robertson blamed the earthquake on the Haitians themselves. Rush Limbaugh said the death of tens of thousands was "made to order" for Obama to shore up his credibility among "both the light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in this country."
Rachel Maddow, in contrast, highlighted the effective response of USAID. Below is the original segment as aired by Rachel Maddow on January 14th. I definitely suggest you watch it all the way through, as it provides an in-depth explanation of an under-covered government agency. In-depth explanations of this nature are an example of the media at its best.
When a government agency or program functions effectively and is able to provide assistance to thousands of people, there is nothing controversial in reporting it. Even more so when that organization has repeatedly been subject to Republican attempts to decrease it's funding and scope.
If a government policy or program results in the prevention of a terrorist attack, would it be wrong to point out its success, and also criticize attempts to make it ineffective? Republicans are doing just that when they argue for torture, keeping the Guantanamo Bay detention center open, and the denial of access to the courts for terror suspects.
Last night, Rachel Maddow politely fired back at Stewart and refused to apologize:
While I love both The Daily Show AND The Rachel Maddow Show, I think Jon Stewart is way off base this time around. Government *IS* politics. Having a discussion about anything related to the government without a discussion of the politics involved is inherently incomplete. Stewart seems to think that the media should relegate itself to showing footage of the death and destruction in Haiti without even a cursory explanation of precisely how America is able to help. Perhaps if more attention was drawn to FEMA before its failure after Hurricane Katrina, it would have been in a better position to respond. Instead, it fell out of the news, lost funding, and lost its cabinet-level post.
Covering the government is a good thing for the media to do, no matter what The Daily Show says.
Compassionate conservative Pat Robertson, in a response to the disastrous earthquake in Haiti, felt it was important to take a little time out of his day to place the blame for the disaster squarely on the shoulders of the Haitians because of their "pact with the devil." Cute, right?
There's been a recent rash of Republicans forgetting about 9/11 and all the other attacks under Bush. The Rachel Maddow Show expertly takes Mr. 9/11 himself, Rudy Giuliani, to task for his recent claim that "We had no domestic attacks under Bush."
Except 9/11. And the shoe bomber. And anthrax. And the DC snipers. And the Mohammed Atta fanboy who ran into nine people with his SUV. But, you know. Other than that.
