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Too Hot for Fox News
Nancy Kaszerman / Newscom
The host of Fox's Freedom Watch makes Glenn Beck look like Jim Lehrer. Michelle Goldberg on the online gabfest too outrageous for the network.
In the early 1960s, William Buckley wrote a 5,000-word evisceration of the John Birch Society and its founder, Robert Welch, in the National Review. At the time, the society was a major embarrassment for the respectable right. It called Dwight Eisenhower a “dedicated, conscious agent of the Communist conspiracy,” the same conspiracy that, according to Bircher lore, put fluoride in the water in an attempt to poison Americans.
“How can the John Birch Society be an effective political instrument while it is led by a man whose views on current affairs are, at so many critical points... so far removed from common sense?” Buckley asked. The attack on the Birchers, he wrote later, “proved fatal over time.” After Buckley’s attack, the John Birch Society became unwelcome in mainstream conservative circles.
On the weekly, hour-long Freedom Watch, which began airing in February, Fox gives its imprimatur to the kind of rhetoric once confined to the short-wave radio broadcasts of militia movements.
That is, until recently. On July 1, John Birch Society President John McManus was a guest on Judge Andrew Napolitano’s online-only Fox News show Freedom Watch, which airs every Wednesday at 2 p.m. Their chat was friendly, ranging over the “abominable doctrine of collectivism,” the malevolent influence of “government schools,” and the fraud of manmade global warming. Napolitano seemed to be actively trying to rehabilitate the John Birch Society’s reputation. Untouchable as it once was, the group’s old-right ideology fits well with the tenor of his show, which is full of figures previously dismissed as cranks—not just Birchers but 9/11 truthers and secessionists as well.
The July 1, 2009 episode featuring John McManus of the John Birch Society
In its anti-Obama hysteria, Fox has mainstreamed voices once relegated to the fever swamps. This is most immediately clear in the apocalyptic buffoonery of Glenn Beck, and in the way the network has indulged the delusions of the so-called birthers, who insist that Obama was born in Kenya and thus can’t legally be president. Yet that’s just scratching the surface. On the weekly, hour-long Freedom Watch, which began airing in February, Fox gives its imprimatur to the kind of rhetoric once confined to the short-wave radio broadcasts of militia movements. After eight years of championing increased executive power, the network now hosts a show whose anti-government fixation sometimes leads to cheerful talk of dissolving the United States and dark warnings of impending tyranny.
Putting the show online, says Eric Boehlert, a senior fellow at Media Matters, gives Fox the “best of both words. They can really feed the far right all this paranoid stuff, but even folks at Fox realize they can’t go quite that far on TV.”
On the Internet, with fewer people paying attention, they’re willing to go quite far indeed. On March 18, for example, Freedom Watch did a joint broadcast with the prolific conspiracy theorist Alex Jones—or, as Napolitano introduced him, “the one, the only, the great Alex Jones”—so that the show aired simultaneously on the Fox News Web site and on Jones’s radio program. It was an extraordinary collaboration, because Jones is best known as a leader of the 9/11 Truth movement. In his documentary 9/11: The Road to Tyranny, Jones argued that the attacks on the World Trade Center were orchestrated by the U.S. government as a pretext for the “power-mad megalomaniacs” of the New World Order to “usher in their corrupt world government, a world government where populations, their own documents show, will be herded into compact cities, will be issued national ID cards, and yes, even implantable microchips.”
How Rich People Smoke Pot
Paul Schrodt is a writer living in New York City. He has contributed to New York magazine, Radar, and Esquire.com.
Justice Clinton?
As vice chairman of Public Strategies and president of Maverick Media, Mark McKinnon has helped meet strategic challenges for candidates, corporations and causes, including George W. Bush, John McCain, Governor Ann Richards, Charlie Wilson, Lance Armstrong, and Bono. McKinnon is co-chair of Arts & Labs, a collaboration between technology and creative communities that have embraced today's rich Internet environment to deliver innovative and creative digital products to consumers.
Obama Does It Again
Michelle Goldberg is the author of The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power and the Future of the World and Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism. She is a senior correspondent for The American Prospect, and her work has appeared in The New Republic, The Nation, the Los Angeles Times, Glamour, and many other publications.
The Haiti Fundraising Lie
Michelle Goldberg is the author of The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power and the Future of the World and Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism. She is a senior correspondent for The American Prospect, and her work has appeared in The New Republic, The Nation, the Los Angeles Times, Glamour, and many other publications.
A Ray of Hope in Haiti
Michelle Goldberg is the author of The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power and the Future of the World and Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism. She is a senior correspondent for The American Prospect, and her work has appeared in The New Republic, The Nation, the Los Angeles Times, Glamour, and many other publications.
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n--Y--Gerry-blist14ant
dont pay attention to this writer if you want to learn about libertarians look these people up online, milton friedman, Ludwig Von Mises,
Friedrick A. Hayek , and more
nickatdabeach
I don't watch FOX anymore.. too liberal. I get my news from Mark Levin, a constitutional scholar. Besides, I truly believe Hannity is turning gay, definitely self-absorbed with his stale self-deprecating jokes and totally shrill. A shame. I didn't think Hannity was so bad when he battled sissyboy Colmes nightly but on his own.. Hannity is a loser now.. a back-bencher for sure.
BullMoose
But Hassintany is a "Great Aamerican", just ask him.
Just like FOX, when they have to say they are fair and balanced, it is a good sign they are neither.
Ritarita
Nicky-
Do you scream along
With Levin?
And more importantly-
How do you look in camo?
This user is no longer registered.
n--Y--genomegkroger37
Yeah, right. Uncle Miltie Friedman. The guy who tolerated death squads in Chile to enforce the new "market based" economy there. The beacon of freedom and individual expression who had family members that perished in the Holocaust. That Milton Friedman. Milton Schmilton.
BullMoose
Mark Levin would appeal to some white boy trying to act as if he has "ghetto cred" ala dabeachbum.
He screams more like a girl than Lush Windball. Levin is just another prostitute who makes his living off rich Repuglicans, who live their lives in a perpetual peanut gallery, rooting along with the radio, and drinking their idle brains into oblivion.
Nicksuno
What is scarey is that most of the posters, and the author of this article really probably consider themselves as forward thinking good liberals. Those who wish to expand the state are not liberals. At best they are statists at worst fascists.
I am a classical liberal. I believe in human dignity over the state. I believe in the rule of law. I believe that power comes from the people not the government.
But what passes for "liberalism" in this country is just FDR fascism.
But most people read Newsweek. Watch CNN. Go about their buisness and have no idea what the words "Live Free or Die" mean.
By the way FOX News was no friend to Ron Paul, or libertarians in general. I was shocked that this online show was done in their studios. Believe me FOX is as facist as MSNBC on most things. Just a different flavor.
It's sad that such intelectual tripe (such as this article) passes for analysis. But it's par for the course for a society dumbed down by softheaded (pro-state) anti-intelectualism. Sheep.
flippera2001
This is some of the worst journalism I have read in some time. Like most liberal blogs and rags it prays on the uneducated and ignorant. In the instance of Lew Rockwell arguing Lincoln wasn't a great President, Miss Goldberg somehow conviently leaves out his arguements, choosing instead to leave us to our grade school conditioning in which we were taught to praise Lincoln. Rockwell, Napolotino, and others have made a very clear and intellegent arguement that the Civil War could have been easily avoided by compensating the slave owners, like the dozens of European countrys that ended slavery had done. Further, the attack on Woods is laughable, like successionists are all crazy, and for some reason it seems like she is trying to connect the dots to Woods wanting a race war. The arrogance and ignorance of Miss Goldberg really shine here. Many conservatives belive you should be able to vote with your feet, and a strong Federal government does a disservice to large populations like America's. For instance, California and Utah might have different ideas on which contracts they wish to honor, indeed California might be more willing to honor a same sex marriage contract. So why does Utah have sway over their laws? This isn't crazy, it's reality. What's crazy is that there are so many undereducated, ignorant people that things like this are able to be written with a chorus of sheep commenting positively on it. I would suggest quit reading this crap and try picking up a book, you might just learn something. Like Tom Woods correctly predicted the housing crisis and the economic meltdown that followed. Even at a time when Bernanke, Buffet, Paulson, and most of the other top economists were predicting strong economic growth. If you want to actualy learn what is behind these people's beliefs, I suggest reading F.A. Hayek. He completely debunks Keynes, and makes a inarguable case for Mises and Austrian economics. Unless of course you enjoy being pandered to like your an idiot.
motrbotr
Good lord, the author is so full of... I dont know about the judge, i have seen him a few times so i wont comment on him but to state that Fox is promoting the "birthers movement" is an outright lie. Both O'Rielly and Hannity, the main prime time lineup have stated its false, there is no truth to it. But of course you would probably not know that as you probably never watch but get your opinions from clips, here and there. CNN, that great American news service is the organization that is giving any credence to the birthers with Lou Dobbs. Get your facts straigt. Stop trying to tear down Fox because they are the last remaining voice of reason in the news. If you want you biased news reports, turn into MSNBC and the like...
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
crngndmhm
Getting your news from only one source is willful ignorance. Multiple sources with dissenting views allow one to make an informed decision, and I'm not just refering to American news. News from one source that supports your own mores and biases makes you one of the sheeple and dangerous to yourself and others.
roger37
Wacko Alert! Wacko Alert!
wiseone
Fox news will probably never get over the fact that we have a African American President, Attorney General, Surgeon General, Director of NASA and many high ranking officials ine the Government and Armed Forces. All of them have degrees that are not journalism and communication like O'/Reilly and Hannity. Didn't Palin take five years to get a four year bachelor's in Journalism? Fix News is the laughing stock of TV broadcasting. Nothing but a bunch of bigot talking heads.
donatello
Ha. What a load of BS.
donaldinks
Well, FAUX NEWS did state (on air multiple times ad nausea) they were not behind (nor prodding) the "tea-nut-baggers"...
yet, I have plenty of footage to disprove those disingenuous assertions as well.
newswoman
Fox, the voice of reason? You've got to be kidding. They are the channel that justs criticizes anything the obama administration tries to do. No thinking at all, just criticism. They promote and support Glenn Beck the biggest wingnut on TV. He has no experience as a journalist, nor is he an experienced political pundit, and he spouts lies and misinformation. But you people just see what you want to see and don'tlet the facts get in the way.
chefbob
Last remaining voice of reason are you a head trauma victim either that or a complete idiot.
logicwhore
United States? shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.....we're not even United Neighbors.
Like Egypt, like Rome, like Great Britain, so shall the US fall.
OHNOTAGAIN
Well Newscorp has a monopoly on news and information. They won a case that said they do not have to tell the truth or provide facts when reporting the news. However, because they have a monopoly we did not hear about it thru the mainstream news. Newscorp is the mainstream news, and that is why you hear the same words spoken on radio, tv and print by various folks. Newscorp has created news commentators out of talk show hosts with no journalism background, some are even comedians. So I am not surprised that the racism is prevelant and spoken on a daily, almost hourly basis in America. They hide under the freedom of speech provisions given by the corrupt forefathers that created this mess with policies of color.
Eykis121
Once again, Jon Stewart got it right - Faux News will S*** on anything the Obama administration does, including b******g about the beers drunk at the WH Thursday. The No News channel is dead set to attempt to gather the crazies and attempt to cause the country to fail by opposing anything, including the soap or toothpaste that Obama uses or does. Pathetic.
rahrah
The crazies need a false bogeyman...otherwise they'd have to admit that they are crazy.
JackHughes
I wonder what would happen in these pro-secession states if the Federal pensions and Social Security/Medicare payments were to stop?
Interestingly, the reddest of the Red states are the biggest benefactors of Federal largesse -- receiving much more money from Washington than they send in.
A case could be made that Fox "News" is a subversive organization meeting the criteria for prosecution and suppression, considering their frequent thinly veiled calls for armed insurrection.
donaldinks
I agree completely. This is subversive, and borders on treason against the United States of America. They need to be held accountable. Unfortunately...the Country has been taken over by corporate thugs, that have soiled and defiled the basic core of the founding founders statutes of reason. These "human beings" that advocate such vile "assertions" are from the darkest past of our country's history...and now...they are rearing their ugly heads, once again. Let them spew their vile crap, and let the light be shone upon them, and reveal them for what they truly are.
PinkoLefty
I love the phrase "an Alabama-based think tank."
Isn't that a bit like an ocean floor based telescope?
JohnHedtke
Some jokes just write themselves, PinkoLefty.
Remember when we thought that Pat Buchanan was kinda the benchmark for mainstream crazy in the Republican party?
donaldinks
...and, they were correct.
dirtyrita
say what? please elaborate.
Chuckv
No, it is not a bit like an ocean floor based telescope: it is a whole lot like an ocean based telescope.
Fox is getting incoherent in its need to attack every part of the new administration. Has Fox not noticed that if 9/11 is a government plot, it was the Bush administration that did it?
BullMoose
The best thing to ever come out of Alabama is Interstate 20.
Cassady
...and Madoff was the best thing to come out of New York? Biggotry and ignorance are ugly no matter no matter where they comes from.
NightNurse
Texas is Alabama with windmills.
nickatdabeach
I-65 actually
Cassady
An Alabama-based think tank is only like an ocean floor-based telescope if you're a bigot.I guess you believe that think tanks based on Wall Street or Washington are guided by divining angels. The last I checked, our country's ruin was planned and instigated by people north of the Mason-Dixon line. Let me guess...That's where you live...
valleygirl
hey Pinko,
don't you know that if it weren't for oxyMORONS, the south wouldn't have any people at all?
JohnnyRock
If Fox sees the Web as a sort of farm system for content, talent, and talking heads, and this is the sort of thing they are farming, they run the risk of further alienating whatever moderate, thoughtful, center-right Republicans that are left at the edges of the big tent.
I see those folks slowly backing towards the exit as they look around and see birthers, Palin opening her yap, hypocrite governors, racist Young Republicans, and other assorted whack jobs loudly controlling the direction of the party.
There are plenty of people who remember that Goldwater hated the religious right, that Nixon started the EPA (!), and that Reagan (while careful not to step on toes) wasn't exactly a weekly church attendee, either. What would they think about their party being high-jacked by people who think the X-Files was a documentary?
nandomark
If you describe Ron Paul as having "far right" positions you don't understand his thesis, more vs. less liberty for individuals. The context may have only incidental similarity to "far right" approaches, which can be just as coercive as "far left" government.
OHNOTAGAIN
I like Ron Paul, wish that the President would have found a place for him. He is the only one up here in Washington that seems to actually care about what the Feds are doing, and who exactly are the Feds? However, Ron Paul is not a part of the establishment in Washington, so the establishment overlooked and did not back him in his run for the White House.
periscope
I consider the Republican Party, Fox "News (it really isn't)" and the NRA three of the most dangerous organizations in America.
They all use propaganda to promote narrow interests that invariably benefit the rich and powerful, and menace the best interests of the American people.
If it weren't for the GOP we wouldn't have a ten trillion dollar debt and we wouldn't be in Iraq. If it weren't for the NRA automatic rifles (AK-47s) wouldn't be selling like hotcakes at gun-shows with little or no background checks.
And if it wasn't for Fox, more Americans would know this is all a danger to them and their families.
DoctorB
Yes, but don't omit all the Religious Right crazies who believe that God told them to pull all this crap!
br6875
Who does all the spending? I have been seeing all kinds of left wings idiots spending money that is not there..The last I saw was that Iraq was fairly stable and functioning....what is wrong with an AK-47....
Fox seems to be a fair news source---maybe you should have mentioned MSMess (MSNBC for you idiots) when mentioning a non-news channel
Denjudge
Fox "fair"????
Fox "News"????
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!!!! That's my laugh for the day. Every single show I have ever seen on that Faux network is biased. Take a look at Megyn Kelly and Bill Hemmer in the morning. Their program is called "America's Newsroom," but these two very often inject their own opinion of news stories. True news people do not do this. Those clowns on the Fox & Idiots show in the morning constantly bash the Obama administration and Democrats. And I haven't even started on the real nuts and GOP supporters like Beck and Brit Hume. During one of the important election nights last year, Bill O'Reilly was complaining to Brit Hume that other networks (like MSNBC) were in the tank for Obama, and that Fox didn't do this...that they were "fair." Brit Hume actually said, "well, we do have more conservative commentators than other networks."
Iraq may be "fairly stable," but how many Iraqis did Bush and Cheney have to kill in order for this to take place? Hundreds of thousands, if not closer to a million?????
SC0TTBL4M
Look at the amount of spending each president has done since Reagan.
The three highest are Reagan, Bush, and Bush Jr... by far.
Clinton lowered our debt for a while, but then it was reversed tenfold by W.
And "what is wrong with an AK-47?..." where do I start?
It's too powerful of a weapon that's only use is to kill people.
Opposition in the Middle East use it to kill our own soldiers and we want the average citizen to go out and be able to buy one?!
Why don't we put RPG's out on the market while we're at it?
MariosRight
what is wrong with an AK-47....
Why not buy American?
also, calling everyone idiots degrades your post and you.
Bunx05
I'd also like to point out that more and more information continues to surface that proves that the GWB's administration took Iraq for its own purposes, while riling N Korea and Iran up at the same time. When Obama began pulling troops out of the cities, things started to become even more stable (Sec. Gates said he thinks we can bring the troops out of Iraq even sooner than we originally thought).
crngndmhm
The money's not there because Bush spent it, and letting the banks fail would've made things far worse. Fairly stable? What exactly does that mean? Bombings only happen every second day? Nothings wrong with an AK-47 they're great at killing things.
Watching only one source for news that just happens to justify what you think is willful ignorance.
#1 at liberating, liberating life from body
donatello
Really folks, I NEED that RPG for my squirrel hunting! Don't you see the need?
Da60sman
MSNBC did not go to court to get the Oakie Doke for lying on air as a 1st amendment right -- your beloved FOX did
tareohwhy
Pardon....but, the Democratic Party has it's own propaganda machine in the form of MSNBC....Keith Olbermann, Rachel Madow, etc. I believe boths sides of the politcal isle have their talking heads. Why is the pot calling the kettle black?
galeso
periscope there is no news. People listen to what they want to hear.
The ten trillion dollar debt is coming mostly from Bush III (Obama), the TARP loans are getting repaid. The war in Iraq was winding down anyway, is now getting moved to Afghanistan by Bush III.
It has been shown that when we use the current laws, we can cut gun violence in half but that is not being done. AK-47s are seldom used in gun violence in the USA.
The problem is the Democrats & Republicans. With those being our 2 viable choices, no wonder most people do not vote.
roger37
Check it out, booby---Massive government debt began with Reagan, continued with Carter and Bush I with not too much added, DECLINED under Clinton and grew massively under Bush II--with a two wars and massive tax cuts.
Yes, BHO has added to it, but so did FDR to get us out of the Depression, after Hoover did ZIP for 3 years--just the way the Repubs would have done if that nasty little man had been elected last November.
The alternative would have been to do nothing and let unemployment reach 26%, like Hoover did.
meglon978
"The ten trillion dollar debt is coming mostly from Bush III (Obama)..."
Of the first 10 trillion dollars of the national debt, a mark we hit before Obama even took office:
Pre-Carter = $698,840,000,000
Carter = $299,015,000,000
Reagan = $1,859,575,000,000
Bush I = $1,554,058,000,000
Clinton = $1,395,975,000,000 with the deficit reduced each year.
Bush II = $4,217,261,000,000 and still going.
We haven't yet started into the first budget by Obama, we're still working on Bush II's final budget. To suggest that most of the US's 10 trillion dollar debt, which occurred before Obama was even elected, is somehow his fault, is wholeheartedly ignorant.
Ritarita
meglon-
Your fatal flaw
Is the assumption
That facts matter to these people.
worrierqueen
The problem is that it only takes one crazy to decapitate a government. The fact that FOX incites these crazies would I would have thought involve many indictable offences.
nickatdabeach
I get my news from overseas sources -- they don't have their collective heads stuck up Obozo's butt like the state run media in this country.
newswoman
Just because many of us find Obama to be smart and personable doesn't mean we automatically will approve of everything he does. We are just so relieved to have a thinking president compared to Bush, who was incurious, couldn't speak well, and just didn't have what it took to be a president. And he made so many enemies for our country with his arrogance. Sounds like you just don't like Democrats or liberals, just dumbbells and hate-spewing conservatives of the far right.
freemaninKS
Ms. Goldberg misses the point. Fox is the only place that airs all views. Left, right and center all have a voice on that network unlike the all points left presentation of the other networks. When the only views you hear mimic your own it's almost like inbreeding. Look at the results you get.
donquijoterocket
I've seldom seen pox noise host a true liberal voice without talking over them, or following them with some seasoned, insightful expert like Dennis Miller to degrade any and all points thy might have managed to get out. The majority of "liberals" on pox are pox-chosen pox plants to illustrate pox's view of the liberal position. I watched Professor Krugman pwn blowhardbillowlielly and the blowhard had to have 3 or 4 pox experts on after his appearance to even try to refute any of the things he pointed out.Yeah pox presents a variety of views; the far right and the even farther right, and all from behind the smokescreen that they're "fair and Balanced".Any so-called news outlets that read goper press releases word for word as if they're news items leaves a lot to be desired.
lsoto1
Well, while it is true that Fox News hosts guests from all ranges of the political spectrum (I believe Bill O'Reilly hosted Bill Maher once, though not recently. Those are exact opposites right there.) it is important to note that the hosts themselves are usually on the far right of the spectrum. Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and the Fox family, usually focus on trying to scare their audience and convince them of the danger that Obama represents to the nation, rather than presenting factual information that would persuade me to agree with them. I remember watching Sean Hannity last week and seeing a commercial about his special on the health care reform called "Universal Nightmare." Is this really unbiased opinion? I'm not saying the other networks are any better, but this type of examples don't make Fox News exactly a fair and balanced network.
DougWhite
Freedom of the press and freedom of ideas are important - and this is just one of the tests of our commitment to American principles. This unintelligent, desperate kind of thinking will kill itself far before any of criticism of it could. That these crazies have a louder bullhorn than ever before doesn't make them coherent or persuasive. Part of America is its built-in back and forth on issues. As with Sarah Palin, the sooner we stop publicly fretting over people without any intellectual portfolio, the sooner their thoughts will be silenced - silenced not because of government intervention, but because the ideas are empty of value.
periscope
I agree up to a point. Although I am not in favor of censorship or any violation of the first amendment's free speech provisions, I do worry about the demagogues amongst us. While Limbaugh is now seen by most as the malicious clown that he is, he remains an inciter for hate, racism and fascism.
My concern is that if the nation were to devolve into a depression or if there were a series of additional 9/11s, these frauds on Fox Noise and elsewhere could probably scare the nation into irreversibly destructive policies.
vulgrin
HEAR HEAR! Stop giving the crazies press time, all you are doing is giving them what they want.
Instead, lets talk about our own ideas, our own vision of the future and actually do something about it.
blist14ant
keith olbermann brings communist and sociolists on his show remember the green jobs guy who is a communist on his show who is part of obama administration.
OffenbachStutz
Dear Blist14ant: I like it when he brings sociologists on his show! And punctuationists, too. But I sure do agree with you- those commiepinko
Obama-lovers have got to go!
connie47
blist14ant
At first I couldn't figure out WTF you're talking about, so I searched it online. You're quoting Ann Coulter, perhaps the single most viral, hateful, nasty female on Earth. She called Van Jones (the Olberman guest to whom you refer) as Is Van Jones as ".... a watermelon: green on the outside, red on the inside."
After coming near people like you and Ann Coulter, I like to take a bath.
blist14ant
no i dont like ann coulter im just speaking the truth
and the communist green jobs guy was on keith olbermann and many other crazy liberals.
all sides have there crazies
MariosRight
Good research Connie! Doesn't take much to debunk most rightie posts.
Thanks.
connie47
Thanks, Marios. I forgot to add the gentleman Coulter called "a watermelon: green on the outside, red on the inside," is black, putting her own twist on the old oreo thing. What a nasty piece of work she is.
nickatdabeach
who watches Olbermann, or that boy-girl Rachel Madcow?
nickatdabeach
glad to know you bathe occasionally connie, makes my day
keepakeeper43
connie47
now i also gotta go wash up after being on the same page as nickybeachy and his slurposts!
Picachu
This is all part of the manipulation of the American people the republican party has perpetrated over the last 30 years. Using social issues and distorting them, or just making things up they have convinced the American people to elect republican majorities (prior to 2008) that set the stage for the excess corporate greedfest that nearly brought our nation and the world to economic ruin. We see in the healthcare reform "debate" that they employ tactics to kill any meaningful reform so that they can continue the status quo with corporations making billions selling overpriced drugs, excessively expensive hospital stays, insurance (to those who can pay), rationing the best healthcare to the wealthy and leaving millions of americans to catch as catch can. Meanwhile right wing organs like Faux News are using the loony bin right to further distract the people from real issues. We need a second American revolution. This would come in the form of voting out 535 people in congress and replacing them with folks who are dedicated to the overall well being of the people, running the lobbyist out of DC, setting term limits on congress to end the age of career politicians, and meaningful campaign finance reforms so that office seekers don't need millions to contend for office. Another part of the second revolution would be for we the people to quit being so lazy, push ourselves away from watching American Idol and Survivor, and start paying a little attention to what is going on, and demanding more from our elected officials. We the people must should a large portion of the blame for things being what they are. We need another revolution, but not over the fringe loony bin issues proffered by the far right, but to take back government of the people, by the people, for the people instead of government beholden to the moneyed special interests.
DustyMills
I couldn't agree more, Picachu. Let's start the movement by getting rid of the greedy, ineffective Congress.
newswoman
That was so well put, Picachu. We have become sheep. Those of us who do care, do nothing, and those who don't think, take their news from Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter, etc who call middle class people, 'elites'' and support the religious right who only care about abortion, not the real issues affecting our lives.
liviapeacock
Its important that Liberals like myself don't get worked into a lather over these moronic crazies. If nobody pays attention to an obnoxious child, he soon tires and goes and finds something else to do.
morgana
Usually that obnoxious child grows up to be....Rush, Diaper boy Dave Vitter, I married my cousin but nobody told me Rudy, etc.
AlwaysOptimistic
A study just showed that the "base" of the Republican party is made up of the most "uneducated" people in our democracy. These are the same people who watch FAUX news....That say's it all.
MadMatt35F
A study just proved that every time you generalize an entire party you sound elitist and further drive people away from yourself.
Here is an idea: focus on the issues. There are nuts, losers, adulators, and morons on both sides of the aisle. If you focus on the issues we will move forward instead of in eight year circles.
topguy
Isn't Napolitano gay?
BullMoose
He looks like buddy Hackett after a night on the town.
blist14ant
kieth olberman bring crazies on his show sociolists, communist and more.
judge napolitano is not a crazy but a libertarian.
this writer picks the craziest people hhe brings and write bad comments about them. this writer could be a crazy herself
Picachu
If you are a fan of napolitano I think you have a lot of gall calling anybody else crazy. You are a loony bin right wing nut.
blist14ant
napolitano is not a nut. your just made because you are a communist yourself lol
roger37
Blist, you haven't even mastered the King's English yet, so please STFU, OK? Then when you get your GED go to the library and check out a Political Science high school textbook to see how socialism and communism is defined. Your liberry will be listed in your Yellow Pages.
lyleleander
How do you expect people to take your seriously when you write that poorly? Seriously.
Notice how these people who couldn't write their way out of a wet paper sack are INVARIABLY right-wing and lunatic? And the more right-wing, the worse writing.
Ritarita
It's a troll
Lyle-
Just trying to get
A rise out of you.
newswoman
I love Keith Olbermann, tho' he does tend to rant sometimes. He doesn't lie or shade the truth. And having people of differing views on his show is what a newsperson SHOULD do. That's why MSNBC is such a good channel. The morning show has people from 'both sides of the aisle' and people who are conservative and people who are liberal, and the discouse is cordial!!
Thank you.
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