Snowflake Snooki Breaks Out Her Abacus

Brain stem to nowhere.

From the LA Times:

Television commentator and half-term Alaska governor Sarah Palin trashed the National Endowment for the Arts recently, describing the agency as "frivolous" in a Thursday interview on a Fox News talk show. "NPR, National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, all those kind of frivolous things that government shouldn't be in the business of funding with tax dollars -- those should all be on the chopping block as we talk about the $14-trillion debt that we're going to hand to our kids and our grandkids," Palin told right-wing host Sean Hannity. "Yes, those are the type of things that for more than one reason need to be cut."
Palin did not elaborate on what the other reasons might be for chopping the NEA budget. But the government of every major civilization in world history has also prominently funded the arts.
The comment about the NEA came during a discussion of the ailing U.S. economy. Palin is certainly conversant with frivolous activity, but her grasp of the economy is weak.
Debt reduction would barely be affected by penciling out the small federal arts agency, which currently operates on a $161-million annual budget. Palin's support of a federal subsidy for the notorious "bridge to nowhere" in her state became a campaign issue when she ran for vice president on the 2008 Republican ticket. That local project carried a price tag of $223 million.
"Reality is we have 15 million Americans who are out of work," said Palin. Nationally, the nonprofit arts and culture industry supports 5.7 million jobs and generates $166.2 billion in annual economic activity, according to Americans for the Arts. The NEA is one linchpin in that sizable economy.
In the interview Palin made no statement advocating similar budget cuts to her home state as she recommended for the NEA, which is also in the cross hairs of Washington's Republican leadership. Palin's Alaska gets $1.84 in federal spending for every dollar its citizens pay in federal taxes.

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Shall We Wake Rupert?

Taking Beck’s 9am-noon slot is the local Dom Giordano, currently 6-10pm. Then comes Rush Limbaugh, noon-3pm, and (Michael) Smerconish – who replaces Sean Hannity.

H/T: Mediaite

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Goebbels' Spawn.

You've heard about the gutless shenanigans emanating from the wretched right that resulted in the abhorrent treatment of former USDA official Shirley Sherrod. You know that the Obama White House, the NAACP, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack and some--not all--of what's left of America's media were taken for a ride by Internet scumbag Andrew Breitbart. (If Breitbart is somehow unfamiliar to you, click here for more background on a schmuck.)

Breitbart, of course, is but one in a long (long) line of right-wing propagandists masquerading as truth-tellers. Too bad the Adults in Charge of Knowing Better don't.

Memo to Barack Obama: drop the bipartisan facade and fight the fuck back! And to the rest of you--the Cabinet Secretaries and civil rights organizations and actual newspeople: do your jobs and please--please--begin to actually be the Adults in Charge of Knowing Better...

Daily Dope--Sean Hannity: "If You Look Up The Dictionary Definition Of Socialism, This Is It."

Sean Hannity is running out of material.

Bill Quigley is the Legal Director for the Center for Constitutional Rights, and he points out 9 myths about socialism in the U.S.:

The fact is that the US is not really all that generous to our working and poor people compared to other countries.

Consider the US in comparison to the rest of the 30 countries that join the US in making up the OECD -- the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. These 30 countries include Canada and most comparable European countries but also include some struggling countries like Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Korea, Mexico, Poland, Slovak Republic, and Turkey.

Myth #1. The US government is involved in class warfare attacking the rich to lift up the poor.
There is a class war going on all right. But it is the rich against the rest of us and the rich are winning. The gap between the rich and everyone else is wider in the US than any of the 30 other countries surveyed. In fact, the top 10% in the US have a higher annual income than any other country. And the poorest 10% in the US are below the average of the other OECD countries. The rich in the U.S. have been rapidly leaving the middle class and poor behind since the 1980s.
Myth #2. The US already has the greatest health care system in the world.
Infant mortality in the US is 4th worst among OECD countries -- better only than Mexico, Turkey and the Slovak Republic.
Myth #3. There is less poverty in the US than anywhere.
Child poverty in the US, at over 20% or one out of every five kids, is double the average of the 30 OECD countries.
Myth #4. The US is generous in its treatment of families with children.
The US ranks in the bottom half of countries in terms of financial benefits for families with children. Over half of the 30 OECD countries pay families with children cash benefits regardless of the income of the family. Some among those countries (e.g. Austria, France and Germany) pay additional benefits if the family is low-income, or one of the parents is unemployed.
Myth #5. The US is very supportive of its workers.
The US gives no paid leave for working mothers having children. Every single one of the other 30 OECD countries has some form of paid leave. The US ranks dead last in this. Over two thirds of the countries give some form of paid paternity leave. The US also gives no paid leave for fathers.
In fact, it is only workers in the US who have no guaranteed days of paid leave at all. Korea is the next lowest to the US and it has a minimum of 8 paid annual days of leave. Most of the other 30 countries require a minimum of 20 days of annual paid leave for their workers.
Myth #6. Poor people have more chance of becoming rich in the US than anywhere else.
Social mobility (how children move up or down the economic ladder in comparison with their parents) in earnings, wages and education tends to be easier in Australia, Canada and Nordic countries like Denmark, Norway, and Finland, than in the US. That means more of the rich stay rich and more of the poor stay poor here in the US.
Myth #7. The US spends generously on public education.
In terms of spending for public education, the US is just about average among the 30 countries of the OECD. Educational achievement of US children, however, is 7th worst in the OECD. On public spending for childcare and early education, the US is in the bottom third.
Myth #8. The US government is redistributing income from the rich to the poor.
There is little redistribution of income by government in the U.S. in part because spending on social benefits like unemployment and family benefits is so low. Of the 30 countries in the OECD, only in Korea is the impact of governmental spending lower.
Myth #9. The US generously gives foreign aid to countries across the world.
The US gives the smallest percentage of aid of any of the developed countries in the OECD. In 2007 the US was tied for last with Greece. In 2008, we were tied for last with Japan.
Despite the opinions of right wing folks, the facts say the US is not on the path towards socialism.
But if socialism means the US would go down the path of being more generous with our babies, our children, our working families, our pregnant mothers, and our sisters and brothers across the world, I think we could all appreciate it.

Sean Hannity. Same dope who thinks Sarah Palin is smarter than the president.

So much inanity, so little time...

(H/T: HuffPo.)

Hannity's America (Without The Fox News Edits.)

I recently mentioned Fox News fuckwad Sean Hannity's denials regarding racist and homophobic slurs during the last weekend of the health care reform debate. His panel--comprised of D-list conservative media rejects with Ann Coulter fetishes--nodded like the bobblehead doggy in the rear window of Rupert's limousine. I imagine Hannity's own nodding noggin at that News Corp meeting when Fox announced they'd be going all-in on Glenn Beck.

An indignant Hannity claimed that he would offer cash for the video.

Here ya go, asshole.

Here is Sean Hannity's e-mail address. Another one is: hannity@foxnews.com. Remember, Hannity also promised to be waterboarded for charity and wound up lying about that, too, so good luck getting this failed construction worker-turned-TV/radio-shouter-turned-opportunistic-teabagger to come clean on his latest bullying boast. But, please--send him a little reminder...

And, Sean: pay the f#&% up.

Sean Hannity: Still In The Running For Top Honors As "America's Douchebag."

You know, Sean, I've called you an ignorant, lying motherf&#@$! on many occasions. To the best of my knowledge, nobody has ever filmed me saying it and put it up on YouTube. But I can assure you that I said it.
Maybe you'd enlighten yourself by reading accounts of the racist Teabagger taunts, including this excerpt from your own company:

Reps. John Lewis, D-Ga, and Andre Carson, D-Ind., both members of the Congressional Black Caucus, said that a group of protesters hollered at them and called them the N-word.
"They were just shouting. Harassing," Lewis told Fox News. "People being downright mean."
Kristie Greco, spokeswoman for Democratic Whip Jim Clyburn, said a protester spit on Rep. Emanuel Cleaver who is black and said police escorted the lawmakers into the Capitol. Cleaver's office said he would decline to press charges, but Sgt. Kimberly Schneider of the U.S. Capitol Police said in an e-mail later: "We did not make any arrests today."
Clyburn, who led fellow black students in integrating South Carolina's public facilities a half century ago, called the behavior "absolutely shocking."
"I heard people saying things today that I have not heard since March 15, 1960, when I was marching to try to get off the back of the bus," Clyburn told reporters.

But no videotape of those specific events has yet emerged, you say, so I guess they never happened, right, Sean?

We've seen how easily snowed you are by videotape (see "O'Keefe, James.") We've also seen how fast and loose you play with your own show's distorted, out-of-context editing to twist a piece of tape into your own fetid Fox fiction.

Now you're denying last weekend's racist and homophobic slurs simply because they haven't (yet) shown up on YouTube?

What about Lincoln's assassination, Sean? I haven't seen that videotape yet; have you?

You'd better get Glenn Beck on the case; it's getting cold...

Hannity: "I Need Hooker Boots And Condoms."

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Tip/Wag - James O'Keefe & Sean Hannity
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Skate Expectations

Given Sean Hannity's full-throated support of James O'Keefe's heavily-edited and deceptive ACORN videos (although the Fox f#ckwad hasn't mentioned O'Keefe since his l'il buddy's Louisiana arrest), do you think he's rooting for Colbert's duPont-Columbia Award?

Dana Perino & Teabag TV: Welcome To The Theater Of The Absurd.

There's No Business Like Show Business.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Sean Hannity Apologizes to Jon
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

PERSECUTED!!! The Sarah Palin Story.

Find it in the fiction section...


Really? Sarah Palin--built in the Lab of Desperate Last Chances by John McCain and well-oiled by the equally desperate right-wing hee-haw machine--is being persecuted? By the media? Which media? The fawning, fake kind like Teabag TV and talk radio? Or the evil mainstream kind, many of whom have merely reported on the illiterate, incompetent, thin-skinned, media-whorish quitter?

I guess I'll just have to wait until Sean Hannity exposes the truth!

(I wonder if he'll be using more disingenuous teabag footage to 'splain it to the rubes?)

Knock Me Over With A Feather.

Post-Bush Administration Talking Points Memos, Fox News Struggles To Come Up With Its Own Material.

Go Back East, Little Man.

Hey dumbass: those pumps have been on since June 30th.

Gee, Sean, I'm thinking that another good use might be for that "waterboarding for charity" you promised and didn't deliver on.

Read the Deptartment of the Interior's report here.

And Sean? Go back to New York and shut the fu*k up.

Teabag Nation Is All Foxed Up.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Mad Men
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Healthcare Protests

Old Radio Racists Never Die, They Just Get Rehired.

If you are a regular visitor to JackRabbit Café, you may be aware of the extraordinarily low opinion voiced here over the radio (and talk-TV) antics of Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly--hell, the entire FOX News line-up--as well as those of their titular leader, the vile Rush Limbaugh. What you may not know is that their sickening schtick is really just a warmed-over version of Bob Grant.

Grant was fired by New York's WABC in 1996 as the result of an effective campaign to get his racist, xenophobic ass off the public airwaves.

As you've read on this blog, ColorofChange.org has had some success excising over 30 of Beck's advertisers, although there is little chance the right-wing FOX News will be showing him the door unless he shoots Roger Ailes in the face live, on-air at the top of the hour.

WABC is the current radio home of a plethora of drooling conservative talkers; Limbaugh, Hannity, Mark Levin, ex-Guardian Angel dipshit Curtis Sliwa and--beginning next month--the returning Grandpappy of Raving Bullshit, Bob Grant.

Almost 18 years ago to the day of Grant's unwelcome return to the airwaves, an already-deified Limbaugh roasted him at the Friar's Club in New York, with his usual blend of hatred, racism and factless stupidity.

I've included it here if you can stomach it. And, hey--I hope Grant gets thrown off the air again soon:

Convicted Perjurer Mark Fuhrman: "This Is How Riots Start."

Mark Fuhrman, explaining the, um, non-existence of racial profiling in "Hannity's America" to a drooling, knuckle-dragging, basement-dwelling gang of birther, racist mutants and one of their cement-headed, talking-head point men.

Talk Radio: Sucking The Air Out Of The Room.

According to a 2007 Gallup poll, one in five Americans turns to talk radio as a daily news source. Considering that it's not even news, that's rather disconcerting.

Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Mark Levin and dozens of other loudmouths on talk radio stations nationwide continue to lie about health care. Limbaugh goes so far as to say there isn't a health care crisis at all:

Conservative columnist Cal Thomas lies about the liars on FOX News (which is just videotaped talk radio, anyway):

Joesph Goebbels himself couldn't have designed a propaganda network as deeply penetrating as conservative talk radio. As posted previously on JackRabbit Café, Limbaugh's success comes largely through his syndicator's policy of offering his show for free to hundreds of small and medium-sized radio stations across the country in exchange for ad time. It's called "vertical integration," which really means that as you scan the AM dial, there is no escaping the feverish screaming from the right.

Here is broadcast journalist Sue Wilson on AlterNet:

Drive across the seven states they represent: Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Ohio, Tennessee, and Utah, turn on your car radio, and you'll know why public opinion has changed. According to Pew research, 22 percent of Americans get their news from talk radio. And conservative talkers have been lying to their listeners about what's in the health care bill.

Lies from Sean Hannity like, "If you don't have private insurance the year that this bill is passed, you can't get that later on from your employer." Lies from Rush Limbaugh that the bill would "outlaw individual private coverage." Lies provided in talking points from the Republican National Committee like "Democrats are proposing a government controlled health insurance system, which will control care, treatments, medicines and even what doctors a patient may see."

Tell a lie often enough, and people will believe it.

And there is nobody there to call them on their lies. Nobody there to set the record straight. Nobody to push back against the propaganda that corporate radio promotes in its own political self interest. In the Blue Dog Seven states, just three stations broadcast any kind of progressive talk. Three progressive radio stations in seven entire states. But Sean Hannity "freely" prevaricates on dozens of radio stations; Rush Limbaugh deceives people on 98 in those seven states alone. 98 publicly owned frequencies where public debate comes second to selling ads for Snapple.

Special assistant to the President for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy, Susan Crawford told Broadcasting and Cable magazine, "The administration understands the important role traditional terrestrial broadcasting continues to play."

Maybe they should be listening to FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, who says in Broadcast Blues, "If you're concerned about health care or you're concerned about the environment as your number one issue, fine, but a piece of advice from me, is you better make media reform your number two issue, because you won't get anywhere on number one without media reform."

America's Newest Senator Sure Has FOX News In A Tizzy!

Is it because Al has caught O'Reilly in so many lies?

Or is it because FOX News just can't handle the truth?

It's His Tea Party And He'll Kill If He Wants To.

From blog.wired.com with a h/t to Christie Keith:

An Oklahoma City man who announced on Twitter that he would turn an April 15 tax protest into a bloodbath was hit with a federal charge of making interstate threats last week, in what appears to be first criminal prosecution to stem from posts on the microblogging site.

Daniel Knight Hayden, 52, was arrested by FBI agents who identified him as the Twitter user CitizenQuasar. In a series of tweets beginning April 11, CitizenQuasar vowed to start a "war" against the government on the steps of the Oklahoma City Capitol building, the site of that city's version of the national "Tea Party" protests promoted by the conservative-leaning Fox News.

"START THE KILLING NOW! I am willing to be the FIRST DEATH!," read a tweet at 8:01 PM that day. "After I am killed on the Capitol Steps, like a REAL man, the rest of you will REMEMBER ME!!!," he added five minutes later. Then: "Send the cops around. I will cut their heads off the heads and throw the[m] on the State Capitol steps."

Hayden's MySpace page is a breathtaking gallery of right wing memes about the "New World Order," gun control as Nazi fascism, and Barack Obama's covert use of television hypnosis, among many others.

Hmm. Didn't the right-wing echo chamber take offense to the recent Department of Homeland Security report warning of this type of threat, even though the report never uses the word "conservative"? 

Michelle Malkin: By contrast, the piece of crap report issued on April 7 is a sweeping indictment of conservatives. And the intent is clear. As the two spokespeople I talked with on the phone today made clear: They both pinpointed the recent “economic downturn” and the “general state of the economy” for stoking “rightwing extremism.” One of the spokespeople said he was told that the report has been in the works for a year. My b.s. detector went off the chart, and yours will, too, if you read through the entire report — which asserts with no evidence that an unquantified “resurgence in rightwing extremist recruitment and radicalizations activity” is due to home foreclosures, job losses, and…the historical presidential election.

Glenn Beck: Well, now we have the report from DHS on rightwing extremists. You will see in this report why I didn't run to get this on the air because this report is extremist. This report will show you the things to come. It is phenomenal that this is a government document. 

Sean Hannity: “I'm not Ron Paul's biggest fan but if you have a Ron Paul bumper sticker, you might be viewed as a radical by the government...(w)hat do you think of that interpretation, especially coming from a guy that started his political career in the home of an unrepentant terrorist who bombed our Pentagon and Capitol and sat in Rev. Wright's church for 20 years?”

Rush Limbaugh: I had a report, I got this at 2:30 yesterday afternoon.  I just didn't have a chance to work it in yesterday.  It's this Department of Homeland Security report, it's nine pages, I've got the PDF here, and, by the way, this speech of Obama's and the DHS report yesterday are timed for one reason and that's the tea parties tomorrow.  This speech, the primary purpose of this speech is to take any glow off the tea parties.  The media is going to report on this speech later this afternoon and tell you about how great the economy is doing, how on top of it Obama is, how it's going to be a little while before it rebounds but it's coming back, and in having used that as the setup, they'll then go to videotape of the tea parties where they'll try to mock what's going on with these people, just agitators with no real reason behind what they're doing.  So this speech is designed to totally blunt the tea parties, which are grassroots affairs that will happen all over America tomorrow.  The DHS report, this comes from the Department of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano.  Now, when you read this whole thing, and it doesn't take long to read it, it's only nine pages, you can go to various places and read summaries of it as well.  For example, there is no proof here, no proof offered, no evidence offered that anything they project is true. 

Is a pissed-off teabagger tweeting death threats proof enough for you, fat ass?