Sean Hannity is such a mediocre nobody, which is apparently all it takes these days to be on TV these days. There is a rebellion against intelligence in this nation.
Michelle Obama recently appeared on Mike Huckabee's show (it will be posted here when it's available). The rightwing has such misperceptions about Michelle Obama because they view her through their own tainted world view. They don't have the ability to reason.
Hannity thinks he has a chance for a sit down with Obama. Ha! Dream on. Hannity is low life. I'd be shocked if Obama ever went on his show. O'Reilly, yes. Hannity, never.
Huckabee says he doesn't believe that Obama's motive is to destroy this country. It's kind of weird that he has to say that but Hannity puts him in that position:
Here is a preview of Michelle Obama on Huckabee's show:
This is why the wingnuts have been so anxious to label Fort Hood a terrorist attack-- so that they can blame Obama for a terrorist attack on "our soil" and insinuate that it's the Obama presidency that is encouraging terrorists and that Obama is a terrorist sympathizer. I get it now. Took me long enough. Whew. That's a grand leap that wingnuts are making, but I see how wingnuts perceive it this way, especially since most wingnuts think Obama is Muslim and the other core wingnut belief is that Islam is an evil religion. Only Christians are good, according to them. Does anyone see the irony? I think Dana Perino knows better. She's just playing politics, exploiting wingnuts, a meek group of conspiracists. I could be wrong. She might be a full fledged wingnut. The difference between a republican and a democrat? Republicans are absolutely ruthless. They'll use whatever means for political ends. They'll sign on to any bandwagon so long as it serves their purpose.
Newt Gingrich isn't extreme enough. To be relevant in the fringe today you have say what Jon Voight said at the tea party protest at the Capitol today: "Obama has subconscious programming by Rev. Wright to damn America." To be a tea partier, you have to believe Obama is a socialist and you have to believe he was born in Kenya. The tea party doesn't like Newt. He's too mainstream. Hannity and Newt attempt to save their fringe credibility:
Did people really think Lieberman was going to change his stripes because Harry Reid said so? John McCain suggests to Sean Hannity that Joe Lieberman could be bribed to vote for the public option. I thought they were best buddies? This time I'm with Hannity. There's a fine line between a bribe and negotiations. If Lieberman gets a special project for being a jerk, then that's pretty lame. It's good that Reid at least started with the public option.
One other thing, Lieberman ought to keep his mouth shut. He already said he isn't going to support the public option, so get out of the way:
Poor Sean Hannity is feeling down. Newt Gingrich is boosting his wingnut cred by saying if the health reform bill passes, it will be repealed. That ought to stir the tea partiers:
In Minnesota, the only thing people are interested in is jobs. Michele Bachmann's got that part right. But Bachmann, who has proven herself to be the wackiest of all, is clearly a birther. Watch how she avoids Larry King's question on whether she's with the birthers. She's playing to both constituents--normal people and people like herself.
Now Hannity and his ilk are likening Obama to the mob. Mark Levin says Obama is giving terrorists more rights than Americans. That's just ludicrous. Enough already. These people are spreading nothing but hate. They're sickening. The lies they're spreading about health care are unbelievable. It's hard to believe that rational people are falling for this crap. And what do these people have with ACORN? Geez. They're obsessed. I think Obama should take health care off the table. And while he's at it, he should cancel Medicare/Medicaid and maybe "patriotic Americans" will learn something. Dismantle Health and Human Services. Then we'll all be getting into the same boat. And we'll be saving a lot of money! The thing is, we might be able to get a good bill if there was actually a legitimate debate but these ignorant thug types won't let a debate happen. What's probably going to happen is we'll get a skeleton bill, a crummy bill. I don't think they should pass anything until it's a decent bill. Obama and the democrats should ride out the mobs. Let them yell until they're blue in the face, but keep working on it if it takes all of next year.
Jon Stewart calls the right wing talk of fascism Baracknophobia and he aptly pokes fun at the absurdity of the likes of Michele Bachmann, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck... The funny thing is that these folks are so out of touch with America, yet they think they're the majority. In my opinion, however, they've crossed the line and are inciting too many vulnerable people to violence. That's not funny.
Hannity, Rush and the rest of the small minded ilk have been whining about the reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine, saying that the "liberal machine" wants to get them off the air. Well, it was all for naught and it was all for theater, riling up listeners for no good reason other than to line their pockets with more money. When will listeners realize they're being played?
AP: The Senate voted Wednesday to bar federal regulators from reimposing a policy, abandoned two decades ago, that required balanced coverage of issues on public airwaves. The pre-emptive strike against the so-called Fairness Doctrine has been actively pushed by conservative radio talk show hosts who have warned that Democrats would seek to revive the policy to ensure that liberal opinions get equal time. The 87-11 vote added the measure as an amendment to a bill giving District of Columbia residents a vote in the Houses. Most Democrats voted along with the amendment, pushed by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., but said it was unneeded because President Barack Obama has stated he has no intention of reviving the Fairness Doctrine. They added that it is generally recognized that it is no longer relevant with the proliferation of television networks, some 14,000 AM-FM radio stations and the Internet.
Perhaps no one expresses Hannity's irrelevancy better than Lord Tantrum:
Raging Tantrum: You fear-mongering asshole! For months you’ve shrieked indignantly about the return of the “Fairness Doctrine”– despite NO INDICATION that it had ANY chance of passing. Barack Obama did not want to re-institute it. Most Democrats in Congress had no interest in bringing it back.
But you needed something to talk about. Far be it from you to paint your political opponents in anything but the worst possible light.
Your party got their butt kicked this election cycle because their policies failed. You didn’t have much to go on, so you started making things up.
We personally heard you say on your show a few weeks back that “they’ll have to tear the microphone out of my cold dead hands.”
The most meaningful way for Rush and Sean Hannity and the like to go off the air is for people to wise up and stop listening.
Nancy Pelosi's daughter's film debuts tonight on HBO.
Salon: When Alexandra Pelosi made the Emmy-winning documentary "Journeys With George" in 2000, about her 18 months on the campaign trail with soon-to-be-President George W. Bush, her mother, Nancy, was not yet speaker of the House, and the name "Pelosi" was not yet an epithet on the lips of Republicans.
Eight years later, Pelosi went back out on the GOP campaign trail and into the lion's den, in the waning days of John McCain's failed bid for the White House. In her latest film, "Right America: Feeling Wronged," which debuts on HBO Monday night, Pelosi attends McCain and Sarah Palin rallies in 28 states and puts her microphone in the faces of some very passionate conservatives. As defeat looms, she watches the Republican base go through a very public grieving process, with most of the stages that psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross described -- denial, depression and a whole lot of anger -- but not very much acceptance. Salon spoke to Pelosi by phone.
Early in the film Sean Hannity points to you in front of a McCain crowd and says, "That's Nancy Pelosi's daughter." And you respond, "You're going to get me lynched." Did you ever feel endangered or like there was any personal animus toward you during the making of this film?
Well, of course there was. But I'm trying to focus on the friends that I made in the red states instead of focusing on all the unchristian experiences that I had while traveling across America. It's easy to go out and make enemies. I think all the cable news programs go with the intention of stirring the pot. I was really genuinely trying to get to know some of the Republican base.
Thousands and thousands, hundreds of thousands of people showed up to see the McCain-Palin ticket. Maybe a dozen people humiliated me -- you know, embarrassed me and made me feel really unwanted. I don't want to paint the whole lot of the Republican base as mean-spirited and cruel and unfriendly. To me it's more interesting to focus on the real Christian conservatives who didn't agree with anything I had to say but invited me over for dinner so that we could talk about it.
Did you go out there with the expectation that the polls were probably right and the candidate whose supporters you were interviewing was probably going to lose?
Well, more than 58 million people voted for John McCain, and I know that everyone on the coasts is on an Obama honeymoon right now, and they seem to forget that more than 58 million people did not want Barack Obama to be their president. And when I was traveling over the summer and I would go to rallies and 20,000 people would be there, it's hard to say I knew Obama was going to win. They had some real enthusiasm at these events for the GOP ticket. So, I did not go out presupposing that Barack Obama was going to be president. I wasn't trying to make a point about, "Ooh, he's going to be president and here are the losers, let's go check out what they have to say."
They had huge crowds, and I felt they were really underrepresented in the media. I didn’t feel like I saw these people on TV. And when I went out to talk to people, the first thing they would say to me was, "I can't believe you're talking to me." They were so flattered that I wanted to hear what they had to say because they'd say, "The media doesn't listen to us. You turn on the TV and all you see is Obama nation and you don't see us." They had some points. My liberal friends, I have to remind them that they have some really good points. No. 1, the media did not fairly represent them in this election. Obama was on the cover of every magazine all summer long. I understand Obama sold magazines. It's a business. But when you've got a presidential election and you have half of the country feeling really underrepresented, I think that's a real problem. And I think that's a bigger problem than Obama versus McCain.
Every day. It was much more common than you'd think. In the heat of an election, people say some crazy things. And in the case of the gentleman you're talking about, I have talked to him since then and this is just the way he sees it. I heard that every single day. It was much more common than you'd think. And I think that a lot of them were mimicking things they heard on right-wing radio. Read more
This is how I not so fondly remember McCain/Palin rallies:
Ah, and remember Fox "news" helping out:
And remember this charming video:
This one was especially unnerving. The thing is, these people have not gone away and representing them now are the House republicans:
See it here. The skit opens the show and it's pretty funny. Republicans, led by Dan Aykroyd as John Boehner, are sitting around a table considering their irrelevancy and wondering who's smarter, Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh. They also raise the issue of White House sleepovers and the effect on the taxpayer. Precious. "The whole country is waiting to see those Obama kids taken down a peg, especially the younger one," says Republican Whip Eric Cantor (Andy Samberg). Boehner (Aykroyd) agrees it's political gold.
Update: If you don't want to read through my live blogging, here is the Q&A transcript of the Elkhart town hall. The video of Obama's remarks before the Q&A is below. At a town hall in Elkhart, Obama says the bill is not perfect -- it comes out of Washington. Laughter. But the bill is the right size and it's necessary. Obama said no one was screened for the questions asked. There are some people who like me in the audience, some people who don't. With that, here comes the Q&A portion and I guess I'm live blogging. All paraphrased, of course. Helen: When the money comes to Elkhart, will the money come directly into Elkhart? O: There will be an independent bipartisan board that will review how the money's being spent. Recovery.gov will tell you where your money is going. If you see a project that's not being spent wisely, you can give a call. The people in Elkhart seem to be with Obama, contrary to the legislators who have been saying that the stimulus has no support. An Elkhartian (is that right?) reminds Obama that Obama's serving the people not the fat cats, so tax cuts need to go to the people. mic out. mic back. O: Tax cuts targeted to working people has more impact on the economy. Obama takes this opportunity to talk about getting the banks lending again. Many people seem to be confused between the stimulus and the bank bailout. An audience member, who clearly opposes Obama (she listens to Sean Hannity and apparently Hannity invited Obama out for beer - as if), says his cabinet is not trustworthy. The audience boos the woman. Obama says it's okay. It's a legitimate concern. I know the individuals at issue personally and they made honest mistakes. If you're not going to appoint anyone who's not made a mistake you won't have anyone taking a job, he said. I don't want to send the signal that there are two sets of rules. I set up unprecedented ethics rules in my White House, the highest standard ever. We are changing the culture in Washington and it's taking some time. Of Sean Hannity, Obama said he didn't realize Hannity invited him for a beer. But said Hannity isn't his largest fan. Hannity is a goober and it's too bad people are sucked up by goobers. (That's my comment. Obama didn't call Hannity a goober). An audience member asks about green technology in the stimulus. Obama says clean energy has a multiplier effect. It puts people to work and has the long-term effect of creating more jobs and producing clean energy. We need to use this crisis as an opportunity, he said. Q: Home foreclosures. A: Home foreclosures is both a cause and effect of the downturn. We will unveil a series of plans for those on the brink and those whose mortgages are more than the value of their home, which makes getting financing difficult. Obama said they're going to make it so that if you just own one house, you can get your house loan modified, whereas now, if you have multiple houses, you have that advantage. Obama reminds people that the house in DC is the people's house, a house that I'm borrowing. Q: A man said he opted to keep his friends and neighbors employed by keeping his business in Elkhart and not going to China. Loud cheers. He asks about renewable energy rebates for companies such as his. A: We need to pass a renewable energy standard, which says to utilities they need to get 15% of energy from renewables, which will attract investors. We need tax credits for renewable energy. The third thing is to do what California utilities are doing, making money on how much energy customers save. If you install a solar panel, you can sell some of that energy back when you're not using it. Most utilities are making money on how much energy you use. The fourth thing, improve science research and development. The price is still high for renewables, so we need to keep developing to bring down the price. The country that figures out how to make cheap clean energy will come out ahead in the future. Obama moves on to education. The senate cut some of the education dollars and we need to talk about that moving forward. Last question from James, 9: What are you going to do to help our schools? O: We need to rebuild them to make sure they're state of the art. We need teacher retraining and need to reform how we do business at schools. We need to assess performance at schools. That's it folks. I'll post video when it's up, which will be more coherent than my speed typing. The people of Elkhart didn't ask the question I wanted answered: How will the money be doled out? How do mayors, governors tap this money? Apparently, this kind of thing will be made available at Recovery.gov. Obama's 15 minute intro. I'll post the Q&A part when it's available.
Update: Of all the important things Obama said today, this is the most popular, turns out. Apparently, the woman who told Obama that his cabinet is not to be trusted also was on Sean Hannity's show to tell him she was booed. This reminds me of the good ol' Palin rallies.
Extremists, who give conservatives a bad name, just can't face up to an Obama presidency. It's deep-rooted racism. No doubt about it, at least according to me.
Saltsman (here's his email: inbox@chipsaltsman.com) is actually a candidate to chair the RNC. If this is the state of the RNC, they'll need 8 years, at least, to grow up.
TPM: If one of the Republican Party's challenges is how to effectively oppose the first black president without coming off as racist, one of the candidates for RNC chair is hardly off to a good start -- he is now distributing a CD that includes a racially-charged song called "Barack, The Magic Negro."
Sean Hannity is leading a "resistance" to the Obama administration:
Radimist: Since the election, Hannity has described his radio show as the outpost of "the conservative underground," as if a show that's legally on over 500 stations could be underground in any real sense of that word. There is little doubt that there are many conservatives who think America will become a radical country under the Democrats and last night I heard on Mike Gallagher's show of a group that is trying to organize these people - Grassfire.
At the Grassfire web site, you get an idea of the immaturity at work here. What's not good is this kind of thing inspires lunatics to violence. If you head to freerepublic.com (under Obamatruthfile), you'll often see violence against Obama in code. No kidding. Here's a passage of the Grassfire-led "resistance:"
Resisting is just the first step. That is why we propose a three-phased recovery for conservatives: Resist, Rebuild, and Restore. We believe that resisting will create newfound unity among conservatives. Out of this, we must then Rebuild our structures. New, invigorating models must be developed that inform, equip and bring together conservatives and prepare us to return our ideas to political prominence. The Internet will be a key battleground The Left has moved far ahead in its embrace of and usage of new 2.0 technologies. The Rebuild process will leave Americans with a clear ideological and practical choice between the Left’s statist model and our model based on God-given individual liberties.
Having rebuilt, we can then Restore conservative ideas to leadership by winning elections. Ultimately, a movement’s ideas must result in electoral victories because that is the basis for legitimate authority and ultimately for implementing one’s ideas. Grassfire.org will soon be announcing a breakthrough effort that will allow our members to get engaged directly in the election process. Stay tuned.
Resist. Rebuild. Restore. It’s not an easy path for grassroots conservatives, but it is a clear path. We know what we must do. And it begins with resisting rightly —respecting the new President but never backing away from the God-given ideals of freedom and liberty upon which this nation was founded.
I have to believe that Sean Hannity is also concerned about his ratings. You can also find Obama resistance from, believe it or not, the Pumas. You remember them. They believe Obama is a stealth Muslim terrorist, the guy who stole the election from Hillary.
Another strain of resistors are the ones who claim Obama isn't eligible to be president. The nutty Wiley Drake, a pastor of all things, is hating on Rick Warren for accepting Obama's invitation to give the invocation. Oh, the irony. Drake is one of the sorry souls who have filed a lawsuit questioning Obama's birthplace and his eligibility to be president. I hope the people at his "church" are aware of his lunacy.
BUENA PARK — Southern Baptist Pastor Wiley Drake bashed Saddleback Church Pastor Rick Warren this week, saying "God will punish" Warren for agreeing to give the invocation at President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration next month. "I pray He is kind to you in this punishment that is coming," Drake wrote in a widely-released e-mail. In it, the First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park pastor criticizes Warren's "recent plan to invoke the presence of almighty God on this evil illegal alien," a reference to Obama.
Notice he said "evil." I'll say again, these folks are merely racists. It's really that simple. Otherwise, they would come up with grownup strategies of moving forward, while living with the fact that their guy or gal didn't win. They'd find constructive ways to make their voices heard.
Smearcasters is a new site that outs the broadcasters and others who are smearing Islam. These folks don't believe that just radical Islamists are terrorists. They believe that Islam is a bad religion that breeds terrorists.
In the process of trying to smear Obama as being a Muslim, these very unpatriotic people have smeared an entire people. This needs to be covered by the media straight away because if Obama wins the election, there could be a backlash against all kinds of people, including Muslims. We saw it after 9-11.
The hate mongers include Bill O'Reilly, Michelle Malkin, Sean Hannity and Mark Steyn. I love it the McCain camp talks about Obama's "fishy associations," yet McCain Palin and the republican's tight associations with these ugly people is considered just fine and dandy.
Obama's spokesman Robert Gibbs puts Hannity on the defense. The picture is getting clearer to me. McCain Palin represent a small sliver of America, the extreme right. Obama should win this thing in a landslide.
