This screen shot is from Public Policy Polling after the conducted a poll on how many people believed that ACORN had stolen the election for Obama.

I will again point out that ACORN has been guilty of voter *registration* fraud. Submitting a registration card for Mickey Mouse (which is a real example). However, it’s not like Mickey Mouse showed up and cast a VOTE! Also in those registration fraud cases (which happens when agencies pay people PER registration card they submit), there were, at most a few thousand bad cards. Not the over 9.5 million margin that existed in the 2008 Presidential election.

Also, in total, ACORN has only registered TWO million. TWO. So even IF you assume that ALL of those turned into votes for Obama – again, compare that to the 9.5 million vote margin.

Really, GOP, you have GOT to stop relying solely on Fox for your information!

Use a little common sense would ya? And you should see the inane comments on that PPP site. One fellow posited that EVERY Democrat who has won a *close* election (somehow still defining the McCain defeat as CLOSE?) did it through some sort of voter fraud or manipulation of the count or, or or….?? Because lord knows there is NO WAY a Democrat could outright WIN anything within the last decade, right?

Sigh…..

Look at these lovely hats and bumper stickers that you can buy! Oh so sweet and supportive, right? They are praying for our President. Hallelujah & pass the cookies!

Wait, what does Psalm 109.8 say anyway?

Ooooh. Perhaps not so sweet then. Thankfully they stopped at 109:8 or else they would have Secret Service going after them. 109:9 reads “Let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.” Eeep!

So if you see that bumper sticker, you know it – it’s a Christian who is praying for Obama to not have many days in office. No word on if that simply means holding him to a single term or something else.

Considering the blog postings and internet forums that I stumbled into when I Googled Obama+109:8, well, let’s just say the people posting in there are not alluding to a 2012 election as a means of removing Obama from office. Of course they are not risking a visit from the SS, but they are also not quite skirting the issue all that well either.

Violent rhetoric. I wonder why people think that’s OK?

Ah. Nice. And when I first starting writing in here I opined that Hannity, Limbaugh, Dobbs and especially Beck had gone so looney tunes over the deep end with Obama in the White House that O’Reilly had started to seem *reasonable*!! I guess Bill O got tired of them taking up the crazy assed conservative limelight.

They speak of their FEAR of absolutely *everything* the Obama administration stands for (even if it something which they thought was a-ok when Bush was in office!).

You know what I fear?

I fear where all of this truly extremist rhetoric and tone in political debate (debate? I wish, it’s political bomb throwing at each other!) is leading. How does it end? Because it has to end somehow right? We cannot just keep escalating this shallow, divisive, do nothing rhetoric can we?

This week, the lines between church and state were muddied again. While it is the Catholics who are triumphing right now, this is a situation not exclusive to them. They just get the spotlight right now.

In Maine, the campaign to deny gays the right to marry was led by the Catholic Diocese (you may recall that one year ago in California it was the Mormon church spearheading the battle). They went so far as to have sermons on the topic and to pass along collection plates targeted at funding advertisements to “save” marriage. I’m sure you’ve figured out by now that I tend to agree with the cartoon above that we heterosexuals have pretty much done in marriage quite well on our own thankyouverymuch! Anyhow – the point is – just how far can a church go and still maintain it’s tax exempt status? Sermons telling you how to vote? FundraisingCollection plates? C’mon now!!!

Of course, I think the right to marry is one of those basic inalienable rights that the we shouldn’t even be voting on. Tyranny of the majority denying rights of the minority and all that. And this particular right is my Achilles heal when it comes to being pragmatic. No, I cannot see your side. No I will NEVER understand your side. And yes, you are being exclusionary and bigoted and supporting hate and discrimination. No, I will not budge from that position. Yes, I do lose some respect for you if you are willing to fight to deny gays their rights. Yes, that includes you President Obama.

Moving on, this next piece may be even more disturbing, and also may have almost NO light shone on it by the media. In fact, one never hears *any* sort of complaints about this example which happens most likely with nearly every piece of legislation. In the course of the Health Care debate, one of the GOP’s favorite points of contention is abortion. Even though it is legal. Even though there is already a law in place preventing Federal funding of abortions. Now they want to make sure that any insurance plan which may participate in the proposed public option marketplace will deny abortion coverage. Why? Because they want to appease the Catholics! Seriously – check out this article in Politico. Particularly this paragraph:

Ellsworth worked closely with Pennsyvlania Rep. Mike Doyle and others to craft a compromise that the Catholic church could accept. But a critical bloc of Democrats wouldn’t sign on to the plan unless the Conference of Catholic Bishops could endorse if. Therefore, party leaders once again bowed to political pressure from their own rank-and-file to make a concession they didn’t want to.

There are Representatives who will not vote on a piece of legislation unless a religious lobby endorses it??? And no one sees any problem with this??

I wonder how the conservatives would view things if the Catholics actually did lobby according to Christian values and insisted upon caring for the poor by expanding government services to provide for the homeless and jobless? Isn’t that what Christ taught? How would they feel about the So Called Separation of Church and State then?

This is the current headline on the World Nut Daily site (no, I wont link there):

Per this article in the Washington Independent, this headline and allegation are, of course, false.  As it states, Major Hasan had no more influence on advising the administration than anyone who writes a letter to the editor of the local paper is “advising” that paper or it’s editors.

As we’ve already seen many times though, WND has become the feeder for topics on Fox “News”. Let’s see how long until that happens with this allegation. It was posted at 9:21am est – notice that the author is Jerome Corsi – well known writer of the Swift Boat lies against John Kerry.  A reliable source of course! (argh). If you have the stomach for watching Fox – let me know when this story airs

One of these things is not like the other. And I really don’t care! They are both quite easy on the eyes

While watching Hardball last night, I saw an interview with Barry Levinson who did a documentary on Politics+Hollywood called Poliwood. As anyone who even follows politics in a surface way has probably heard – watch out for those Hollywood Liberal elites! The documentary shows celebrities at both the ‘08 Democratic & Republican conventions and interviews them about why they are there. Most talk about just being curious & wanting to learn about the process. Some have specific issue focused activism that they want to support. Mostly they sound just like you and me – voting citizens who want to participate in the process. Naturally their celebrity gives them a platform and some of those obviously choose to use it. But really in the grand scheme of things, the percentage of politically active & open celebrities about who/what they support is not much different from the general population. It just seems louder since their voices reach further. And Levinson pointed out in the interview that being politically active does not HELP anyone’s career and is much more likely to hurt it. Why? Well because the people who buy their product are 50/50 split for the most part on most issues. So you risk alienating that part of the entertainment supporting fan base who don’t agree with you. Particularly those who are purists & will no longer go to your movies or buy your music if they don’t agree with you politically.

And those kinds of purists boggle my mind! (Ok, truthfully ALL purists boggle my mind but that’s another rant).  I read on another bloggers political site last year about a list she keeps of the celebrities she can no longer support due to their political activism. I just could not wrap my brain around that. Do you not know that all during your daily life you somehow directly or indirectly “support” people from all political walks of life? Now, I get it when someone crosses a line – as Jane Fonda did during the Vietnam War. I was too young to know what was up, but I do remember my dad being just horrified at her “traitorous actions” and truly understanding why he couldn’t see a movie with her in it after that. But as far as I know, no one has gone anywhere near that in my politically active lifetime. But can you really no longer enjoy Barbara Streisand’s voice & songs because of her political views? Are George Clooney or Tom Selleck any less fun to watch because of theirs?

Shoot, I’m a HUGE sports fan, and I know that the vast majority of sports team owners/execs/players & announcers lean to the right. OTOH, I have an irrational loathing of Sheryl Crow & her music. Like nails on a chalkboard to me. And she’s a darn good liberal too, I will never buy any of her songs or go to a concert ’cause she just bugs me.

You think I care? No! Because I can separate the two things.

Oh, maybe that’s because I am pragmatic eh?

So tell me, how fine tuned is your tin foil hat? How many conspiracy theories have you taken seriously over the years? Any? Some? None? How aware were you of the ones that have been out there? Are you aware of how many have there are just in the first 9 mos of Obama’s presidency?

Like many from my generation, the first, great Tin Foil Hat theory we were exposed to was the Grassy Knoll and the “real” circumstances surrounding JFK’s assassination. Given how widespread that one went, and the fact that there was enough real credibility given to alternative theories to launch many investigations – not to mention the frame by frame analysis of the Zapruder film – it almost seems sacrilegious at this point to lump this with the current batch. I mean, many of THOSE seem to be rooted in some sort of logic and, at least, circumstantial evidence.

Flash forward to the Clinton presidency and I was still a registered Republican and I received the *zaniest* mailer I had seen until that point! Yeah, a mailer since it was still back in the pre-internet dark ages as far as disseminating conspiracy theories. This one had all the usual breathless declarations and questions filled with innuendo that pretty much accused the Clinton’s of having arranged the murders of over a dozen people as the ‘ascended to power’. It was so ludicrous that it really was a turning point for me politically causing me to start paying attention to just WHO was making these kinds of claims and then spending money spreading it around. I remember being one of many who laughed at Hillary going on about the “vast right wing conspiracy” but when I received that mailer? Well…kind of made her claims seem to be more rooted in reality than theirs certainly!!

During the Bush years, the most well known conspiracy was of course the claim that his admin had planned and executed 9/11 solely to get the nation mired in a war in the middle east.  They were called the 9/11 truthers. The motives were many – finish what Bush #41 started, oil, the establishment of a war based economy which would further enrich Bush and all friends, etc etc. Or, even nuttier, the idea that 9/11 wasn’t what it seemed at all – that there were not planes, that there were explosives planted in the buildings…blah blah blah. Other than the motives which were based in logic, the theories were as loony as those leveled against the Clintons. As a pretty devoted liberal by then spending a lot of time on DailyKos, I was happy to see the owner of the site put his foot down about anything like that. They have a very very clear “no conspiracy theories” rule that I always appreciated. After all, you can have strong political opinions on either side of an issue and still keep your feet firmly planted in reality. Unfortunately, there are MANY with loud voices who don’t believe reality is enough

Enter Barack Obama. Oh boy has he been a lightening rod for conspiracies!! It started before he even got the Democratic nomination with accusations of being enrolled in a muslim school as a child (a madrassa),  of being raised as a muslim from the start, and the classic that still continues – of not even being born in the US. Yes, the birther conspiracy lives thanks in no small part to several rather well known media talkers refusing to stomp it out. Oh, they don’t claim to BE birthers, but they slyly say things like “well, if he WOULD just produce his birth certificate this would all go away”, or “Ignoring these claims is rather reckless” or “Well, I have no reason to believe he was NOT born here” Weasel words and statements that give credence to the theories. At the root of this is the belief in a nearly 50 year long secret plot to put a Muslim/socialist/nazi/evil dictator?? in the White House. Attorney/dentist/real estate agent Orly Taitz continues to garner media attention with her lawsuits attempting to prove Obama’s Presidency is illegal. Probably the best source of all the conspiracies that flame on about Obama can be found at a website called World Net Daily (yes, I admit that we on the left refer to it as World NUT Daily ) I shouldn’t link to it, but really, you have to go there and just scroll through the headlines to see why we say NUT. It’s pretty damn funny. And now you are saying “yeah, but only the really fringe right is going to read that stuff” I wish that were true. But Lou Dobbs and Glen Beck have referred to them on their shows lending them a modicum of credibility. I still wouldn’t have believed it was too pervasive in driving conservative talking points though until something that happened this morning. On Saturday morning, after a week or so of continuing coverage of the spread of the H1N1 virus (including into the schools in my area & having known many families across the country who battled it in the past month), Obama declared the flu outbreak a state of emergency. As stated in the news release and in the San Diego Union Tribune this morning: “The President’s declaration was a procedural step, making waivers available to health care providers to ensure that the tools for a quick response to swine flu are in place.” It allows hospitals & local governments to more speedily set up alternate sites and procedures to handle any surge of patients. IOW – it sounds like when a state of emergency is declared when there is a natural disaster such as fires or hurricanes that loosens red tape requirements for federal aid and assistance. Seems like a practical maneuver given the increased reports of the flu, right? No big deal. Nothing about this you could possibly criticzie right? Yet, a dad this morning at my son’s baseball practice said “Well, Obama sure freaked out the country yesterday with his declaration of this whole flu thing as an emergency!” Say what? I kind of think the country has been freaked out about since it first was detected in the spring!! At this point, there isn’t really a panic because many have already come down with it and fought it off. It’s a worse flu than the seasonal variety for sure. Everyone reports a 72 hours period of feeling worse than they can remember and then about 48 hours of supreme exhaustion and need to sleep. But then they DO recover and are fine. Certainly you are more concerned if you have asthma or any other underlying condition. But again, at this point, it’s probably making its way (or made its way) through your community and so it is no longer a scary unknown. Still, pediatricians and hospitals are certainly being hit with a larger than normal demand for treatments. Anyhow, I thought maybe this dad had read some scary headline in the paper, but no, the local headline is pretty innocuous “Flu outbreak declared emergency.” I checked a few mainstream websites and saw nothing like what this dad had said. Other than the man perhaps having some deeply rooted distrust & dislike of Obama (perhaps he watches Fox news?!), I was kind of stumped. Then while checking out World Net Daily to prepare for this blog post, I see this as their top headline:

Really? I mean REALLY? And this is a site trumped by Glen Beck and Lou Dobbs? Oh fer heaven’s sake!!!

I guess that just goes to prove that while every cloud has a silver lining, conversely there is *always* someone who can find something to complain about the President’s actions. Particularly THIS President thanks to the tacit approval of all things conspiracy related to question his motives.

Of course, it also cracks me up that there are conspiracy theories on the left AND the right questioning the need for and effectiveness of the H1N1 vaccine. Yipes!

I’m covering the details of the DC trip over at TFB piece by piece, but I thought I’d leave the particularly political thoughts from the weekend in here.

We saw those flowers on Friday. Saturday too, but then it was colder & rainy. Friday was sunny and hot. It was also the day that we woke up to the news that Obama had won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Wow.

Stunned.

A little bit of WTF?

Privately many of us speculated that Obama said the same thing when he heard the news – WTF? Seriously? Now who nominated me for THAT and don’t they know I’m getting enough heat as it is right now?

As usual, Rachel Maddow made things clearer with her segment on how many others in the past have won on just the *idea* of what they could do without having actually accomplished their goals yet. Some never really did either.

Eventually we all settled on being proud and totally thrilled that we were on the grounds while Obama was giving his acceptance speech in the Rose Garden.

Actually, I should be clear that we were not all liberals there. A couple of the moms are GOP – very moderately so though and super super reasonable & respectful.

OK, so the political tidbits:

• While in the Canon Congressional building I got to wander down one long hallway checking out who had offices there. Some doors were open. The ones I saw were mostly pretty understated. A few nice photos on a display wall of the Congresscritter with various other dignitaries, sometimes the President. Then I reached one office that practically *screamed* LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ALL I HAVE DONE! LOOK AT MY AWARDS & PHOTOS & PLAQUES!!! It was overwhelmingly adorned from floor to ceiling. Whose office was that? Why the very same Congressman who made darn sure the entire country heard him say “You LIE!” Why do I say he made darn sure he was heard? Oh, because I got to have a very lovely conversation with a Congressional gallery guard we met. I lingered as we were leaving so that I could lean over the rail to see the main walkway where the President enters for an address of Congress. And the guard told me he was there during the Health Care address. That they were all shocked in the room that the outburst had come from down below in the main seating. Rookie legislators are up in the gallery and it’s the more senior people in the main room and on camera. Rumblings usually come from above and are generally not picked up by the microphones and cameras. And as the guard put it – Joe Wilson would have had a perfect opportunity to conceal his outburst because just before several on the right had been generically grumbling. But *just* as it had quieted down to the point where you could hear a pin drop when he busted out. To the guard – it was like he timed it to be *noticed* And given what I saw of his office compared to the others? It makes sense!
• As shallow as it sounds, I know I was more thrilled about being there with someone in office who I supported. I am sure I would have felt the awe and wonder at the history there no matter what. But it just made it feel even more happy  to have the Obama’s there. To see their photos amongst all the other first families in the White House.
• It was particularly fun to be there during the Human Rights Campaign dinner and then the Equality march. Or, as a friend put it – The Big Gay Weekend in DC I was up in the Washington monument while the march was taking place, but I got some photos from up there and a couple of the moms did march. It was also pretty nice not only to be there with other Democrats, but particularly with other people who support gay rights.
• Oh and I had a nice, but too short talk with a friend of mine who used to be a registered lobbyist on the topic of same. Very interesting. I swear I will get to that discussion going on in my brain sometime soon. I may need to clear out this rant on conspiracy theorists first. It’s kind of bottle necking things right now.

First off, just for giggles, let’s take a look at some screen caps of the three cable news websites from right now:

Zombies are the big news? Really? OK.  Well, moving on…They do rotate that top story quite a bit throughout the day of course & I know I saw the Olympics as the top story earlier. But then, so was the Letterman story. Mostly I find CNN to be good with breaking news, but often, well, too ‘fluffy’ by far.

Check out their wording on the Olympic bid results though. Rio celebrating. Obama returns empty-handed. Which is true. Doesn’t feel like the headline was spun too much.

Much more substance with Fox even though the premier story is on rare footage of Anne Frank. There is the obligatory Letterman story which no one was going to miss today – hey, sex scandals sell no matter who is involved right? Then there is the Fear-Line. A story on terrorists shifting their focus (possibly) from Somalia to the US. I got news for YOU guys – DUH. At this point I assume everyone has us on their target list and has for probably the last couple of decades. But fine, let’s remind everyone that we are not safe on a Friday night. Their Olympic coverage is already buried beneath their headline page. The other headlines are slightly slanted against Dems. I know, I know, Fox News folks will say “that’s not slant, that’s just TRUTH!” Moving on again…

An upbeat headline on economic recover (yes, that is slanted – see, I can recognize it!) Letterman AGAIN – told ya sex sells. Rio is the main story with several pieces on it and then one tucked in headline about Tiger Woods. Then more bad news for the Philippines as another typhoon is headed their way (seriously, c’mon Mother Nature, make it stop over there already!)

So who slanted? Fox & MSNBC – which is no surprise. One channel filters the truth through a conservative lense and the other through a liberal one. No doubt about it. CNN…well, they kinda go both ways Some days I see slants of both kinds and others, like this one, very little slant, but also, very little of substance.

The websites (IMHO) mirror their TV counterparts. MSNBC – while it opens the day with three hours with a conservative host – Joe Scarborough – he is the most *reasonable* GOP voice in media. Which I think is indicative of who he is but then I wonder if working on a station that is otherwise left leaning doesn’t center him a little more? OTOH they regularly have Pat Flipping Buchanan on their shows as a guest and he is about as crazy right wing as one can get without *being* employed at Fox News I guess that’s how the station maintains a flirtation with balance right? Hah.  I haven’t really sniffed a ‘lean’ tendency with Dylan Ratigan or Dr Nancy. Actually I haven’t seen much Dr Nancy. I do watch Ratigan  since his show is essentially the west coast morning show. The rest of their opinion based hosts beginning with Ed Schultz are certainly leftward leaning and anyone who claims otherwise is blind. I am not. I watch them because they don’t make me want to throw things. And because they are just as brutal against Democrats – especially the spineless ones who don’t more aggressively pursue and stand up for a Democratic agenda.

Fox provides the same for the right. Except that I don’t think they even bother with any left leaning hosts anymore do they? They used to have that useless Alan Colmes with Sean Hannity but heck, *I* could out debate Colmes and I agree with him!! Again – do not try and tell me it is not a view of the world from the conservative point. Just. Stop. It. Just as I would be blind to not see the left slant on MSNBC, any of you who try to tell me that Fox is not slanted to the right are quite sadly blinded.

Like I said – its been told to me that I just need to watch for myself – it’s the TRUTH. Sure it is. Oh hey – you know that New Jersey school scandal? With the kids singing about Obama? Which I agreed was not the smartest thing ever. Well…so, Fox News highlighting it so heavily WAS reporting the TRUTH in that the kids DID sing that song. They just didn’t quite highlight some other bits of TRUTH. Namely that the parents had ALL seen the lyrics and did not protest. The parents did NOT sign permission slips for their children to be videotaped and the video published on You Tube and shown on cable news without their kids faces faded out, oh, and by the way – back in 2006 schoolchildren in New Orleans *serenaded* the Bushes with thanks and praises to them and FEMA and Congress for all the good work they had done after Katrina (say what?!). In other words, Fox just didn’t tell the WHOLE truth because that would have taken away from their VERSION of The TRUTH (Obama indoctrinating kids).

You need to watch any news station with a jaded eye. With skepticism. Be mindful of the slant. Do your OWN homework to find the Rest of the Story. You shouldn’t have to. Its a shame how bad the so called news has become, but it is what it is. Just don’t let yourself be blinded.

Since I am still challenged for time but didn’t want to leave this space blank yet again, I thought I’d share some fun I had when I first discovered Politifact.

While there are some pretty good fact checking sites out there, and I’ve listed my favorites over there on the right, Politifact is probably my most favorite right now. I love the way it is organized. For instance, you can isolate on a particular person and see their full stats:

Since he is the President (no matter that 37% of Republicans polled have doubts about that – yikes!) the focus of the site is squarely on him. He has the most rated statements at 208. Exactly 50% of his statements are rated Mostly True or True. For a politician, that’s not half bad! (sorry).

What I really love though, is this page:

That page is also organized by topic (education, defense, economy etc), top 25 in terms of most mentioned during the campaign and then also categorized bu current result. Obviously this is a dynamic chart as days progress.

What I love about the site is how thoroughly they explain their ratings. Click into any one and it will explain and site the sources for the results. I like that they have shades of gray like ‘mostly true’ and ’stalled’. In politics, applying a black and white true or false measure is always much too limiting. And, I think, where many pundits/opinion type talkers fall way way short in analyzing statements and legislation. That’s how you get statements about Death Panels for instance Yes, that one was rated Pants on Fire. I find it interesting how Sarah Palin has as many PoF ratings as Obama with barely 10% of the number of rated statements. Check out the PoF section in fact. It’s pretty darn funny!

So how do I use these sites? Well, for instance, this week one of my conservative friends tweeted about how appalled she was at some New Jersey school kids being taught songs praising Obama. Her first link was to someone’s personal blog site which didn’t link to any other site so I dismissed it. Then a couple of days later she mentions it again so now I googled it and found all the right leaning blog sites just on fire about it. Then I go to Politifact:

The expanded information link explains the situation. Being ‘pragmatic’ as I am, I’m able to say “whoa now, not a good idea there” not only to teaching the kids songs like that but also to recording it and spreading it around. Somehow I doubt those kids parents knew that would be video taped. They DID know about the song lyrics though and had no protests. But then, this all really happened in Feb just after the inauguration and during Black History Month. There is one mention of the district investigating if the parents gave permission for their kids to be filmed and those films posted all over YouTube & the news this week, but of course there is no right wing outrage over that part. I wonder why this came out so many months later too? Anyway, it’s creepy and should not have happened top to bottom for sure. The teacher was apparently already retired from the district and I guess voluntarily came in to work with the kids on this particular program. The principal is now getting a lot of heat directed at him and is refusing to divulge the teacher’s name. Probably wise since the usual suspects are whipping up an obscene amount of outrage over this. Parent’s who didn’t object in February are suddenly speaking out. Schools with the same name, but in other states are getting angry phone calls. Media types are swarming around the New Jersey school and district offices. National attention and anger over something the kids probably all forgot about immediately.

Hopefully within the next month? My life is severely interrupting my writing darnit!

Lobbying and lobbyists – good, bad, indifferent? Needed? Too influential? I’m researching!

Campaign Financing – from candidates to those supposedly “grassroots” groups buying ads on every issue under the sun – who is *really* running things in Washington and how do you find that out?

Media analysis – most likely a multi-part series, but I want to address which ones give you ‘news’ vs opinion and which ones have the most influence (ratings/viewers/listeners) in reality. And of course, how they all fail us in favor or the almighty dollar.