Falsehoods And Attacks A Higher Priority Than The Facts

FOX NEWS LIAR LIAR PANTS ON FIRE

Fox News insists that there's a difference between its "opinion" programming and its "news" programming. One top exec has been repeatedly proving his network wrong.

In exclusive new audio, Media Matters for America catches Fox News Washington managing editor Bill Sammon bragging that he repeatedly lied when he speculated on-air "about whether Barack Obama really advocated socialism," an allegation he privately found "rather far-fetched."

If you're looking for the walking embodiment of how Fox is a political attack machine disguised as a news network, look no further than Sammon, who has a pattern of using his position as a "news" editor to distort and slant the facts and push an ideological agenda.

Watch the video here and get the word out about Bill Sammon.




Speaking in 2009 onboard a pricey Mediterranean cruise sponsored by a right-wing college, Sammon described his public attempts the previous year to link Obama to "socialism" as "mischievous speculation." Sammon, who is also a Fox News vice president, acknowledged that he had "privately" believed that the socialism allegation was "rather far-fetched."

A review found that Sammon -- then the network's Washington deputy managing editor --linked Obama's "spread the wealth around" remarks to socialism in four separate October 2008 Fox appearances. And Sammon's "mischief" wasn't limited to his on-air appearances. As NFTOS reported earlier, Sammon also pushed Fox News colleagues to play the socialism card.

In addition, multiple leaked emails to Media Matters for America show that Sammon pushes his political agenda into "news" programming on issues like climate change, health care, and the Middle East. He's even gone on right-wing talk radio to claim that President Obama has "controversial" views on "the white race."

Bill Sammon's position directing news coverage is a clear example of how Fox News hurts journalism. By making smears, falsehoods and attacks a higher priority than the facts, Sammon distorts our political process. It's Fox News' problem -- and ours.

It is NFTOS' job to support in fighting Fox News' toxic effect on our national debate.



NFTOS Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

Forgetting Budget Rhetoric, WI Senate GOP Leader Brags: We’ve Busted Unions ‘Once And For All’



Wisconsin Unions Fighting for Rights


With its union-busting “budget repair bill” tied up in court and as many as eight recall campaigns looming, the Wisconsin state GOP has apparently abandoned its argument that the fight to end collective bargaining rights was just about closing the state’s budget gap.

State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R) has already revealed that the true motivation behind the bill was to defund unions to make it “much more difficult” for Democrats, including President Obama, to get elected in Wisconsin. Now, attempting to fend off efforts to recall eight of his Senate colleagues, he’s mailed out a fundraising letter that removes any doubt about the GOP’s motive:

“(Unions have) ruined California and Illinois, but they’re not going to ruin Wisconsin.


“That is because Republicans faced down Big Labor’s bully tactics and a Democratic walk-out in the state Senate to break the power of unions like WEAC and AFSCME once and for all,” Fitzgerald said in his letter.

Fitzgerald’s letter is in stark contrast from his all-about-the-budget rhetoric after the bill passed, when he said:

 “Today’s passage is a momentous step toward getting our state’s fiscal house in order.”

Fitzgerald, however, isn’t alone. In Ohio, where the state senate is expected to vote on a similar union-busting bill tomorrow, state Rep. Joe Uecker (R) made it clear that the bill isn’t merely about the budget, but about “set[ting] the framework” for further anti-union efforts.

Oklahoma has now also joined the list of states considering anti-union legislation. The state Senate passed a bill through committee Monday that would repeal a 2004 law that guaranteed collective bargaining rights for municipal employees in cities with more than 35,000 residents. If the bill passes, 13 cities could collectively bargain with unions but would no longer be required to do so.

NFTOS

Fox News Executive Admits Lying On-Air About Obama

In newly uncovered audio, a Fox News executive boasts that he lied repeatedly during the closing days of the 2008 presidential campaign when he speculated on-air "about whether Barack Obama really advocated socialism."

Speaking in 2009 onboard a pricey Mediterranean cruise sponsored by a right-wing college, Fox Washington managing editor Bill Sammon described his attempts the previous year to link Obama to "socialism" as "mischievous speculation." Sammon, who is also a Fox News vice president, acknowledged that "privately" he had believed that the socialism allegation was "rather far-fetched."

"Last year, candidate Barack Obama stood on a sidewalk in Toledo, Ohio, and first let it slip to Joe the Plumber that he wanted to quote, 'spread the wealth around,' " said Sammon. "At that time, I have to admit, that I went on TV on Fox News and publicly engaged in what I guess was some rather mischievous speculation about whether Barack Obama really advocated socialism, a premise that privately I found rather far-fetched."

Indeed, in the weeks leading up to the 2008 election, Sammon used his Fox position to engage in a campaign to tie Obama to "Marxists" and "socialism." A Media Matters review found that Sammon - then the network's Washington deputy managing editor - repeatedly linked Obama's "spread the wealth around" remark to socialism during his October 2008 Fox appearances.  

Sammon's "mischief" wasn't limited to his on-air appearances. As Media Matters reported, Sammon also pushed Fox News colleagues to play the socialism card. On October 27, 2008, Sammon sent an email to staffers highlighting what he described as "Obama's references to socialism, liberalism, Marxism and Marxists" in his 1995 autobiography Dreams From My Father. Shortly after sending the email, Sammon appeared on two Fox News programs to discuss his research and also wrote a FoxNews.com piece about Obama's "affinity to Marxists."

On October 14, 2008, Sammon said that Obama's "spread the wealth around" remark "is red meat when you're talking to conservatives and you start talking about 'spread the wealth around.' That is tantamount to socialism."

Sammon repeated the "tantamount to socialism" line later that day, stating: "That's anathema to conservatives. That's the same as saying, 'Spread the misery around.' That's basically tantamount to socialism. And that bothers a lot of people. So I think if McCain is going to have any chance of moving ahead, he's got to turn this economic discussion from something that's been hurting him for the last couple weeks to something that can help him by focusing on what to do about the economy in the future."

On October 21, 2008, Sammon appeared on Greta Van Susteren's show, where he referred to Bill Ayers "talking about being a Marxist." Sammon then said, "I have read Barack Obama's books pretty carefully, and he in his own words talks about being drawn to Marxists. ... Now all this stuff's coming out about whether he's a socialist. I don't know why anyone is surprised by it, because if you read his own words and his sort of, you know, orientation coming up as a liberal through college and as a young man, it's not a huge shock."

On October 25, 2008, Sammon said: "As soon as I heard Barack Obama say, and it's gone on almost two weeks ago - two weeks ago -- 'spread the wealth around,' I mean, the red flag went up. I mean, that's just code - and I knew that conservatives would say, 'That is exactly code for income redistribution which is tantamount to socialism.' And I talked about this for several days right after it happened. And the McCain campaign has now picked up this socialism word on their own, and they're running with it."

"I think some of these substantive issues, such as, you know, higher taxes, are we going to head more towards a socialistic government, could play in McCain's favor," Sammon said on October 27, 2008, after Fox aired a clip of Obama responding to McCain's accusations of socialism.

"I do think that when you start talking about 'spread the wealth around,' which is what Barack Obama said to Joe the Plumber, and now this new radio thing that came up today where he talks about redistributing the wealth, you know, those two things together are tantamount to socialism to conservatives," Sammon added later in the October 27 interview. "That's red meat. That'll fire up the conservative base, who had been a little bit dispirited."


Sammon went on to say that Obama "was drawn to Marxists, he was drawn to liberals, he was drawn to socialists by his own admission as a young man, so I think even though he postures as a moderate now as a presidential candidate, I think his heart is really towards the hard left, and we may see whether that comes out as he governs, if in fact he wins."

During an October 28, 2008, appearance on Fox & Friends, Sammon again said Obama "was drawn to Marxist and socialists as a young man" before adding, "Now, let's be clear. I mean people had political ideologies in college that they don't necessarily have later in life, but I do think it indicates that he may be a little bit more liberal than he presents himself."  

Later in the interview, Sammon said that "there certainly is a consistency there when you look at the people he was drawn to going to socialist conferences, hanging out with Marxist professors, going to see Stokely Carmichael, even after he got out of college, for inspiration. The former Black Panther. And then you look later at life, where his association with Bill Ayers, the radical. You look at his association with the Reverend Wright. It does make you wonder whether indeed some of his leanings in his college days still carry through today, only are a little bit more fuzzed up because he's a politician who's running for high office. And I think it's worth examining."

Sammon made his startling admission during an August 2, 2009, speech onboard a 12-day cruise sponsored by Hillsdale College. Conservative writers Walter Williams, Paul Johnson, and Victor Davis Hanson also gave lectures. A Hillsdale newsletter states that "in addition to giving lectures, guest speakers also hosted private dinners for invited guests, and joined in the daytime excursions and camaraderie with their fellow 136 Hillsdale friends and nine Hillsdale staff."

A brochure for the cruise promised attendees a "great opportunity to gather and discuss history and ideas with noted scholars and like-minded friends of Hillsdale." Cabin rates ranged from $11,800 to $37,600 per couple.

The National Review has described Hillsdale as "a citadel of American conservatism," and the conservative Young America's Foundation has listed Hillsdale as one of the top conservative colleges in the country. Hillsdale President Larry Arnn, Sean Hannity, and Mark Levin have issued fundraising appeals touting the college's conservative credentials. Rush Limbaugh has also done on-air radio advertisements for Hillsdale.

During his cruise speech, Sammon said that while he found his own socialism speculation "far-fetched" in October 2008, it was actually proven correct during the first months of Obama's presidency.

"Now imagine my surprise when this year, I witness President Barack Obama standing in the cross hall of the White House and having taken over the American car industry, look into the camera, and announce to the nation essentially, that he would personally vouch for the warranty on your car's muffler," Sammon said on the cruise. "All of a sudden, the debate over whether America was heading for socialism seemed anything but far-fetched."

NFTOS

Bank Of America

Paid Nothing In Federal Income Taxes Last Year And Got Almost $1 Billion From Taxpayers.

All around the country, right-wing legislators are asking Main Street Americans to pay for budget deficits resulting mainly from a recession caused by Wall Street by attacking collective bargaining, and cutting necessary services and investments like college tuition aid and health care for the poor.

Yet at the same time, some of the country’s biggest corporations are getting away without being asked to pay anything at all. In 2009, mega corporations like Boeing and General Electric managed to avoid paying a penny in federal taxes — while also netting enormous benefits in tax benefits and subsidies.

Now, with many companies releasing their financial reports for 2010, it appears that Bank of America — the nation’s largest bank — has gone a second year in a row paying absolutely no federal corporate income taxes. In fact, not only did the company use its losses to avoid paying taxes last year, but it actually reported a tax benefit of almost a billion dollars:

After another money-losing year, Bank of America Corp. got the upper hand with Uncle Sam in 2010.


The Charlotte-based bank had no federal income tax expense for a second straight year and actually reported a tax “benefit” of nearly $1 billion. Also, the bank’s billions in accumulated losses could reduce its taxes in future years, a tax expert said.

“Bank of America takes its role as a corporate citizen very seriously, and pays taxes in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations,” bank spokesman Jerry Dubrowski said.

“If you go out and try to make money and you don’t do it, why should the government pay you for your losses?” asked Bob McIntyre of Citizens for Tax Justice when Bank of America used a similar provision in the tax code to dodge taxes in 2009. Additionally, in one state alone, Connecticut, Bank of America’s state income tax tax dodging cost the state a whopping $500 million.

Over the weekend, the UK-inspired movement US Uncut held demonstrations at Bank of America branches all over the country to protest the bank’s egregious tax dodging. In Washington, D.C., US Uncut protests shut down a major Bank of America branch in the Columbia Heights neighborhood. Watch it:



In a press release from last week, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) laid out ten corporate tax dodgers who aren’t paying their fair share and called for shared sacrifice. “We have a deficit problem. It has to be addressed,” said Sanders in a press release addressing tax fairness. “But it cannot be addressed on the backs of the sick, the elderly, the poor, young people, the most vulnerable in this country. The wealthiest people and the largest corporations in this country have got to contribute. We’ve got to talk about shared sacrifice.”


NFTOS

FALSE FLAG

Indiana Official Reportedly Advised Scott Walker To Stage A Phony Violent Attack By Union Supporters

During the intense public battle with public employee unions last month, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) received an intriguing email from an admirer claiming to be a deputy prosecutor from Indiana. The email suggested that Walker should fake an attack on himself, in order to create sympathy for his cause and damage the reputation of the unions. The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism has the email:

As an aside, I've been involved in GOP politics here in Indiana for over 18 years, and I think that the situation in WI presents a good opportunity for what's called a "false flag" operation. If you could employ an associate who pretends to be sympathetic to the unions' causes to physically attack you (or even use a firearm against you), you could discredit the public unions. Currently. the media is pointing the union protest as a democratic uprising and failing to mention the role of the DNC and umbrella union organizations in the protest. Employing a false flag operation would assist in undercutting any support that the media may be creating in favor of the unions.

The e-mail was signed by “Carlos F. Lam.” WCIJ did some digging and discovered that indeed, there is a Carlos F. Lam who is a GOP public official in Indiana. He is a deputy prosecutor in Johnson County, Indiana — which is the same area the e-mail was sent from, according to its IP information. Lam also has a history of anti-union comments online: he’s written that Indiana is “an unsustainable public worker gravy train bubble.” In another, he said “unions & companies that feed at the gov’t trough will fight tooth & nail against anything that un-feathers their nests.”

Lam Lies About Knowledge of Email

WCIJ contacted Lam and asked him if the Hotmail address on the email belongs to him. Lam confirmed that it does — but categorically denied sending the email. “I am flabbergasted and would never advocate for something like this, and would like everyone to be sure that that’s just not me,” he said, after being read the email. He said he plans to file a police report about the matter this week.

Oddly, the email was sent on the very same day that another Indiana law enforcement official tweeted out violent plans for the protests. Jeffrey Cox, a deputy attorney general for the state, tweeted that police should “use live ammunition” against the protestors. He was fired the next day – but for now, Lam’s boss is backing him. “He didn’t send it,” he told WCIJ.

UPDATE: According to the Johnson County Prosecutor's office, Lam has admitted that he wrote the email and resigned his post.

You have to love radical republican politics...deny at all cost - till the bitter end!




NFTOS

Emails Show.......

Scott Walker Misrepresented Voters’ Support For His Union Busting

Yesterday, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) appeared on Fox Business to defend his union-busting crusade, claiming that a majority of his state’s residents were behind him. As evidence, he cited a new analysis from the Associated Press of emails to the governor’s office.

WALKER: And again today, the Associated Press went through the more than 150,000 emails that we have, and found the majority of them, as I’ve said, are people who support our reforms. Who support our reasonable measures.

Watch it here at NFTOS:



Walker has repeatedly made the claim that emails coming to his office were overwhelmingly supportive. Most egregiously, at a February 18 press conference, Walker said, “The more than 8,000 emails we got today, the majority are telling us to stay firm.” But in doing so yesterday, he completely distorted what the AP actually found.

The AP analysis reported that, “for several preceding days, the emails of support Walker received had been vastly outnumbered by those opposed to his plan.” For example, on February 11, the day Walker formally outlined his “budget-repair bill,” emails sent to his office “ran more than 5-to-1 against his plan.” Eventually, the emails turned in his favor, but Walker ignores the nuance in his appearance yesterday. 

The AP only obtained the emails through a legal settlement in which Walker was forced to pay $7,000 in legal fees. Under the state’s open record laws, the AP and a local newspaper had requested the emails Walker referenced in his press conference, but he refused to disclose them for sometime, before finally agreeing to the settlement.

                            NFTOS TRUTH-O-METER

Walker fails truth-o-meter


 And beyond the emails, numerous polls have shown that Wisconsin voters increasingly turned against Walker. In fact, polls show that Walker would lose if he were up for re-election now.

NFTOS

Tea Party Debris

A new Pew poll released today contains some ominous omens for the Republican Party. As national support for the Tea Party declines, support of Republicans by Tea Partiers is also in decline. Only 19% of Americans support the Tea Party now, and within the Tea Party support for the GOP budget plan has dropped from 74% to 52%.

The latest Pew Research Poll has found that the American people are growing disgruntled with divided Congress’ inability to do anything, and they are blaming the Republicans for the lack of progress. The big problem that Republicans face is that they sold their supporters an ambitious and completely politically unrealistic budget and deficit reduction plan that they have not been able to deliver.

After the 2010 elections 35% of Republicans supported their party’s deficit plan, support has now fallen to 22%. Republican candidates used the Tea Party to gain control of the House of Representatives, but there are dangerous signs that these same voters have already grown impatient with the GOP. Support for the Republican Party’s deficit reduction plan among Tea Partiers has plunged from 75% just after the election to 52% now.

Raise your hand if you didn’t see this one coming a mile away. A bunch of political neophytes who have no idea how their government actually works, believed a slew of campaign promises by a Republican Party that promised them things that they had no chance of delivering with a Democratic president in office, and now those supporters feel betrayed and are disgruntled and angry.

The reality is that the Republican Party set itself up for this from day one, by promising things that they knew they could never deliver. Voters have become extremely impatient since 2006. When they vote for change, they want it NOW. Republicans promised a change in spending and deficits that they could never bring about. In fact, the Republican House leadership of John Boehner and Eric Cantor had no interest in delivering their budget and deficit plan.

In a nutshell here is the problem:

53% of Americans say that the deficit should be a top priority, but a sizable number of those same Americans (34%) worry that deficit reduction will hurt job growth, and 61% of Americans support lowering domestic spending, but 65% of them oppose ANY change to the two biggest federal entitlement programs, Social Security and Medicare. 67% of Americans oppose raising taxing, and they are split 49%-47% on cutting military spending.

The political dilemma that congressional Republicans face is that the deficit is of top importance to the Tea Party, but America at large is more concerned with jobs (34%), rising prices (28%), and then the deficit (24%). On top of this, national support for the Tea Party has declined to 19%, but this bloc is still a powerful force within the GOP.  
Republican incumbents all over the country are nervous, and they should be. They know what happens when the Tea Party is unhappy. The Tea Party candidates elected in 2010 could be facing a slate of Tea Party 2.0 primary challengers in 2012, but what’s even more likely to happen is that presented with a slate of less than inspiring presidential candidates to choose from, these voters simply stay home.

Either way if these voters don’t learn about the legislative process and the limitations of only controlling the House, Republican incumbents are looking at a gloomy situation in 2012, the GOP wanted power and now they are being held accountable. The Tea Partiers naively believed what they were sold in 2010, and they are finding out just how used they were by a corporate AstroTurf movement that exploited their emotions, but had no intention of delivering on their agenda.

The real agenda belongs to the Koch brothers and all the corporate interests who secretly funded the “organic” Tea Party. The Tea Partiers were used and thrown away after Election Day, but they shouldn’t worry; Republicans will come calling again next year speaking the language of deficit reduction and liberty.

All those older white Americans who call themselves Tea Partiers are really Koch whores, and if they break away from the corporate machine, they’ll quickly discover how powerless they really are:

Additionally:  
With Fox News host Glenn Beck’s ratings down and the biggest tea party rally eclipsed by a recent pro-labor rally in Wisconsin, could this tea be losing steam - leaving a smattering of radical republican debris in its wake? A great sign this is true:

Tea Party Event

A big tea party convention in Tampa, FL this weekend — headlined by such conservative favorites as Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), Fox News Judge Andrew Napolitano, and former GOP Congressman Tom Tancredo — attracted only about 300 people. The Save America Convention’s website lists 25 guest speakers, meaning there was one speaker for every 12 attendees. If one includes the 13 musicians and other performers listed as entertainment, that ratio drops to one for every 7 and a half.

Joseph Farah, the founder of the birther news website World Net Daily, who spoke at the event, promised “lots of opportunities for interactivity between participants and presenters.” Indeed, this photo from the convention posted by Saint Petersblog suggests attendees would have little competition to meet Farah and the other speakers:

Aimed at the farthest right of the far right, the three-day event touted a sponsorship from the John Birch Society and an appearance by Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers militia. But this kind of uber-conservative fare has had no trouble attracting bigger crowds not long ago.

Footnote: There’s no video of the event — which didn’t include a single female speaker — since “video recorders and audio rendering devices are prohibited and would be grounds for removal without refund.”

NFTOS


Portions of blog brought to you by Politico and thinkprogress

Are Americans Really Dumb?

They’re the sort of scores that drive high-school history teachers to drink. When Newsweek recently asked 1,000 U.S. citizens to take America’s official citizenship test, 29 percent couldn’t name the vice president. Seventy-three percent couldn’t correctly say why we fought the Cold War. Forty-four percent were unable to define the Bill of Rights. And 6 percent couldn’t even circle Independence Day on a calendar.

Don’t get us wrong: civic ignorance is nothing new. For as long as they’ve existed, Americans have been misunderstanding checks and balances and misidentifying their senators. And they’ve been lamenting the philistinism of their peers ever since pollsters started publishing these dispiriting surveys back in Harry Truman’s day. (He was a president, by the way.) According to a study by Michael X. Delli Carpini, dean of the Annenberg School for Communication, the yearly shifts in civic knowledge since World War II have averaged out to “slightly under 1 percent.”

But the world has changed. And unfortunately, it’s becoming more and more inhospitable to incurious know-nothings—like republicans.

To appreciate the risks involved, it’s important to understand where American ignorance comes from. In March 2009, the European Journal of Communication asked citizens of Britain, Denmark, Finland, and the U.S. to answer questions on international affairs. The Europeans clobbered us. Sixty-eight percent of Danes, 75 percent of Brits, and 76 percent of Finns could, for example, identify the Taliban, but only 58 percent of Americans managed to do the same—even though we’ve led the charge in Afghanistan. It was only the latest in a series of polls that have shown us lagging behind our First World peers.

For more than two centuries, Americans have gotten away with not knowing much about the world around them. But times have changed—and they’ve changed in ways that make civic ignorance a big problem going forward. Watch the video below of a republican tea bag rally, little if any know why they hate, most have no clue as to real policies. Most republicans are in "lockstep" with the puppet masters:



The current conflict over government spending illustrates the new dangers of ignorance. Every economist knows how to deal with the debt: cost-saving reforms to big-ticket entitlement programs; cuts to our bloated defense budget; and (if growth remains slow) tax reforms designed to refill our depleted revenue coffers. But poll after poll shows that voters have no clue what the budget actually looks like. A 2010 World Public Opinion survey found that Americans want to tackle deficits by cutting foreign aid from what they believe is the current level (27 percent of the budget) to a more prudent 13 percent. The real number is under 1 percent. A Jan. 25 CNN poll, meanwhile, discovered that even though 71 percent of voters want smaller government, vast majorities oppose cuts to Medicare (81 percent), Social Security (78 percent), and Medicaid (70 percent). Instead, they prefer to slash waste—a category that, in their fantasy world, seems to include 50 percent of spending, according to a 2009 Gallup poll.

Needless to say, it’s impossible to balance the budget by listening to these people. But politicians pander to them anyway, and even encourage their misapprehensions. As a result, we’re now arguing over short-term spending cuts that would cost up to 700,000 government jobs, imperiling the shaky recovery and impairing our ability to compete globally, while doing nothing to tackle the long-term fiscal challenges that threaten … our ability to compete globally.

Given our history, it’s hard to imagine this changing any time soon. But that isn’t to say a change wouldn’t help. For years, Stanford communications professor James Fishkin has been conducting experiments in deliberative democracy. The premise is simple: poll citizens on a major issue, blind; then see how their opinions evolve when they’re forced to confront the facts. What Fishkin has found is that while people start out with deep value disagreements over, say, government spending, they tend to agree on rational policy responses once they learn the ins and outs of the budget. “The problem is ignorance, not stupidity,” “We suffer from a lack of information rather than a lack of ability.” Whether that’s a treatable affliction or a terminal illness remains to be seen. But now’s the time to start searching for a cure.

This basis of ignorance, along with the radical republicans number one news source (Faux News) - which is often known to mislead and misinform the republican troglodytes - We can mathematically deduce that it can be considered that one-half of the population has an IQ at or below 100. When you look at the ingredients of the modern day GOP, you find many radical teas who believe the thousands of conspiracy theories out of camp Fox daily- considering these facts, a premise suggests that approximately 65% of the people with an IQ below 100 are probably Republican. This would equate to 117 million people willing to be misled, and to be a dumber lot!  

Take Newsweek's quiz on "how dumb are we". if you don't get 20 out of 20 you should be:

1. forcibly sterilized


2. not be allowed to vote.

NFTOS Editor-in-Chief Roger West is quoted as saying:

"If a people do not know where they've been, they will not know where they are going. This is why we have strayed so far from the original intent of the founding of America today".

NFTOS

Ann Coulter...... Nuclear Physicist and Medical Expert?

Hey, you guys out there who are worrying about a deadly mushroom cloud making its way across the Pacific -- you can all just calm down, because we have it on good authority that radiation is good for you. What authority? None other than Ann "PhD" Coulter.

Nuclear physicist and medical expert Ann Coulter has spoken, and it turns out that a giant radioactive plume floating across the Pacific may be just what the doctor ordered for fretting California residents. On O’Reilly Factor, Coulter told host Bill O’Reilly that “radiation is good for you,” and cited a number of articles in the New York Times showing radiation has a positive effect on cancer patients. Then, of course, she blamed “the media” for not covering it.

Yes, it turns out that Coulter can find it in her heart to praise the New York Times– at least for their scientific coverage. “There is a growing body of evidence that radiation in excess of what the government says is actually good for you and actually reduces cancer,” she told a very skeptical O’Reilly, citing her latest column on her website as filled with evidence of this being true. Note: she is not making a political argument about nuclear energy here. She is making a medical point: that radiation is good for the human body in doses larger than what the government regulation standards currently are, not just in the small doses given in processes like chemotherapy (which no one will deny often cure cancer).



“So we should all be sunbathing,” O’Reilly jokes, noting that the current giant plume of radioactive material in Japan is slated to hit the United States by the end of this week. Joking aside, he implored Coulter to be “responsible” and admit that “some radiation will kill you.” She refused, possibly at last settling the debate on whether her political beliefs are based on ideology or contrarianism for its own sake, blaming “the media”– which apparently does not include the New York Times– for not reporting on the great medical uses of radiation “because it’s not sensationalistic.” No word on when Coulter’s new line of Radithor will be released (obviously, “the media” wouldn’t cover it).

What's the opposite of fear-mongering? False-sense-of-security-mongering, probably. Or whatever you'd call Ann Coulter's latest blog post claiming that radiation does a body good: maybe this would explain the man like Adam's apple that Coulter sports?

Coulter truly is a national treasure. Maybe prior to going to the beach we should rub our bodies down with uranium.


We at NFTOS are always impressed how Ann Coulter finds ways to make headlines. Coulter's venture into science journalism the other day, only displays that she is an idiot of epic proportions.

Coulter is always at the forefront of lunatic fringe statements, like:

“Want to make liberals angry? Defend the United States.”

“Never apologize to, compliment, or show graciousness to a Democrat.”

“[The] Spawn of Satan convention in Boston [was attended by] corn-fed, no make-up, natural fiber, no-bra needing, sandal-wearing, hirsute, somewhat fragrant hippie chick pie wagons.”

“If we took away women’s right to vote, we’d never have to worry about another Democrat president. It's kind of a pipe dream, it's a personal fantasy of mine.”

"We [Christians] just want Jews to be perfected.”

“My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times building.”

So as the increasingly critical situation in Japan demands more accurate and useful information about radiation, the Faux News Channel's "biggest buffoon show" features the ignorance of Ann Coulter. Just another reason why studies have found Faux News watchers more misinformed on the issues of the day than consumers of other corporate media outlets.

NFTOS

Republicans Set Out To Impoverish Real America Though Shared Sacrifice

There are a multitude of catch-phrases and buzz-words politicians use to convey their message and solicit votes during campaigns, and Republicans in particular devise messages that invoke patriotism by using fear and loathing of America’s enemies whether from foreign or internal enemies. Americans have always pulled together during emergencies or times of trouble, and in this tenuous economy we need a concerted effort to rebuild confidence and achieve economic stability. The new catch-phrase Republicans are using to defend their Draconian spending cuts is “shared sacrifice” and for a change, they are staying true to their word.

During World War II, the government enlisted all segments of society to work for the war effort and every American sacrificed something for the good of the country. Children collected tin cans, women took on construction jobs, men enlisted in the military, and every citizen felt they had a part in the victory. Today, money and jobs are in short supply, people are losing their homes, and communities are hard-pressed to maintain police, fire departments, education funding and everyone is being asked to sacrifice something for the common good. In order to rein in spending and reduce the deficit, Republicans in Congress are selling their spending cuts as necessary to the health of the nation and say their cuts impact every group; they claim it is shared sacrifice.

Americans are beginning to understand that Republicans want everyone to share in the sacrifices except the wealthy and corporations. Conservatives traditionally force minorities to make sacrifices, but they have broadened the scope to include the poor, elderly, children, and now working-class families in an effort to spread the pain evenly. For one thing, sacrifice means giving something up voluntarily and sharing denotes all parties giving equally. Republicans are forcing 98% of Americans to give up services their tax dollars pay for, but they are not asking the wealthy or corporations to make any sacrifices whatsoever.

In Congress, Republicans are finding it difficult to force Americans to sacrifice for corporations and the wealthy because the Senate and White House are controlled by Democrats. In Republican controlled states though, governors and legislatures are forcing the masses to sacrifice everything to ensure corporations receive all the tax dollars and control of the government. Republicans are not using subterfuge and deceit to hand over control to corporations, and in many cases, Republican governors are flaunting the fact that they are giving corporations a free ride while forcing everyone else to make bigger sacrifices.

In many Republican controlled states that are facing budget deficits, governors have proposed funding cuts to education, law enforcement, and aid programs for the poor and elderly in an effort to reduce budget shortfalls. The same states are experiencing depressed tax revenues so they increased taxes on the poor, retirees, public employees, and the middle class. With all the spending cuts, added tax revenue, and shared sacrifice by 98% of the population, states should be on the road to recovery, but any savings or added revenue is being doled out to corporations to perpetuate the shortfalls. To add insult to injury, Republicans argue that the spending cuts, elimination of services, and corporate entitlements will create jobs as they lay off thousands of employees.
 
The country watched Wisconsin’s governor, Scott Walker, give tax cuts to corporations that immediately caused a budget deficit, so he used it as an excuse to eliminate collective bargaining rights for public employees; he is not alone and is not finished. Walker also raised taxes on seniors, single mothers, and low-income residents as well as attempting to dismantle the state’s Medicaid system. In New Jersey, Florida, and Arizona, Republican governors are following Walker’s lead in drastically cutting Medicaid funding, and in Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, and Pennsylvania the governors are decimating the education systems to save money. In each of those states, the cuts to education and Medicaid will not cover the tax cuts the governors are giving to corporations and special interest groups. The result is less services, more people below the poverty level, and state budget deficits in perpetuity. It would be understandable if the Republican governors made cuts and raised taxes on everyone in their states, but they are doing the opposite in the name of fiscal responsibility, job creation, and shared sacrifice.

In a sense, Republicans do believe in shared sacrifice. In the past the poor and minorities shared in sacrificing for the good of the wealthy and corporations. Apparently, that sacrifice was not enough for Republicans and they have been kind enough to force elderly, children, and middle-class Americans to share the burden with the poor and minorities. Who are 98% of Americans sharing the sacrifice for? Republican governors and Congressional Republicans claim sacrificing government services is to reduce the budget deficit and control spending, but they are throwing our sacrifices into a bottomless pit of corporate greed. Despite Republicans’ claims, corporate entitlements are outpacing the spending cuts and they are complaining that corporate taxes are too high. Many Republicans in Congress favor eliminating corporate tax altogether like the new class of Republican governors are doing in their states.

Perhaps Republicans do not comprehend what shared sacrifice means, but that is highly unlikely. Any sacrifice is for the benefit of something, and since Republicans do not care about the government, they are forcing Americans to sacrifice money, well-being, safety, and old-age for a few greedy corporations and wealthy families.

Americans are generous, sharing people and have demonstrated that no sacrifice is too great to benefit the country or fellow citizens. In World War II the entire country mobilized to defeat a common enemy and during natural and man-made disasters most Americans step up and make sacrifices to help those in need whether with physical or financial support. There are groups who have fought and sacrificed so that every American regardless of race, gender, economic status, or religion enjoys the freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution, but Republicans have stood in opposition every step of the way. Now they are forcing the middle-class to give their livelihood to corporations and the wealthy.

Many middle-class Americans sat passively while the poor were being sacrificed, and Republicans misread their passivity as acquiescence. They have awoken an educated mass of people who are politically savvy and have assets to fight corporate entitlements. In Wisconsin, Governor Walker and the nation have witnessed exactly what shared sacrifice looks like and when done voluntarily, shared sacrifice will overcome evil and fascism every time. The protestors on the streets of Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, and Florida are sacrificing their time and energy for all Americans. It is a travesty that a few old white teabaggers are holding signs supporting the Koch brothers, but it is encouraging that the teabaggers who support Koch Industries are in the minority; there is no accounting for stupidity.

There is going to be an accounting and it is going to be painful for Republicans. Many Americans were uninformed about Republicans and their corporatist attitude, but now that all Americans are being forced to share in sacrificing to the corporate greed-god, the silence is over. There are grass-roots organizations that have mobilized an army of enraged Americans and their numbers are growing as they learn they are being forced into poverty to help corporations.

All Americans would sacrifice anything to protect their family’s well-being, and most would sacrifice all for America. However, Republicans are learning that Americans are hard-pressed to sacrifice any more for corporations and the wealthy. Americans don’t mind paying for government services, but they detest Republicans taking our money and handing it over to corporations without any benefit. Americans have sacrificed enough and Republicans can either sacrifice corporate donations or their jobs. Based on their set-in-stone corporatism, they’ll lose their jobs


NFTOS

Ending The Afghan War Would Save Taxpayers 40,000 Times More Money Than Defunding NPR

Today, two deficit-cutting bills will be voted on in the House of Representatives. One bill, introduced by Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO) and fellow Republicans, would end all federal funding to National Public Radio (NPR). The other bill, sponsored by Reps. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and Walter Jones (R-NC) and being pushed largely by progressive Democrats, calls for setting a strict timetable for withdrawal from Afghanistan that would mandate the end of combat operations in that country by the end of 2011.


Conservatives claim that defunding NPR would save taxpayers a great deal of money; former NPR employee Juan Williams even argued that NPR funding was taking away from “school breakfast programs [and] college scholarships.” Yet NPR receives only around 2 percent of its annual $161 million budget from federal grants, totaling approximately $3.2 million. Meanwhile, the FY2011 cost of the Afghan war has hit $113 billion.

Assuming that the costs of both the NPR funding and Afghan war would be the same for next year, that means that ending the Afghan war would save approximately 40,000 times more taxpayer dollars than defunding NPR’s grants from agencies such as the National Endowment for the Arts and Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Additionally, as the National Priorities Project shows, ending the war could help free up money for countless domestic priorities, like hiring millions of teachers or funding health care for tens of millions of poor children. Here are just some of the alternatives that could be funded for the cost of one year of the Afghan war:  

Health Care For 55 Million Low Income Children


1.6 million Elementary School Teachers for One Year

1.9 million Firefighters for One Year

14.1 million Head Start Slots for Children for One Year

13.8 million Military Veterans Receiving VA Medical Care for One Year

1.6 million Police or Sheriff’s Patrol Officers for One Year

19.3 million Students receiving Pell Grants of $5550

13.6 million Scholarships for University Students for One Year

Americans recognize these truths about the relative costs of the Afghan war versus NPR. That’s why polling shows that only a quarter of Americans want to see cuts to funding for public broadcasting, while the vast majority of Americans no longer support the Afghan war and want a clear exit from that country. If Republicans really want to “listen to the American people,” as they pledged to do last fall during their campaign, they would support ending the war in Afghanistan and really saving taxpayers money, not endorsing gimmicks to please the more extreme members of their base.  
UDATE:

During the floor debate on the Afghanistan issue, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) blasted his colleagues for attacking NPR but supporting the war. "The fiscal conservatives are going to be overwhelmingly in support of slashing NPR and go home and brag about how they're such great fiscal conservatives...At the same time, they won't consider for a minute cutting a real significant amount of money!" Watch it here:



The House just voted 228-192 to cut off funding to NPR and 93-321 against the resolution calling for an end to the war in Afghanistan this year. Numerous Republicans defected to vote against defunding NPR and to vote for ending the war in Afghanistan. No Democrats voted to defund NPR but more voted against ending the war in Afghanistan than voted for ending it.

Truly a travesty of epic proportions!




NFTOS

Corporate Welfare States

Corporate Welfare is not a new tool in the radical teas tool box.

If you want to see exactly what kind of war republicans are waging against the middle class, look no further than the budget plan created by Ohio governor John Kasich. The former Faux News anchor calls this his "jobs budget"? If you look at it, it looks awfully familiar, to anyone who's been paying attention to what's going on in Wisconsin and New Jersey. This jobs budget comes right out of the Scott Walker's- Chris Christie's playbook. Cut corporate taxes and go after the working men and women of America.

This budget is woven with one reform after another and most would say that it is the most reformed oriented budget presented in modern Ohio history.

Republicans use the word reform, because they really don't have the guts to tell you exactly what the they're talking about.

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(If your local, State, and National politician is republican and they mention "reform", grab your wallet and hold on tight, for soon they will steal that from you as well.)

Here are the reforms Kasich is talking about. Kasich plans to cut funding to Ohio:

Public schools by 25%. the budget slashes $12 million from children's hospitals. nearly $16 million from an adoption program for children with special needs. $1 million from the food banks.

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Ohio must be broke, that's why they have to do this...... wrong. Governor Kasich's own policy director told the Columbus dispatch newspaper, "even if there weren't an $8 billion deficit, we'd probably be proposing many of the same things."

So one has too assume that it is their ideology. So we've now got Ohio and Michigan, New Jersey and Wisconsin, they're all in the game, making it harder for the middle class, and a hell of lot easier for the rich folk.

This is only the beginning readers, as here are some other budget proposals from other GOP leaders around the country. If you don't think they're out of a radical tea bag playbook, take a look again:

Governor Rick Scott, Florida, wants to slash corporate income tax in Florida while cutting education funding and Medicaid by around $4 billion each. Georgia house leader Larry O'Neil pushed a budget that cuts corporate taxes 33% while increasing health care costs for state workers by more than 20%. Iowa governor Tom Barnstead wants a corporate income tax cut and a freeze on school spending. From the senate to the governor's chair in Kansas, eliminating the corporate income tax all together while cutting $50 million to education. Tea bag governor Paul Lepage wants a tax cut Maine's richest 1% and property tax hike, meaning moving up, on the pay list for the state's middle class. Let's take a look at Pennsylvania where governor Tom Corbett is proposing a corporate tax cut, along with a freeze on teachers' salaries. Governor Nikki Hayley, she wants to end income tax in South Carolina and cut physical education from schools, along with Medicaid reductions.

If this isn't happening in a state near you, just stick around, it will. Please feel free to let these radical republicans take control of the legislative session and allow these governor's to reside in State mansions - this is the kind of government you're going to get.

Its truly amazing when you look at the plan that's coming out from all these different states, where republicans just happen to be in charge.

Republican governors across this great land are taking us from the United States of America to the "Corporate States of America." Governor Kasich's budget is all about creating a low wage work force. How does this equate to you, you ask? You have the have mores, the have the somes, and you have the have not's. When these radical governors are done in our land you'll have many more have not's. This shall be absolutely devastating to the worker bees of this country.

If you look at the totality of this choke and puke politics this isn't really a left-right, republican or democrat issue. If you look at the poll numbers of Mr. Kasich - just recently got elected to the governor's chair and his approval ratings (done by a university of Cincinnati) are at 40%., and  47% disapprove of his 3 month stint as Ohio's Governor. Independants and moderate conservatives alike are tired of this over reach and jam it down your throat ideology as well.

Radical republicans have a priority list, (Disseminated by the puppet masters like NRA, Chamber of Commerce, and Koch Industries) and it seems that the priority list by those in power really don't believe in shared sacrifice.

NFTOS Editor-in-Chief Roger West says "it doesn't matter if you kill me by accident or kill me on purpose, dead is dead. Republican governor's are creating an environment in our country that will not promote growth, but will promote death."

NFTOS

Note to Glenn Beck: Don’t Take Many More Vacations

Glenn Beck in a calm moment

Last week Faux News’ Glenn Beck took a week off for vacation, and then returned on Monday. In his absence Glenn Beck was hosted each day by Andrew Napolitano, except last Friday when Fox News interrupted Glenn Beck in favor of breaking news coverage of the earthquake and tsunami catastrophe in Japan.

The good news for Beck is that he was able to take some time off from work. The bad news for Beck is that ratings-wise, Faux News did just fine without him. Coming in the wake of the recent New York Times report suggesting Faux News executives might be looking ahead to cable news lineup that does not include Beck once his contract expire at the end of the year, coupled with Beck's soft 2011 ratings, news that Glenn Beck basically drew the same numbers of viewers without Beck as the host probably isn’t good news for him or his agent.  
Not that long ago when Beck was off work and didn’t host his show, the ratings reflected that and a smaller audience tuned into Faux News at 5 p.m. But not last week.

For those four rated days, the Napolitano-hosted program averaged 1.83 million viewers, according to Nielsen. The week prior to that, the Beck-hosted show drew an audience of 1.98 million, which meant there was just an eight percent dip in the audience while Beck was on vacation. And for additional context, during the entire month of January, Glenn Beck averaged 1.76 million viewers, his worst month ever at Faux news.

Considering that Faux News finds it almost impossible to find a single nationally recognized advertiser who's willing to be associated with the program thanks to its controversial host, and the fact that the channel might be able to get roughly equal ratings without Beck at the 5 p.m. time slot, might only add to the possibility of a Beck-free lineup in the future?

Blog crossover from mediamatters.org




NFTOS

Eric Cantor Defends Cuts That Affect Your Safety

Japan has the best tsunami warning system in the world. Some of their buildings are literally built on massive springs so that they can sway instead of fall down. and experts say that the strict building codes and early warnings of the earthquake and tsunami saved countless lives. Well, you know what strict building codes and warning systems are in America?


To republicans this means "big government" - spending on infrastructure.

What if we where to experience a disaster like Japan? How prepared are we in our country? Yesterday house republican leader Eric Cantor defended republican proposals to cut spending for the United States Geological Survey, the National Weather Service, and NOAA.

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Government officials predict the closure of as many as 12 NOAA offices - which provide warning services for 30 million Americans. The national weather service budget would be cut by $126 million over the next six months with furloughs at 22 forecast offices. -and shorter work weeks for the storm prediction center and the national hurricane center shall be expected.

Where are we going as a country? Last week the president of the NWS union said "that if those cuts go through, there will be furloughs at both of the tsunami warning centers that protect the whole country. The president also said, "there is a very heightened risk of life if these cuts go through."

Any local LEPC or emergency coordinator will tell you that the inability for warnings to be disseminated to the public, whether due to staffing inadequacies, radar maintenance problems, or weather radio transmitter difficulties would be disastrous.

It's very tempting when doing these bizarre, every two week cuts, continuing resolutions to fund the government, to whack away at things you think people won't notice because, hey, what are the odds there is going to be some sort of weather event?

This is what I find bizarre about all this. If you peruse through the continuing resolution - first of all, there is a lot of gimmickry in this because a fair amount of the money being saved are called rescissions, which is money not spent - so the sense is we're returning money back to the treasury because it didn't spend all the money allotted. If you're going to make an argument from the most extreme libertarian perspective there are a few things you have to conceive of as basic public goods, and things like tsunami warning systems, early warning systems for seismic events are clearly public good.

Even in the most kind of stripped down conceptions these are things you want the government doing, and in the general context of the federal budget it really doesn't cost that much money. Keep in mind that the entire defense portion of the budget and the earmarks therein - there are more earmarks in the bill than any other bill - to which they are all protected by the house republicans.

It is basic safety for American citizens that is in jeopardy. We'd be less safe if these cuts go through -- talking aviation, utilities, agriculture. It is amazing how far these republicans will really go.

Reminder - when you hear radical republicans speaking "reform"....grab your wallet and hold on tight, for soon they shall ask for it next!.

NFTOS

Bachmann Fails American History......AGAIN!

Michele Bachmann dumbfounded yet again.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) made a high profile trip to New Hampshire today as part of a potential 2012 presidential run, but the tea party favorite, who often refers to the early days of the Republic in speeches and media appearances, embarrassingly mangled basic American history, incorrectly stating that the battles of Lexington and Concord, and the Pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock, to have occurred in New Hampshire, instead of Massachusetts:

“What I love about New Hampshire and what we have in common is our extreme love for liberty,” the potential GOP presidential candidate said. “You’re the state where the shot was heard around the world in Lexington and Concord. And you put a marker in the ground and paid with the blood of your ancestors the very first price that had to be paid to make this the most magnificent nation that has ever arisen in the annals of man in 5,000 years of recorded history.” [...]

“I’m thankful that you are the first in the nation state because you are the liberty state,” Bachmann said. “That is your charge. You keep that baton of liberty. You’ve done it very well for almost 20 generations from the time the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, and I’m sure the very first one came up to New Hampshire and said, ‘This is where I want to be.

Of course, as the school children in attendance at the speech could likely tell her, the Battles of Lexington and Concord that sparked the American revolution in 1775, and the Pilgrims’ landing, took place in Massachusetts, not New Hampshire, “but Bachmann did not correct her error when she referenced the battles again later in her speech.” Ironically, The Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire, which hosted the event, handed out pocket-sized copies of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution “on a table a few feet from where Bachmann spoke.”

This is hardly the first time Bachmann has flubbed the country’s basic history. She has repeatedly pronounced that America was founded on diversity and guaranteed freedom for all from its beginning, completely whitewashing the existence of slavery from America’s past. In January, CNN host Anderson Cooper lambasted Bachmann for “flunking history,” saying her diversity comments were “either a deliberate rewriting of our history, or signs that she has a shaky grasp on our history.”



NFTOS is never disappointed when it comes to Michele Bachmann. She suffers from major foot-in-mouth disease.


I try pretty hard to not be judgmental and to try to look at things from different perspectives to understand where a person is coming from. I've tried that with Michelle Bachman (R-MN06) too, but I'm sorry, she's just nuts. There's no two ways about it. And then there was her statement that Americans like working two jobs. Maybe that should have tipped me off.

In addition to being a little off keel, Bachmann's track record has proven she is also a full-fledged nutjob. The type of person that makes you turn to your friend the moment she gets up to use the bathroom and mouth "She's craaaaaaazy," complete with hand motions and bug-eyes.

Bachmann has claimed that many of her career moves have been dictated by messages from God. Abraham, Moses.

If you give Michele Bachmann a microphone, there's a pretty solid chance she'll say something stupid. The kinds of statements that leave you speechless - not because you don't know how to respond, but because there is no applicable response to gibberish.

Here's a sampling of her work:

"Don't Palinize Me!"

"Not all cultures are equal."

"We're running out of rich people in this country."

""I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out then under another Democrat president Jimmy Carter. And I'm not blaming this on President Obama, I just think it's an interesting coincidence."

"Little children will be forced to learn that homosexuality is normal and natural and perhaps they should try it."

Michele Bachmann's statements are so inane that at some level, one has must cut her some slack. Why? No one human can really be this out of tune with reality....or can they. No real person acts like this, or do they.

Bachmann is often found riding the crazy train.

NFTOS Editor-in-chief Roger West is often quoted as saying in our daily horseshoe meetings... "as if there isn't already enough fruits and nuts within the republican basket, what's one more added to the fray"?


NFTOS would love to see a Palin-Bachmann Presidential ticket, for there would never be an easier win for the Democratic ticket, one might conclude a landslide to be in order.

One thing this is for sure - You Can't Fix Stupid!


NFTOS