Feb 15, 2014

Blogging Beautiful Bill Press and the Newsbusters

On MSNBC, Hateful Bill Press Slams Right-Wingers ‘Driven By Hate’

By Paul Bremmer | February 14, 2014 | 18:45

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You have to love the hypocrisy of certain liberal media figures regarding hateful rhetoric. On Thursday evening, left-wing talk radio host Bill Press appeared on MSNBC’s PoliticsNation to comment on some supposedly inflammatory remarks from Rush Limbaugh and Dr. Ben Carson. [Video below. MP3 audio here.]

Yes, this is the same Bill Press who makes inflammatory remarks all the time on his show [as we've documented repeatedly].

Host Al Sharpton declared, “You know, Bill, there has been a disturbing trend from some on the right: compare the policies of this administration to Nazi Germany.” He then played a clip in which Dr. Carson lamented that “Nazi” and “slavery” are taboo words and complained about political correctness in general. Carson did not, however, directly call anyone a Nazi in the clip.

After hearing the soundbite, Sir Bill mounted his high horse. He recalled his days as a panelist on CNN’s Crossfire:

We had a rule. Pat Buchanan, Bob Novak and I, we all agreed. Anybody who used the Nazi word or who used Hitler, they automatically lost. They lost all credibility. And for Ben Carson to go there just shows how desperate they are.

But it just so happens that Press himself has invoked the Nazi comparison in the past to attack those he disagrees with. In an August 2009 column, he smeared Tea Party members who protested ObamaCare at town hall meetings:

Taking a page right out of a Nazi playbook, organizers bus in professional protestors and arm them with instructions on how to take over meetings, shut down discussion, shout over any pro-health care reform speakers, and then post video of the resulting chaos on YouTube. It's mob rule, pure and simple.

Does that mean Bill Press has lost all credibility? Nah, he’s a liberal. Liberals can say whatever they want without sparking national outrage.

Later in the segment, Sharpton proclaimed that only a quarter of Americans now identify as Republicans. Press believed that right-wing media figures like Carson, Limbaugh, and Mark Levin were to blame. He erupted:

You know what it is, Reverend? They are driven by hate. And I don't think the American people want hate in their politics. But that's all these people know... They've had this obsession from the beginning. They are sick. They're mentally deranged commentators as far as I'm concerned.

It was an impassioned outburst. But it was also hypocritical, for Press is hardly a model of civility. He has made plenty of hateful comments in the past. In addition to the aforementioned Nazi reference, he has likened Republicans to terrorists on multiple occasions. He once called Newt Gingrich a suicide bomber and compared Glenn Beck to al-Qaeda. He has also compared secessionists to terrorists.

Press’s insults go beyond terrorist comparisons. He once expressed amazement that lightning didn’t strike John Boehner dead after the House Speaker made a particular comment. He expressed his wish that the American people would suffer “un-freaking bearable” pain from last year’s sequester spending cuts. He also slammed former President George W. Bush as “probably the dumbest president ever” and blasted American voters as “bastards,” “idiots,” and “dumb as hell” after they elected a Republican-led House in November 2010.

[You can find examples of Press’s hateful rhetoric here.]

Bill Press has no right to complain about right-wing hate. He is one of the most hateful left-wingers out there.

Below is a partial transcript of the segment:

AL SHARPTON: You know, Bill, there has been a disturbing trend from some on the right, compare the policies of this administration to Nazi Germany. And last night, Fox contributor Ben Carson defended that kind of talk. Listen to this.

[Begin tape]

BEN CARSON: The objective of many on the left is to take a single word that you're not supposed to say. You can't say Nazis, you can't say slavery. That's political correctness, as you well know. I do not believe in that. I think it's a bunch of crap. I'm worried about the fact that the populace is being silent and is not expressing what they believe because they're afraid. They've been intimidated.

BILL O’REILLY: By? By whom?

CARSON: By the government.

O’REILLY: How?

CARSON: By the government and by the media, by the PC police.

[End tape]

SHARPTON: I mean, Bill, it's unreal.

BILL PRESS: No, it is unreal. First, I just got to say, I have a good idea for Rush Limbaugh. You know what to do? Tell the truth for once.

KRYSTAL BALL: Oh yeah, good luck with that.

PRESS: Stop telling the lies, maybe. That's what they really ought to do. But as to Ben Carson, Reverend Al, you and I met way back when I was doing Crossfire on CNN, remember right? We had a rule. Pat Buchanan, Bob Novak and I, we all agreed. Anybody who used the Nazi word or who used Hitler, they automatically lost. They lost all credibility. And for Ben Carson to go there just shows how desperate they are. But here’s what bothers me. Where is the leadership of the Republican Party?

Story Continues Below Ad ↓

SHARPTON: Right.

PRESS: Where is Reince Priebus? Reince Priebus got his underwear in a snit, right, in a twist because somebody at MSNBC said something about a Cheerios ad, didn't even mention the Republican Party. And he demanded a correction and boycott MSNBC and all of that crap. Why isn’t he condemning that kind of language? Where is his leadership and why is John Boehner using the same ‘lawlessness’ language that we hear from Rush Limbaugh and Krauthammer? We expect it from those nut jobs. We don't expect it from the leadership of the party.

***

SHARPTON: It's hurt them, because, Bill, the negative talk has brought them down to where just 25 percent of Americans identify as Republicans. That's the lowest number in at least 25 years.

PRESS: You know what it is, reverend? They are driven by hate. And I don't think the American people want hate in their politics. But that's all these people know. It is hate talk against the president, against Michelle Obama, the first lady, and it's been that way from the beginning. Remember back in 2008, Mark Levin, another nut job talk show host, said when President Obama had big crowds out at his rallies, they said he’s like Hitler because he had big crowds at his rallies. They've had this obsession from the beginning. They are sick. They're mentally deranged commentators as far as I'm concerned.

Chloe Louise

in a few seconds

It is not just the hate but also the whackadoodles that are deleting the repubs from society. Bombastic Beauty, Ann Coulter, has been a one-woman wrecking ball for the group. This is why so many of the GOPers are moving over to the democratic party. With a new leader like Hillary Clinton emerging the strength will continue and the middle of the road idea is attractive to all.

just trying to steer the right in the right direction.......yes, I accept the assignment.

Sewing with Al Sharpton at 3PM and Blogging the Newsbusters

Sewing with Al Sharpton at 3PM and Blogging the Newsbusters.......it's a tough job but someone has to do it.

It took a lot of thinking to reply and thank you for your beautiful response. Actually I did not watch Rev. Al Sharpton too often as it did not fit in my day schedule, but after Bill kept berating him I became more curious, even though I basically did enjoy Rev. Al and liked him.

I also watch Chris Matthews each day on MSNBC so I changed my routine so I could see what was going on. Well, as a dem I did like his show and then as time passed i noticed Reverend Al Sharpton was quite an inspirational and humble individual, as I just kept casually listening to his words.

He has said he has made errors and he is sorry about that, he has said he likes to keep fighting for civil rights not just about race but about anyone that has been judged unfairly and he also used Gandhi and non-violence as a model.

He is also quite inspirational talking about his diet and like me, he did not have a dad and he really enjoyed and valued the attention he received from James Brown.

I do not know if you listen to the Jesus Christ Show but like that radio show on Sun mornings right before CBS Sunday Morning, Rev Al has offered me a certain peace--not just talking about politics but about life, in general.

I do not think anyone could say he has not worked hard for civil rights--agree or disagree--and it is a wonderful thing to have the first African-American President in the White House. I imagine he was very proud to go to the state dinner.

On that idea, alone, regardless of political affiliation, can't Bill O'Reilly, Levin and others be happy for Reverend Al and other people that are simply so happy about President Obama.

For Bill O'Reilly to constantly try to minimize the effects of past racism in America is just not right or realistic.

Just in South Africa in recent times people have suffered.

Not talking about politics, now, but shouldn't we acknowledge this injustice just as Jesus would have noticed these situations.

So again, why does Bill constantly have to rant about his hatred of Reverend Al Sharpton and call him a thug. It is hurtful to me.

Again, Bill is acting like an arrogant teenager in the ilk of Eddie Haskell who cannot come to terms with life.

This is where I am coming from........

and now I have Sewing with Al Sharpton at 3PM and

the tea party with Chris Matthews at 4.

Bill O at 5, finish with

Piers Morgan at 6 and then the

big dog walk at 7.........unless Ronnie starts bugging me earlier then everything gets all messed up.

Yes, I do find the words of Al Sharpton to be soothing.

I hope you respond and thank you for your discussion.

Bill Maher is the ultimate democratic ball and chain.

First, he donates his big money to the party as if that gives him leave to open his big mouth and we are obligated to listen due to his generosity.

This is a case of obvious self-promostion not even thinly veiled.

While I do not agree with Mrs. palin she does get to talk. Women in politis are talking these days without fear of a a sexual slur as retaliation.

I have said this sooooo many times. If Bill Maher is such a talented comedian let him find a different way to anser back in disagreement.

If he wants to be funny, fine--politics, fine--but for what he said there was really no answer back. He is disgusting. He effectively ended the conversation.

I would defend Sarah Palin any day--I do not have to agree but I definenitely want to hear what all sides have to say. The political conversation moves things forward.

We are all talking, now, and we all make mistakes.

Shall women not join in the political conversation due to a possible disgusting retribution from Bill.

As a dem.....Bill Maher qualifies as a jerk. Now, Bill, to that you can answer back.

here we go with the newsbusters.......

Jake Tapper Goes Easy on Bill Maher, Omits His History of Defaming Republican Women

By Matt Hadro | February 14, 2014 | 17:54

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CNN's Jake Tapper didn't ask guest Bill Maher once about his vile rhetoric against conservative women in a lengthy, two-segment interview on Friday's The Lead.

Tapper asked all soft questions of the liberal comedian who gave $1 million to President Obama's super PAC in 2012. He also brought up the Lewinsky scandal, which enabled Maher to laud Bill Clinton as "respectable" and a "great guy." This from a man who has a history of despicable vitriol against Republican women.

"Bill Clinton, let's be honest, at some point if you hang around long enough like an old building, they say, you become respectable and that's Bill Clinton now," Maher said. "Somehow the guy, who the Republicans accused of everything from rape to murdering Vince Foster and the most corrupt guy, he's great now. He's a great guy. They love him."

As NewsBusters has documented, Maher has received a warm welcome from the network before, including when Piers Morgan wished he would "remain gloriously uncensored on HBO."

Friday just marked the latest CNN welcome. Tapper asked Maher easy questions about his "new plot" to flip districts, if he would run for Congress, his "favorites for 2016," and his "frustration" with the administration's marijuana policy. Below are Tapper's questions (the question about Monica Lewinsky was incomplete due to a broadcasting issue):

CNN
THE LEAD
2/14/14
[4:35 p.m. EST]

JAKE TAPPER: Why just hurl your comedic barbs from the sidelines when you can directly tamper with how Washington works? Well that's the new game plan, anyway, for liberal comedian Bill Maher host of HBO's Realtime with Bill Maher. He says this year his show will be entering into the exciting world of outright meddling with the political process by working with his fans to flip a district and knock a lawmaker of his audience's choosing out of power. I spoke with Maher and asked him to explain his new plot.

(Video Clip)

TAPPER: So Roll Call, one of the newspapers of Capitol Hill, asked some Republican members of Congress what they thought. Congressman Steve King, Republican of Iowa, he said you should run. He said quote, anybody that would put their name on the ballot is deserving of our respect. So let's see if I can start to respect Bill Maher. That was his thing. And then he said also, then all of the comedians can make fun of you. Have you ever thought about running for office?

TAPPER: So you were active, as you mentioned, in the 2012 election. You gave $1 million to Priorities USA, the pro-Obama super PAC. Do you have any favorites for 2016? Is there anyone you want to see run, not for comedic purposes but for leadership?

TAPPER: I remember a time when you were more of a libertarian and you didn't like either party. Do you think that you have changed in your politics, or do you think the parties have changed?

TAPPER: You're outspoken on the issue of marijuana. The President made headlines recently by saying that marijuana, in his view, is no more dangerous than alcohol. I interviewed him not long ago and I asked him about that. (...) So it is within the power of the Attorney General to change the classification. Are you frustrated, though, more largely, about the President's position on marijuana legalization, or do you support where he is because he has changed a bit?

[Commercial Break]

TAPPER: You're still doing a lot of standup on the weekends, and you've got some dates coming up in some pretty red states. Greenville, Suth Carolina, February 22nd. And at the BJCC Concert Hall in Birmingham, Alabama, on February 23rd. When you go into these red states, how do the audiences receive you?

TAPPER: Finally, what is it like watching all this intense winter weather coverage from sunny Los Angeles?

Feb 14, 2014

Bombastic Bill O'Reilly: Bashed by his Favorite Paper The New York Times

The Opinion Pages|CONTRIBUTING OP-ED WRITER

Bill O’Reilly’s Gift for the Ages

FEB. 13, 2014

Timothy Egan

It’s been nearly two weeks now since Bill O’Reilly’s interview with President Obama on Super Bowl Sunday, and in the No Spin Zone of the host’s pretend world he’s still spinning the chat as the greatest conversation since Winston Churchill dined alone.

His sit-down with the president, he said, “is going to go down in journalistic history as what should be done.” And in case historians are late to the same conclusion, O’Reilly is auctioning off the notes of his questions — “they are obviously one of a kind,” he says.

Let us now praise the Bombastic One’s gift to posterity. His interview, his notes, all the ephemera should be preserved and studied. The sickness that infects news and politics, and its commensurate cynicism, can be directly traced to the creation of Fox News — “a political operation that employs journalists,” in the words of Gabriel Sherman, author of the new book on Roger Ailes, “The Loudest Voice in the Room.” There is no bigger media story in the last 50 years than the creation of a news network run by political hacks, says Sherman. I’m inclined to agree.

But just as important, civility itself took a dive with the rise of Fox, and has never recovered. The shouters, the boasters, the haters who show up at town hall meetings or pollute the Web with dark fantasies get their behavioral cues from Fox. O’Reilly is famous for telling guests to “shut up,” for cutting off people he disagrees with, for smugly praising his own performances and bringing on sycophants to do the same. By comparison, Ron Burgundy is a model of humility.

A congress where members can shout “You lie” at a president, or tweet “socialist dictator” and “Kommandant-in-chef” (sic), is another result of the vulgar forces unleashed by Fox.

Imagine Walter Cronkite, Diane Sawyer, Terry Gross or Tim Russert devoting entire shows to praising their own work. A good interview makes news, or reveals something fresh about the subject.

So, the first point for historians sniffing the odor of O’Reilly’s time capsule in 2114 is that the interview made no news. No ground was broken. It was a journalistic dud. O’Reilly himself spoke for about 40 percent of the time, and devoted 90 percent of the interview to “the full Fox scandal grab bag,” as Jon Stewart called it.

O’Reilly, in four days of talking about himself after the interview, said his role is to hold politicians accountable. If only. Remember how accountable he held George W. Bush when the president took the country to war on a lie, bankrupting the nation in the process? You don’t? Here’s a sample, from a 2004 interview with Bush, then in a heated election contest with John Kerry. That September, a series of incendiary ads, questioning the military service of Kerry in Vietnam, was a hot topic.

O’Reilly: “You didn’t know anything about the Swift Boat ads before they went on the air, did you?”

Bush: “No, I didn’t.”

O’Reilly: “Did Karl Rove know anything about it?”

Bush: “I don’t think so.”

In fact, records show that the bulk of the funding for those smears came from two men with close ties to Bush — one a longtime associate of Karl Rove’s, something that was easily found by a document search.

O’Reilly then dismissed as “propaganda” questions about whether the combination of massive tax cuts and two costly wars might leave the country broke. But he did drill Bush on why there are so many liberal college professors and “pinheads” at Harvard and Yale.

The biggest issue at the time was how the United States could be fooled into going to war over nonexistence weapons of mass destruction.

O’Reilly: “What happened to Saddam’s chemical arsenal? Do you know?”

Bush: “No, I don’t.”

O’Reilly: “He hasn’t given us much, has he?”

Other news organizations, The New York Times among them, were less watchdog than lapdog at times as well. But from beginning of this debacle to the mission-accomplished end, Fox worked closely with the White House. Ailes offered strategic advice in the run-up to the war, and Fox was the lead cheerleader. The same Fox host who says his job is to hold politicians accountable actually warned his fellow citizens not to raise questions or protest.

“Americans, and indeed our allies who actively work against our military once the war is underway, will be considered enemies of the state by me,” said O’Reilly. “Just fair warning to you, Barbra Streisand, and others who see the world as you do.”

Since Benghazi dominated O’Reilly’s interview with Obama, it’s fair to check how many times O’Reilly asked Bush about at least six attacks on United States embassies and consulates during his first term. Zero. It never came up in three long interviews, according to the transcripts Fox posted.

Little wonder that Bush felt right at home with O’Reilly. “I really enjoy how you interview people and I appreciate you giving me a chance to come on and have, what we say in Texas, ‘just a visit.'”

Just a visit for one president, a trip to the scandal trough for another. Should O’Reilly ever sit for an interview on his own past, on terms he applies to Fox’s enemies, it would include questions about the lawsuit from a former subordinate who complained of “constant and relentless sexual harassment.” No spin there. No questions either. After a reported $10 million settlement was paid to keep the details inside Fox, O’Reilly said, “This brutal ordeal is now officially over, and I will never speak of it again.”

We could ask O’Reilly about the softball interview he did with former Governor Mike Huckabee concerning the felon he let out of prison early in Arkansas who went on to murder four police officers. This kind of politician should be a punching bag for O’Reilly, Willie Horton-ized to a pulp. Unless, of course, he worked for Fox. O’Reilly praised his colleague as “a stand-up guy.”

From the War on Christmas to the Frankenstein monster of the Tea Party, Fox’s creations have been uniformly bad for American life. Regular viewers of Fox are less-well-informed than people who are exposed to no media. So yes, future generations should study O’Reilly’s interview. Learn from it, as with all mistakes of history, lest it be repeated.

Al Franken: He's Doing a Good Job in Washington and Everything but is he Still Funny?

STAR TRIBUNE: WHO’S THE REAL AL FRANKEN? A LOOK AT A SENATOR’S TRANSFORMATION

Al Franken’s transformation from spicy comic to wonkish senator has been nothing short of breathtaking. Five years ago, the risk of encountering Franken was that he’d tell a funny story of the sort that would make your mother blush. Now the risk is that he’d make your eyes glaze over with the inside dope on Washington legislation. Franken has become, with no irony intended, a serious man.

“Is it as much fun being a senator as it was working on ‘Saturday Night Live,’?” he asks, reciting a question he often gets. “The answer is no.” But he goes on to say that people’s careers often take new turns. “This is the best job I’ve ever had,” he says, “because its purpose is to improve other people’s lives, and when that happens everything else is worth it.”

“Everything else” is the endless partisan bickering and systematic dysfunction that have led many ordinary people to give up on government and some scholars to conclude that the Constitution no longer works. But Franken, a Democrat, who’s rated among the half-dozen most liberal senators, insists that there’s another Washington hiding in the nooks and crannies, one that’s fully functional and brimming with bipartisan cooperation, even bipartisan friendship. “That’s really what the job is about,” he says.

Take, for example, the new restrictions on large-scale pharmaceutical compounding that Franken and Republican Pat Roberts of Kansas pushed through the Senate last year. Federal investigators had traced contaminated drugs that caused 750 cases of fungal meningitis and 64 deaths to a careless drug compounding operation in Massachusetts. Its tainted drugs were shipped to 18 states. At a tearful meeting last month in Franken’s St. Paul office, two Minnesota survivors dropped by to thank Franken and to describe the painful illness that continues to threaten their lives. It was a heartbreaking scene. And it showed an emotional side of Franken that most voters haven’t imagined.

But it also prompts a question as Franken braces for a re-election challenge this year: Who is this new Al Franken? His opponents tend to see him wearing a kind of disguise, beneath which lurks the same old prankster who wrote books like “Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot” and “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them,” wickedly funny essays with a streak of mean running through them. In short, they doubt the genuineness of the new Franken.

Friends, on the other hand, see common threads running through Franken’s career, from comic to satirist to senator — namely, his intense interest in public affairs, his appetite for detail, and his strong sense of populist outrage, now tempered by age and position. For them, Franken has emerged as a mature version of his former self, or, in political terms, a buttoned-down version of Paul Wellstone, without the fizz.

Franken, himself, traces his political awareness to his father, who grew up a Jacob Javits Republican in New York and eventually moved his young family west, first to Albert Lea, then to the Twin Cities suburbs. Father and son would pull out the TV trays at dinnertime and watch the news together, most memorably the civil-rights drama of the early 1960s, and most vividly the scenes of white police officers attacking and beating black demonstrators. “No Jew can be for that,” Franken recalls his dad telling him.

In 1964, when Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater failed to support the Civil Rights Act, Joe Franken switched parties. And his son began sipping St. Louis Park’s extraordinary brew of politics and art, a mixture that would produce journalist Tom Friedman, satirist Tom Davis, filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen, and musicians Sharon Isbin and Peter Himmelman, among others. The Blake School, Harvard University and Dudley Riggs’ Brave New Workshop sharpened Franken’s sense of irreverence and launched him toward a brand of politically edged comedy, eventually as a writer and occasional performer on “SNL” and as a talk-radio host who tried to challenge the conservatives’ domination of the air waves.

But Franken’s experience as a public figure did not prepare him for elective office. Early in his Senate campaign, he struggled to find the proper persona between comic and serious candidate. Speaking from the bimah (pulpit) at Temple Israel in Minneapolis, Franken told a graphic Buddy Hackett joke about male genitals. The response was shock and embarrassment. It may have been a moment of clarity for Franken: What works on the Borscht Belt or in Las Vegas is way, way out of bounds for a politician in the American heartland, especially in a sacred setting.

Later, during the momentous recount that followed the 2008 election, Hillary Rodham Clinton’s chief of staff in the Senate, Tamera Luzzatto, hammered home a similar point. Don’t take advantage of your celebrity, she told him. Avoid the national spotlight. Keep your head down. Work hard. Take care of constituents. Build a loyal staff. Earn the respect of your colleagues in both parties.

Not the Ted Cruz of the left

It’s advice that Franken has followed almost too faithfully. “No one ever thought that Al Franken would be boring, but he’s taught himself a whole new skill set,” said University of Minnesota political scientist Larry Jacobs. “There’s nothing in his past to suggest that he could be this disciplined and this effective. He has greatly exceeded expectations.”

“He could have been the Ted Cruz of the left, but that has clearly not happened,” said Carleton College’s Steven Schier. “Turns out that the court jester was really an accountant.”

Actually, Franken has employed some of his satirist skills in the Senate, namely his talent for scanning the news and selecting his targets — not for comedy sketches but for legislation. “I don’t know of any first-term senator who has had such a broad sweep of accomplishments,” said Norman Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and one of the nation’s foremost experts on Congress. (Ornstein, by the way, grew up in St. Louis Park, a few blocks from Franken, and considers him a personal friend.)

Perhaps the best example of Franken’s sharp eye was noticing that Dodd-Frank, the law aimed at a preventing another 2008-type financial meltdown, had failed to discourage what Franken saw as a too-cozy relationship between the credit rating agencies and the Wall Street investment banks. Franken’s clear impression was that the agencies gave AAA ratings to “junk” in exchange for continued business from the banks. “That was the cause of all this in the first place,” he said. “This is a conflict of interest, clear as day.”

While he’s still working to amend that law — “I’m on it like a dog with a bone” — many of his other initiatives have been passed, nearly all of them with the help of Republican partners. Among Franken’s main interests: privacy, technology, workforce development, veterans, health care, renewable energy and agriculture. Perhaps the best way to summarize his legislative work is to ask some of the questions he asked over the last five years:

Should insurance companies under Obamacare be required to spend 80 percent of premiums on actual care rather than on administrative expenses? Should the developers of smartphones and mobile apps be required to get customers’ consent before tracking their locations? Should the federal government decline to do business with companies that require employees to give up the right to sue for sexual harassment or rape at work?

Should partnerships between private-sector employers and community/technical colleges be strengthened? Should veterans have better health care options in rural areas? Might service dogs help wounded veterans adjust to civilian life? Should diabetes prevention be a higher priority in health care? Should landlords be prohibited from evicting women from federally supported housing because they were beat up or sexually assaulted? Should spy agencies be required to release more details about their surveillance programs?

He believes that the answer to each of those questions is yes. Franken owes much of his success so far to his ability to forge alliances, even friendships, with Republican senators. A sense of humor on both sides can break down a lot of barriers, he said. “They figured out pretty quickly that I laugh a lot.”

At the same time, he has emerged as perhaps the Senate’s toughest critic of corporate power, especially in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, allowing unlimited corporate contributions to politicians. “They gave corporations a blank check to utterly destroy our political system,” he told his colleagues in 2012.

copied from alfranken.com

Feb 13, 2014

Blogging the newsbusters by chloe louise...this is a tough group

only a minute to argue before Perry Mason but I will do my best......

talking about Bill O'Reilly.........he is a bully

Like BO and his recent word of the day all of you busters are so obtuse.

Talking about the civil rights movement of the 60's and the Reverend Al Sharpton.

Agree with him or not, this individual really has something to be happy about now, but there is still work to do. Why can't Bill acknowledge his happiness for once for a job well done...no BO continually marginalizes this idea by calling Al Sharpton a thug when he attended the state dinner for the President of France--the name of which Bill could not even pronounce---the H is silent.

Bill is jealous and spiteful because he has been left out and the Rev has been included.

Let him be happy for the reverend instead of calling him names and laughing at him...constantly. There is the devil at work right there if you want to go into it--trying to steal some one's happiness.

Let Bill grow up......Eddie needs to be counseled again by Wally--again, he has the mentality of a teenager

Now, I will be taking Ronald to the dog park after Perry and I do not want anyone to say anything mean about my group.....me, ronnie, Al, Geraldo, Pres. Obama, Hillary, the cats,the dems....until I can get back and defend myself.

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