Totally rational NRA spokes-asshole Ted Nugent suggests that liberals should be shot like "rabid coyotes."

Ted Nugent showing his penis on stage.

Courtesy of Media Matters:  

TED NUGENT (NRA BOARD MEMBER): Don’t ask why. Just know that evil, dishonesty, and scam artists have always been around and that right now they’re liberal, they’re Democrat, they’re RINOs, they’re Hollywood, they’re fake news, they’re media, they’re academia, and they’re half of our government, at least. So come to that realization. There are rabid coyotes running around. You don’t wait till you see one to go get your gun. Keep your gun handy, and every time you see one, you shoot one.

What did that survey say about the number of gun owners suffering from mental illness again?

Because I think we are looking at Exhibit One right here.

I actually think that if you took Ted Nugent's guns away he would simply roll up into the fetal position and die.

That's an experiment that I would like to witness first hand.

Info Wars host seems unusually angry about Robert Mueller targeting Russian oligarchs.

Infowars is furious that Mueller is stopping Russian oligarchs at the airport:

"I wish that Russian would've beat his ass right there...that's what I would have done." https://t.co/Fct1F8eFCN pic.twitter.com/9upA2sNItw

— Media Matters (@mmfa) April 5, 2018

Courtesy of Media Matters:  

OWEN SHROYER (HOST): What an un-American scumbag. This story -- I can't say what I'd like to say to Robert Mueller right now on air because it's a family show. I'm sorry for already losing it and being inappropriate here. But, man, F that guy. 

Story breaks on CNN, "Mueller's team questioning Russian oligarchs." Ladies and gentlemen, Robert Mueller is now sitting at the airport in New York and questioning Russian oligarchs right there at the airport. Stopping them and searching their electronic devices and reading their private messages. 

Here's a question: Where's the [American Civil Liberties Union] ACLU? Oh, let me tell you, if Robert Mueller -- if Robert Mueller would've stood at the southern border and he would've questioned people crossing over the southern border illegally and reading their text messages, the ACLU would be up his butt immediately saying he's a racist and he has to be jailed. But he goes to the airport and questions Russian oligarchs and reads their electronic devices at the airport like a total insane madman, the ACLU's silent. 

Do you remember -- It was just -- I've been saying this every day now. Robert Mueller is off the chain. He has no boundaries, he is limitless, he is above the law, he is lawless, he is super Mueller. This guy needs to be brought down. Trump needs to stop this. This is out of control, man. How is it that Robert Mueller is above the entire world? He can just stop a Russian and say, "I'm reading your text messages." I wish that Russian would have beat his ass right there -- excuse me. That's what I would've done. 

[...] 

If we can't stop this, if we can't prosecute Obama, if we can't indict Hillary, then we can't do anything. We have no backbone, we have no spine, we have no testicles, we have nothing, no legs, no arms, no brain.

First off I would pay big money to see this little shit piss all over himself if he actually were to be stopped and questioned by one or more of the Mueller investigators.

The idea that this little cockroach would strike a federal officer, is laugh out loud funny.

Secondly, WTF?

Why would a supposedly American Right Wing new outlet get that worked up over American investigators questioning Russians with possible ties to the Kremlin?

I mean they do realize that we are under attack, right?

Here is the story that this douchenozzle was referring to.

Courtesy of CNN: 

Special counsel Robert Mueller's team has taken the unusual step of questioning Russian oligarchs who traveled into the US, stopping at least one and searching his electronic devices when his private jet landed at a New York area airport, according to multiple sources familiar with the inquiry. 

A second Russian oligarch was stopped during a recent trip to the US, although it is not clear if he was searched, according to a person briefed on the matter. 

Mueller's team has also made an informal voluntary document and interview request to a third Russian oligarch who has not traveled to the US recently.

The situations have one thing in common: Investigators are asking whether wealthy Russians illegally funneled cash donations directly or indirectly into Donald Trump's presidential campaign and inauguration. 

Investigators' interest in Russian oligarchs has not been previously reported. It reveals that Mueller's team has intensified its focus into the potential flow of money from Russia into the US election as part of its wide-ranging investigation into whether the Trump team colluded with Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Okay then I guess in order to defend Donald Trump from the Mueller investigators, certain Right Wing outlets feel it necessary to defend the rights of Russians coming to this country who may have incriminating information that can be used by the Special Counsel.

Hey, do you remember when the conservatives absolutely HATED the Russians?

Whatever happened to all of that?

After calling he Parkland students "soulless" Ted Nugent complains that HE is under the victim of "hate speech."

You may remember that a couple of days ago Ted "Poopy pants" Nugent attacked the survivors of that school shooting by calling them "mush brains" and "soulless."

Well Ted got a little backlash on social media, and it hurt his tiny little run toting feelings.

Courtesy of Media Matters: 

TED NUGENT: I was told, coming out of a firestorm, a firestorm of guitar solo magic, that I was trending on Facebook because somehow, some dishonest, lying idiots claimed that my identifying, accurately and honestly, those in the gun control marches who call people who don’t agree with them child murderers -- now if I called you a child murderer without having any evidence, that would be hate speech. So they are guilty of hate speech. I merely identified that you have to have mush for brains to accept, blindly accept, the propaganda from the gun-hating, freedom-hating, America-hating, liberal Democrat left media. And who out there believes that so much of the media – who believes CNN, anybody? MSNBC, anybody? ABC, CBS, NBC? Certainly Media Matters, really? Boy, what a hypocritical title that is. Media Matters, MoveOn.Org, Southern Poverty Law Center, the Huffington punks, who believes these people? So they claimed that it’s hate speech to identify the hate of people that call us child murderers, because we don’t believe in banning guns, which won’t save any lives. So they’re so blinded by their hate, and their mushy brains have so robotically accepted the propaganda ministry’s lies and deceit, that they’re hate isn’t hate. My identifying their hate, is hate. What the hell? So I stand by my words.

So to be clear THIS guy is the victim of hate speech. 

I see.

Have you ever noticed that the most verbally vicious Ammosexuals out there are also the most likely to cry like a bitch the minute they are confronted with their assholiness?

I have.

As their national presence grows the Right Wing is going to extremes to discredit Parkland students.

Alex Jones played a video featuring @davidhogg111's #MarchForOurLives speech dubbed over with a Hitler speech https://t.co/icsyQcxG4I pic.twitter.com/3Dt5mhIL4J

— Media Matters (@mmfa) March 27, 2018

The above tweets features the always rational Alex Jones suggesting that Parkland student David Hogg is the new embodiment of Hitler.

Because you know that makes sense.

But the smear tactics did not end there. Not by a long shot.

Courtesy of Media Matters:  

Right-wing media outlets amplified claims that Parkland survivor David Hogg made a Nazi salute after his speech at the March for Our Lives event in Washington, D.C. But the gesture Hogg made was clearly a raised fist, not the Seig Heil salute.

In a March 25 article, Breitbart writer AWR Hawkins positively highlighted several Twitter accounts that claimed Hogg made a Nazi salute, although the image used to illustrate the article debunked the claim.

Writing for conservative pundit Ben Shapiro’s The Daily Wire, Ryan Saavedra wrote that Hogg “threw up a salute that sent Twitter into a frenzy.” Saavedra claimed it’s “not clear what Hogg meant by his hand gesture” but went on to include nine tweets that called the gesture, among other things, “Hitler-esque.” 

In a March 24 blog post, Alex Jones’ pro-Trump outlet Infowars called the march “the ‘Hitler Youth” invasion of Washington D.C.” and referred to the speakers as “young fascists-in-training,” specifically calling Hogg “the propagandist-in-chief”.

At left is @tyler_mitchell’s photo of @Emma4Change for the cover of @TeenVogue. At right is what so-called “Gun Rights Activists” have photoshopped it into. #MarchForOurLives pic.twitter.com/jW6tTOv2Db

— Phillip Picardi (@pfpicardi) March 25, 2018

Here, by the way, is the video from which that image on the left was taken, just in case there are any trolls here who want to argue that the one of the right is not photoshopped.

💪🏼🧡 pic.twitter.com/aSuEgPEh5o

— Sarah Chadwick// #NEVERAGAIN (@Sarahchadwickk) March 26, 2018

And yes, there's more:  

And as of this weekend, this group of idealistic young people have officially become the right’s leading hate figures. 

The first and most repugnant strategy was to directly attack high-profile campaigners, especially students David Hogg and Emma Gonzalez. 

Running short of reasoned arguments, many attempted to push conservative buttons with high impact visuals. Alt-right social media company Gab was one of many that disseminated a doctored animation of Gonzalez in which she falsely appeared to be tearing up the US constitution. Cartoonist and Trump sycophant Ben Garrison depicted Hogg as an assault rifle, wielded by CNN, and loaded with Marxism. Breitbart re-published a round of tweets accusing Hogg of throwing a Nazi salute. 

On Front Page – an outlet led by David Horowitz, whose main stock in trade is virulent Islamophobia – Bruce Thornton decried Hogg’s “profanity laced tantrums” and reduced him and his fellow students to political “shock troops” being manipulated by a progressive “ideology of melodrama and moral exhibitionism”.

Though David and Emma have born the main brunt of the vicious attacks from the Right Wing, likely due to their effective messaging, other Parkland kids have also been targeted:  

Along with Hogg and Gonzalez, the right found some new targets among the Parkland survivors. The one who got the most scrutiny was Marjory Stoneman Douglas student Delaney Tarr, who spoke at the Washington rally. In her speech, she suggested that bump stock bans could be expanded into further gun control. Many rightwing outlets drew the inference that the movement would not stop at an assault weapons ban, but would try to ban firearms altogether. 

Fox News did not resort to calling the Parkland students Nazis, but they did call them sanctimonious pawns.

Fox News covered the #MarchForOurLives by insulting students for not wanting to be gunned down at school. This is unhinged. pic.twitter.com/xBArtKREu8

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) March 26, 2018

Keep in mind that these are children.

Children who just had their lives torn apart by gun violence, and many of whom lost friends to that same violence.

But to the Right Wing they are nothing more than adversaries who must be crushed under foot, and their suffering does not buy them any sympathy or empathy whatsoever.

Rick Santorum suggests that the Parkland students would be better served learning CPR to save gunshot victims than advocating for more comprehensive gun laws.

Stupidity starts aroung the 4:15 mark.)

Courtesy of Media Matters:  

RICK SANTORUM (CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR): Yeah, I mean this is the bottom line. Is this a political effort? Is this a political movement? It very well may be, and that's fine. If the organizers, people who certainly supported it, the Hollywood elites and the liberal billionaires who funded this, it's all about politics. Is this really all about politics or is it all about keeping our schools safe? Because if it is about keeping our schools safe, then we have to have a much broader discussion than the discussion that's going on right now. How about kids, instead of looking to someone else to solve their problem, do something about maybe taking CPR classes or trying to deal with situations that, when there is violent shooter, that you can actually respond to that. 

BRIANNA KEILAR (ANCHOR): But how are they looking at other people to -- I would ask you, they took action. 

SANTORUM: Yeah, they took action to ask someone to pass a law. They didn't take action to say, “How do I, as an individual, deal with this problem? How am I going to do something about stopping bullying within my own community? What am I going to do to actually help respond to a shooter? What am I going to do -- those are the kinds of things where you can take it internally and say, here's how I'm going to deal with this, here's how I'm going to help the situation, instead of going and protesting and saying, oh, someone else needs to pass a law to protect me.

 [...] 

SANTORUM: I'm proud of them, but I think everyone should be responsible and deal with the problems that we have to confront in our lives. And ignoring those problems and saying they're not going to come to me, and saying some phony gun law is going to solve it, phony gun laws don't solve these problems. That's what we found out.

You know Rick Santorum has been off my radar for quite some time now, so I think I more or less forgot was an incredible sleaze ball he is.

But I am all back up to speed now, that is for damn sure.

During that incredible March For Our Lives rally on Saturday, I kept hearing the young people making the argument that this is not a Democrat vs Republican, Liberal VS Conservative, issue.

I understand why they think that way, I remember when I did as well.

But that is simply not the case anymore.

The conservatives are dug in on the gun issue, just like they are on the abortion issue, and there is simply no middle ground that remains to have an actual honest conversation about regulating access to guns.

The ONLY way that we can do anything significant about gun deaths in this country is to vote out as many Republicans as possible and replace them with Democrats who are all in for making our schools, our houses of worship, and our movie theaters safe for children and families to attend without fear of death by gun violence.

That may sound incredibly partisan of me, but simply put those are the facts as they currently exist.

Perhaps after getting thrashed on this issue for a couple of election cycles the Republicans will see that it no longer serves them to worship at the altar of the NRA, but until that time their presence in the political system needs to be greatly minimized.

Sean Hannity loses it on Twitter after CNN interviews the president of Media Matters about their campaign to get advertisers to stop supporting his Fox News show.

Media Matters President Angelo Carusone explains why he's leading an advertising boycott against Sean Hannity https://t.co/8UjWsv7Uqx

— Reliable Sources (@ReliableSources) November 19, 2017

This was the interview that caused the Hannity Twitter tirade.

And this was the result.

RACIST, BIGOT, AND ANTI-SEMITE PRES. OF @MMFA @GOANGELO WHY DO YOU VICTIM SHAME? WHY DON'T YOU SUPPORT WOMEN OF ABUSE? @CNN @BRIANSTELTER WHY DO YOU SUPPORT THIS? https://t.co/zrzTSaLchA pic.twitter.com/eV3Y2OQokg

— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) November 19, 2017

RACIST, BIGOT, AND ANTI-SEMITE PRES. OF @MMFA @GOANGELO WHY DO YOU VICTIM SHAME? WHY DON'T YOU SUPPORT WOMEN OF ABUSE? @CNN @BRIANSTELTER WHY DO YOU SUPPORT THIS? https://t.co/qk4I6DGa0r pic.twitter.com/rFiMFqrNvg

— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) November 19, 2017

RACIST, BIGOT, AND ANTI-SEMITE PRES. OF @MMFA @GOANGELO WHY DO YOU VICTIM SHAME? WHY DON'T YOU SUPPORT WOMEN OF ABUSE? @CNN @BRIANSTELTER WHY DO YOU SUPPORT THIS? https://t.co/VSevcRZevq pic.twitter.com/vaqZufJ6OO

— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) November 19, 2017

RACIST, BIGOT, AND ANTI-SEMITE PRES. OF @MMFA @GOANGELO WHY DO YOU VICTIM SHAME? WHY DON'T YOU SUPPORT WOMEN OF ABUSE? @CNN @BRIANSTELTER WHY DO YOU SUPPORT THIS? https://t.co/gQymETOE5w pic.twitter.com/c7cOynVf5Z

— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) November 19, 2017

RACIST, BIGOT, AND ANTI-SEMITE PRES. OF @MMFA @GOANGELO WHY DO YOU VICTIM SHAME? WHY DON'T YOU SUPPORT WOMEN OF ABUSE? @CNN @BRIANSTELTER WHY DO YOU SUPPORT THIS? https://t.co/kjixSTixdh pic.twitter.com/kV9Kwei8f7

— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) November 19, 2017

As Salon points out these claims that Angelo Carusone is racist, bigot, or anti-semite do not seem to have any basis in fact: 

For about a week, Hanntiy has baselessly called Carusone a "racist" and "trans/gay homophobe," even though Carusone himself is gay and the organization he heads, Media Matters, often champions causes of racial minorities.

I will have to assume that Hannity's anger at Media Matters indicates that the campaign to strip him of sponsors is working.

Recently Hannity attempted to get one of the Roy Moore accusers on his show.

Her lawyer's response probably did not do much to help his mood either,

Fox News host @seanhannity tried to book one of Roy Moore's accusers for an on-air interview, and she replies with this EPIC response: pic.twitter.com/Y2MSavM6G2

— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) November 19, 2017

Courtesy of Raw Story:

 “Mr. Hannity chose to believe and support Roy Moore immediately after learning about the numerous accusations against him describing sexual assault, child molestation and harassment.” 

“Mr. Hannity has belittled, defamed and engaged in an on-air intimidation campaign against the victims of Mr. Moore. He is totally uninterested in discovering the truth,” she said. 

“It is laughable to assume that Mr. Hannity is capable of conducting a fair and balanced interview. He is not known for journalistic integrity. He is merely seeking an opportunity to publicly attack and further defame Mr. Moore’s victims,” she continued. 

“Well, that’s not happening,” she concluded. “Not on my watch.”

Yep, sucks to be Hannity right now. 

I really think that Fox is ready to pull his show already, and are just looking for an excuse to do so.

Losing all of his advertisers and supporting a known pedophile seems like more than enough reason.

Host on conservative cable network suggests that Donald Trump should use DACA info to target parents of the Dreamers.

"We should be able to use this database as a way to go after the parents and deport the parents. At least we should start there." pic.twitter.com/MMf9nikgTt

— Media Matters (@mmfa) September 18, 2017

Courtesy of Media Matters:  

GRAHAM LEDGER (HOST): Well, here's the way that I look at this [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] issue, the 800,000 that, quote, "came forward out of the shadows and signed up for the program." I think we ought to take that list and use it as a road map to go after their parents. Not these DACA recipients, but the parents because, as the president just said, and the Democrats have been saying ad nauseam through no fault of their own, so whose fault is it? Well, it's the parent's fault. So we should be able to use this database as a way to go after the parents and deport the parents. At least we should start there, don't you think? Kind of makes sense. 

You may remember this One American News Network as the wannabe Fox News station that gave Sarah Palin a short term gig as host.

It has grown since then and is now competing with Fox to be the go to waiting room conservative propaganda network.

Fucking heartless is what they are.

NRA spokesperson very angry that the media describes guns as "weapons." I'm sorry, what?

Courtesy of Media Matters:  

GRANT STINCHFIELD (HOST): When it comes to media bias, it is often the little things that matter most. Seemingly innocuous phrases designed to sway your opinion. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently wrote an article about campus carry taking effect in Georgia and the controversy surrounding it. But it's their use of the word weapon that has me bewildered. The reporter uses “weapons” in place of firearms or guns so many times, it just becomes bizarre. Here, "Fears of gun owners getting drunk and firing their weapons." I firmly believe she uses the phrase weapons over firearms in an effort to scare the uninformed. But then I realized Georgia calls their concealed carry permits a “weapons carry license.” I don’t like that name at all. To me, the military carries weapons, guns carried for offensive purposes. I carry a firearm, a tool used for self-defense. To me, it is actually a very important distinction. By Georgia, a state rich in firearms history, using the term weapons in an official capacity, it hurts the perception of law-abiding gun ownership. The media already has it out for us, why give them more ammunition? 

Okay it is one thing to claim that guns are perfectly safe in the hands of the average American, a claim which I continue to dispute, however to claim that they are not a weapon completely defies logic.

The NRA has for decades now attempted to convince people that guns are simply tools similar to a crowbar or a knife, meaning that though they COULD take a life, they're actual purpose is to do something else entirely.

In the case of a crowbar it would be to pry something apart, and a knife is used to cut food or perhaps rope, but there really is NO other purpose that a gun serves than to take a life.

When these folks claim that a gun is a tool for self protection they avoid the fact that it only protects if an assailant believes they are in danger of being injured or killed by the WEAPON, or are in fact injured or killed by the WEAPON.

It is the very fact that they own a weapon capable of injuring or killing which is supposed to keep the owner safe.

Of course statistics do not actually support that assertion, but that is an entirely different conversation.

But before we can have that conversation at the very least we should agree on what we are talking about, and that is that guns are in fact weapons. Weapons which are designed to kill, and that is all they are designed to do.

ABC invites Eric Bolling of Fox News to join Sunday panel, because apparently journalism is dead.

Courtesy of Media Matters:

Fox News host and Trump shill Eric Bolling is scheduled to appear as a panelist on ABC’s This Week. Aside from cheerleading everything President Donald Trump says and does, Bolling was a prominent birther who challenged former President Barack Obama’s legitimacy, as well as a racist, sexist and Islamophobic conspiracy theorist. Bolling has been one of Trump’s most outspoken media sycophants, even on Fox News. 

He’s dismissed Trump’s lies, downplayed the controversies surrounding the president, and deflected blame from Trump and his allies. Even his colleagues at Fox News have called him a “Trump apologist.” Bolling has also criticized the integrity of the host of This Week, George Stephanopoulos. In October, Bolling speculated that Good Morning America, ABC’s morning show which Stephanopoulos also hosts, did not cover hacked emails from former Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s top aides released on WikiLeaks because Stephanopoulos used to work for former President Bill Clinton.

MM goes on to list a number of sexist, racist, and Islamophobic remarks that Bolling has made over the years, complete with video, and then sums up the problem with his appearance on what is considered a serious Sunday news program at the bottom of the page: 

During his time at Fox News, Bolling has pushed a number of conspiracy theories. He was a big force behind the “birther” conspiracy theory that alleged that Obama was not born in the U.S. After Obama released his long-form birth certificate, Bolling still claimed, that “there is a legitimate question as to whether or not the president of the United States is allowed to be president of the United States.” 

Bolling took it upon himself to thoroughly examine Obama’s birth certificate on air, even speculating that the certificate’s border showed it may have been photoshopped. Bolling also speculated about the death of former Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich who was murdered in 2016, dismissing the police conclusion that his death was the result of a botched robbery: “It’s clearly not a robbery. There wasn’t a robbery. … This was a hit.” Bolling concluded that there’s “lots of smoke right now” and that the death was “like an episode of Homeland.” 

Beyond that, Bolling has pushed a number of other conspiracy theories, alleging that Obama was trying to “bring people closer to the cities” to keep an eye on them and questioning whether Obama “let” an oil rig leak so he “could renege on his promise” to “allow some offshore drilling.” Perhaps his most entertaining conspiracy theory came in 2011 when Bolling wondered if “liberal Hollywood was using class warfare [in a Muppets movie] to brainwash our kids.”

Simply put not only should Eric Bolling NEVER be given legitimacy by inviting him on an actual news show, but NONE of the Fox News talking heads, or Right Wing radio hosts, should be provided that platform to spread their lies to the American people. 

And yes I include Megyn Kelly, Greta Van Susteren, and Hugh Hewitt in that category.

These are NOT journalists.

They are purveyors of conspiracy theories, alternative facts, and Right Wing talking points. 

There is a place for that, but it is certainly NOT on actual news programs that advertise themselves as practicing journalism.

The false accusation that President Obama had British intelligence spy on Donald Trump actually originated on a Russian news outlet. Everybody act surprised.

Larry C. Johnson

Media Matters was the first to report this connection: 

On RT, Larry C. Johnson Alleged That Obama “Collu[ded] Overseas With Britain’s Own GCHQ” To Spy On Trump. Appearing on a March 6 broadcast on state-sponsored Russian news network RT, Larry C. Johnson, credited as a “former CIA analyst and State Department official,” alleged that “there was some collusion overseas” between U.S. intelligence and “Britain’s own GHCQ (sic)” “to derail the candidacy of Donald Trump.” Citing “very good friends,” Johnson alleged that GCHQ “actually passed” information “to John Brennan, and it was disseminated within the U.S. government.” Johnson closed the RT interview by claiming former Obama administration officials involved in the collusion could face "criminal charges," specifically sedition. From the March 6 interview: 

NEIL HARVEY (HOST): Let’s bring in former CIA analyst and State Department official Larry Johnson, joins me live over the line. Very good afternoon to you, Larry. We’ve heard it said that these are really serious accusations by some guests we’ve had on so far. What’s your assessment of what Donald Trump’s had to said -- how big a deal is this? 

LARRY JOHNSON: I think it’s a huge deal. The problem is Trump probably shouldn’t have done this via Twitter, because to call it that it was a wiretap is technically inaccurate. And the denials by the Obama people are like Bill Clinton asking what the meaning of “is” is with respect to was oral sex a sexual act. In this case, I understand from very good friends that what happened was both Jim Clapper and John Brennan at CIA were intimately involved in trying to derail the candidacy of Donald Trump. That there was some collusion overseas with Britain’s own GHCQ (sic). That information that was gathered from GHCQ (sic) was actually passed to John Brennan, and it was disseminated within the U.S. government. This dissemination was illegal. Donald Trump is in essence correct that the intelligence agencies and some in the law enforcement community on the side of the FBI were in fact illegally trying to access, monitor his communications with his aides, and with other people. All of this with an end to try to destroy and discredit his presidency. I don’t think there will be any doubt of that.

That was then repeated by Andrew Napolitano on Fox and Friends.

That was then repeated by Sean Spicer during a White House Press briefing: 

Last, on Fox News on March 14th, Judge Andrew Napolitano made the following statement — quote — Three intelligence sources have informed Fox News that President Obama went outside the chain of command. He didn’t use the NSA, he didn’t use the CIA, he didn’t use the FBI, and he didn’t use the Department of Justice. He used GCHQ. What is that? It’s the initials for the British intelligence spying agency. So simply by having two people saying to them the president needs transcripts of conversations involving candidate Trump’s conversations, involving President-elect Trump, he’s able to get it and there’s no American fingerprints on this. Putting the published accounts and common sense together, this leads to a lot.

And just like that this bullshit accusation became national news.

The New York Times followed up and attempted to make some sense of all of this:  

Mr. Napolitano, who keeps a residence in Manhattan at Trump International Hotel & Tower on Central Park West, did not respond to inquiries on Friday.

But Mr. Johnson, who was himself once a Fox News contributor, said in a telephone interview that Mr. Napolitano called him on Friday and requested that he speak to The New York Times. Mr. Johnson said he was one of the sources for Mr. Napolitano’s claim about British intelligence.

Actually it appears he was the ONLY source.

And just WHO is Larry C. Johnson?

Well funny you should ask:

Mr. Johnson became infamous in political circles after he spread false rumors in 2008 that Michelle Obama had been videotaped using a slur against Caucasians.

Remember that?

Johnson also released a carefully edited John Kerry interview in 2013 to accuse him of war crimes.

This also from Media Matters:  

On September 7, 2013, Johnson posted on his website No Quarter an article alleging that then-Secretary of State John Kerry “is a self-admitted rapist,” pointing to audio allegedly from a 1971 broadcast of The Dick Cavett Show. Johnson’s audio had Kerry appearing to say that he “raped for pleasure” during the Vietnam War. Actual video of that episode shows that Kerry never said that. Some time after a commenter noted that “the audio is obviously doctored” and linked to the original clip and a transcript, the post was deleted.

THIS is who the White House was quoting whether they knew it or not.

In other words Russia's propaganda is still affecting politics in this country even months after the election.

Prominent white nationalists gather to celebrate their favorite presidential candidate. Go ahead, guess which one.

NPI president Richard Spencer

Courtesy of Media Matters:  

Prominent white nationalists touted their growing media influence in the wake of Donald Trump’s rise to the Republican presidential nomination on a wave of bigoted rhetoric at a September 9 press conference titled “What Is The Alt-Right?” 

The press conference, organized by white nationalist “think tank” the National Policy Institute (NPI), aimed to explain how the “alt-right” -- a movement of fringe modern white supremacists -- had “become a force in American politics in such a short period of time.” The racist movement has garnered renewed interest from media outlets in the wake of Hillary Clinton’s August 25 speech decrying the Trump campaign’s cozy relationship with the movement, including the hiring of Breitbart News executive chairman and alt-right leader Stephen Bannon as campaign CEO. 

The press conference featured three prominent white nationalist speakers: NPI president Richard Spencer, who coined the term “alt-right;” Jared Taylor, who publishes the white nationalist online magazine American Renaissance; and Peter Brimelow, who founded the white nationalist anti-immigration site VDare.com. 

The press conference came just hours before Clinton told supporters at a fundraiser that half of Trump’s supporters belonged to a “basket of deplorables” -- people who harbor "racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic” animus who have been “lifted … up” by the Republican nominee. Indeed, the white nationalist movement has provided Trump with some of his most fervent supporters and praised him for helping to grow their ranks.

Yeah Hillary Clinton should never have offered any regrets.

Her description was right on the money.

Hillary Clinton supporter David Brock tells donors that he has assembled enough opposition research to “knock Trump Tower down to the sub-basement.”

Courtesy of Politico:  

David Brock, in a Monday night speech to some of the biggest liberal donors in the country, boasted that his researchers had assembled a trove of opposition research on Donald Trump that Democrats could use to “knock Trump Tower down to the sub-basement.” 

Speaking at a reception on the sidelines of the annual spring meeting of the Democracy Alliance liberal donor club at Santa Monica’s tony Fairmont Hotel, Brock said that Trump “was not properly vetted by his rivals — or by the press” during the Republican presidential primary.

But Brock, who is a leading supporter of Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, said that his non-profit opposition research outfit American Bridge started researching Trump last July, and has unearthed some damning stuff. 

Brock claims that the media and Trump's opponents did a poor job of vetting him and that he kept mum on the information he found so that it could not be used by any of the other GOP contenders against Trump before he secured the nomination.

David Brock is known for being a fundraiser, a political operative, and for founding Media Matters of America, a watchdog group that regularly fact checks Right Wing politicians.

Brock is also known for playing hard ball and of course that is exactly what is going to be required to deal with Trump in the presidential election.

Did you know that NRA was invited to participate in President Obama's town hall and refused? Yep, that's what happened.

Courtesy of Media Matters:

MEGYN KELLY (HOST): The NRA's Chris Cox with his organization's first response to President Obama. Chris, thank you so much for being here. So let's start with the notion that he wants to meet with you. He went on to say, if only you'll put aside your rhetoric and what he seemed to be describing as straw man when it comes to gun issues. Are you prepared to meet with him? 

CHRIS COX: Well Megyn, let's be clear what this is really about. This president is trying to create an illusion that he's doing something to keep people safe. He needs to do that because the truth is his policies have failed miserably. We saw that materialize itself in San Bernardino when we had a terrorist attack. This president didn't use it as an opportunity to unite this country. He didn't use it as an opportunity to lay out a plan to defeat terrorism. He used it as an opportunity to impose more gun control on law abiding Americans. 

KELLY: He is treating that as a case of gun violence as well. 

COX: Exactly. This is an attempt to distract the American people away from his failed policies. So did we participate in CNN's event tonight? No, we didn't. We were offered one pre-screened question. Megyn, I know that you don't send your questions over to the White House so I would rather have a conversation with you that's intellectually honest than sit through a lecture and get one opportunity to ask a pre-screened question.

Tough talking gun pimps, act like badasses on the internet and during speeches before like minded audiences but when given the opportunity to put their money where their mouth is they cave like the little bitches that we know them to be.

How many times has the President argued his case in front of hostile crowds, like Fox News, the debate stage, and once even at the House Republican's retreat in Baltimore?

Did he balk at the idea that people might reject his opinion or ideas? No he did not.

But these NRA assholes just want to snipe at the President from the safety of the internet, talk radio and of course Fox News.

No wonder they have to carry guns, they are gutless POS.

You know I could be mistaken, but I don't think that Fox News likes Media Matters very much.

I know right?

You know you are really getting to a cable network when they devote this much air time to taking you down.

Kind of make me want to visit Media Matters a whole lot more.

Here is a little more on this from the Daily Kos.

Media Matters provides the smackdown to the newest video from the anti-abortion group currently attacking Planned Parenthood.

Courtesy of CNN: 

The anti-abortion group that has accused Planned Parenthood of illegally selling organs and tissue from aborted fetuses released a new video Tuesday, a day after the Senate blocked a bill that would have defunded the organization. 

The latest undercover video, which is clearly edited, features operatives for The Center for Medical Progress posing as employees of a fetal tissue procurement company attempting to buy intact fetal organs from a Planned Parenthood branch in Houston. In the clip, Melissa Farrell, director of research for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, discusses the relationship between altering abortion procedures to get the most intact organs possible and costs. 

"If we alter our process and we're able to obtain intact fetal cadavers, it's all a matter of line items," she said in the video. 

Farrell, who said in the video that she is responsible for diversifying Planned Parenthood's revenue streams, also said the group works with multiple academics and researchers studying fetuses looking for intact organs -- and sometimes complete cadavers.

As you can imagine such frank talk about harvesting organs from aborted fetuses has further enraged the anti-choice crowd and driven them into a frenzy of letter writing and e-mailing to their local politicians who now feel they have little choice but to at least appear to be making an effort to defund Planned Parenthood.

However the video also makes it appear that the doctors performing the abortions will alter the procedure in order to get a better "sample" for sale later which might place the mother at risk during the procedure.

Here is the press release by the group The Center for Medical Progress who are behind these videos:

The fifth undercover video in the controversy over Planned Parenthood's sale of aborted baby parts shows the Director of Research for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, Melissa Farrell, advertising the Texas Planned Parenthood branch's track record of fetal tissue sales, including its ability to deliver fully intact fetuses. 

In the video, actors posing as representatives from a human biologics company meet with Farrell at the abortion-clinic headquarters of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast in Houston to discuss a potential partnership to harvest fetal organs. 

"Where we probably have an edge over other organizations, our organization has been doing research for many many years," explains Farrell. When researchers need a specific part from the aborted fetus, Farrell says, "We bake that into our contract, and our protocol, that we follow this, so we deviate from our standard in order to do that." 

Asked specifically if this means Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast can change abortion procedures to supply intact fetal specimens, Farrell affirms, "Some of our doctors in the past have projects and they're collecting the specimens, so they do it in a way that they get the best specimens, so I know it can happen." 

The investigators ask Farrell how she will frame a contract in which they pay a higher price for higher quality fetal body parts, and she replies, "We can work it out in the context of--obviously, the procedure itself is more complicated," suggesting that "without having you cover the procedural cost" and paying for the abortion, the higher specimen price could be framed as "additional time, cost, administrative burden." 

Farrell finally summarizes her affiliate's approach to fetal tissue payments: "If we alter our process, and we are able to obtain intact fetal cadavers, we can make it part of the budget that any dissections are this, and splitting the specimens into different shipments is this. It's all just a matter of line items."

However Media Matters has compared the released fifteen minutes of footage and compared it to the full transcript and found some very deceptive edits.

Here are a few of them:

The Center for Medical Progress' full-transcript of their undercover video reveals that the anti-choice organization cut-out portions of Farrell's comments in order to make it appear that the official was suggesting changes to protocol that could endanger a patient. The short video skipped over Farrell explaining that everything done "is there for the safety of the patient" and under "our standard process." 

Not included in the 15-minute version of the video is Farrell's further explanation that the clinic would not alter or delay a procedure for the sake of fetal tissue donation, per Planned Parenthood and tissue donation guidelines. 

The unedited transcript reveals Farrell explaining that any changes to the procedure would need to be cleared by doctors and pose no threat to the patient. 

The full, unedited transcript reveals Farrell's explanation that any reimbursement for the costs incurred by the clinic cover only administrative costs, and would not be calculated on a per-specimen basis.

The problem of course is this now has become a conflict between logic and faith. The folks on the anti-choice side are driven by their faith that God places a child in the mother's womb, and that man has no right to interfere with its birth.

On the pro-choice side is the understanding that reproduction is not the product of divine intervention but rather every day biological interactions between human beings, and that allowing one of those humans to walk away unburdened by the interaction, while forcing the other to take full responsibility for the embryo created by the mingling of sperm and egg, is patently unfair and should not be forced on women simply due to a different reproductive system.

If these people REALLY wanted to reduce the number of abortions in this country, instead of simply controlling women, they would turn their attention to increased education and the increased availability of preventive measures and stop attacking programs that provide very important services for the health of American women.

In the least surprising turn of events ever conservative presidential candidates jump on news of the heavily edited video about selling fetal body parts to attack Planned Parenthood.

Courtesy of Politico: 

Ted Cruz released a statement calling the video “sickening” and urged Congress to begin an investigation into the Center for Medical Progress’ allegations. 

“There is no place for taxpayer funding of organizations that profit from taking away innocent life, much less profiting off the bodies of the lives they have stolen,” Cruz said. “It should renew efforts to fully defund Planned Parenthood to ensure that its morally bankrupt business receives not one penny of taxpayer money.” 

“The video showing a Planned Parenthood employee selling the body parts of aborted children is a disturbing reminder of the organization’s penchant for profiting off the tragedy of a destroyed human life. It is because of stories like this that I signed legislation defunding Planned Parenthood in the state of Texas — to protect human life and the health and safety of Texans,” former Texas Gov. Rick Perry said in a statement on his website. 

“The callous disrespect for human life revealed today sickens me,” Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul tweeted. “It’s time for pro-lifers to take a stand. It’s time to defund Planned Parenthood.” 

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker called the video “absolutely horrifying and disgusting” and said that “Planned Parenthood and the Democrats who vote to fund this organization owe the American people an explanation for these heinous, and possibly illegal, actions.” 

Carly Fiorina, currently the only woman running on the GOP side, wrote a statement on her Facebook page. “This latest news is tragic and outrageous. This isn’t about ‘choice.’ It’s about profiting on the death of the unborn while telling women it’s about empowerment,” the post says.

Bobby Jindal went even further: 

Jindal issued a statement earlier Tuesday calling for a Department investigation into Planned Parenthood, saying the video appears to show the discussion of a "systematic harvesting and trafficking of human body parts." 

Jindal's statement indicates he believes Planned Parenthood may be breaking federal laws -- he called for the FBI to intervene -- that bar anyone from selling body parts taken during abortions. The Planned Parenthood statement denies that's the case. 

Jindal has said DHH can't issue licenses until the investigation is complete. That order could affect a Planned Parenthood facility in New Orleans.

Jesus these people are predictable.

In the meantime Media Matters has determined there are three very deceptive edits in the video that deserve attention.

Okay you know this just might animate the conservative base for a little while, but I seriously doubt this is going to help any of these GOP candidates improve their poll numbers.

However, sadly, it really could do serious harm to Planned Parenthood, and that would be a very real tragedy.

Sarah Palin's crusty granny panties are so in a twist over this video that she cannot understand why God is not smiting the crap out of us right this minute:  

Ask yourself, how is it that our Creator stays His hand when these atrocities happen right under His children's noses? How is our God so merciful that He seems to grant us unmerited chances time and time again to get it right, whilst this hell on earth continues. In fact, it's becoming more accepted and celebrated by voters choosing to elect our nation's "leaders" who would condone, uplift, and revel in the destruction of all He's so gloriously blessed us with? How much longer? His mercy is inexplicable. How much longer?

Damn, it looks like somebody is really, really losing it these days.

Update: And then things got even stranger.

Courtesy of Palin's Facebook page:

What If They Were Dead Puppy Parts Instead of Dead Baby Parts? 

I'm confused, are we talking about unborn puppy parts? And would they be used to help cure diseases?

Republicans are all in a lather over an anti-Hillary book written by a former Sarah Palin consultant. Oh this should go well.

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

The book does not hit shelves until May 5, but already the Republican Rand Paul has called its findings “big news” that will “shock people” and make voters “question” the candidacy of Hillary Rodham Clinton. 

“Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich,” by Peter Schweizer — a 186-page investigation of donations made to the Clinton Foundation by foreign entities — is proving the most anticipated and feared book of a presidential cycle still in its infancy. 

The book, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, asserts that foreign entities who made payments to the Clinton Foundation and to Mr. Clinton through high speaking fees received favors from Mrs. Clinton’s State Department in return. 

“We will see a pattern of financial transactions involving the Clintons that occurred contemporaneous with favorable U.S. policy decisions benefiting those providing the funds,” Mr. Schweizer writes.

As some of you may have heard Rand Paul is giggling like a school girl over the idea that some hidden secret is about to be revealed in this book that will destroy Hillary's candidacy.

And a whole lot of Right Wing news outlets, and a few considered legitimate, are all lining up to interview Schwiezer and get access to copies of the book before it hits the shelves.

However as Media Matters points out, in quite some detail, Schweizer is far from a reliable source known for accurate reporting.

And that is something that Rachel Maddow detailed on her show last night.

In my opinion all that has to be known about Schweizer to ignore anything he has written, is that for a couple of years he served as one of Sarah Palin's consultants.

And since we all know how well informed SHE was, it kind of stands to reason that Schweizer plays fast and loose with the facts.

The question we have to ask ourselves is knowing that the Clintons are savvy political animals, and knowing that Hillary has had her sights set on the presidency for probably decades now, do we REALLY think that there is any hard evidence that she auctioned off her influence to the highest bidder to donate to the Clinton Foundation?

No, I seriously doubt that there is.

And even if there were, do we think this stumble bum would be the one to uncover it?

Nah, in my opinion this is just one of a number of hit pieces that will come flying at Hillary. In the end we will file it away with Email-gate, Benghazi-gate, and whatever the conservatives pull out of their ass next-gate.

The Bill O'Reilly lies come in, the Bill O'Reilly lies go out, nobody can explain that.

So I thought it would be a good idea to do a kind of round up of where the Bill O'Reilly Lie-o-meter is today. Because, simply put, I LOVE this story.

First up we have some input from the former Bill O'Reilly producer and Fox News mole, Joe Muto, who claims that Billo will probably survive this scandal:

The only way O'Reilly can be seriously damaged is if more allegations about his statements come forward from sources other than partisan organizations, said Joe Muto, a former O'Reilly producer fired by Fox after he began writing an anonymous blog as the "Fox mole." 

"Ultimately, he'll survive this because he's not held — by his bosses, or the public, or himself — to the same standards of truth-telling as Brian Williams is," Muto said. "People expect a certain degree of hyperbole and exaggeration from O'Reilly. It's baked into the job description. It's part of his persona."

That seems to be the opinion of a number of news pundits, but it may not be accurate.

According to a new HuffPo/YouGov poll only 35% of Americans believe that O'Reilly should be considered trustworthy: 

The allegations building against Bill O'Reilly are apparently taking a harsh toll on his trustworthiness and favorability among Americans. 

Only 35 percent of Americans still find the Fox News host trustworthy, while 21 percent find him "very untrustworthy" and 16 percent find him "somewhat untrustworthy," according to a HuffPost/YouGov poll conducted this week. 

Thirty-seven percent of participants now have an unfavorable view of the host. 

The poll also revealed that half of Americans have now heard about the allegations against him.

I am not sure where the trust level was BEFORE these revelations came to light, but I am somewhat stunned that more than one third of Americans trust a single thing that falls out of this assholes mouth.

According to Media Matters the idea that all of this is not having a lasting effect on O'Reilly and Fox News may also be a misreading of the situation:  

Year after year, newsroom embarrassments like O'Reilly's undermine Fox's credibility to the point where it seems more and more journalists today start with a working assumption that Fox is not a legitimate news operation. That represents a major shift from President Obama's first year in office and it's a key reason why O'Reilly's fabrications matter. (The fewer journalists who view Fox News as being legitimate means that less of Fox's misinformation has an impact beyond the right-wing media bubble.) 

There are other clues that the ongoing O'Reilly storm has taken a toll: If the fabrication controversy has been such a home run for Roger Ailes and company, why has the rest of Fox team remained largely silent on the subject? If it represented a win, wouldn't colleagues help O'Reilly circle the bases while taunting the "liberal" media? 

Since this is reflective of the point I myself made last night, I of course find myself in total agreement with it. 

Right now Fox and O'Reilly are going to pretend that none of this matters, and that it is only another attack by the liberal media jealous of their success.

However that really only works with the original Fox News demographic.

In the real world, where people expect a certain level of accountability and trustworthiness from its journalists, this is going to leave a very sour taste. And that has an impact on Fox's efforts to attract new viewers who are NOT watching their program while strapped to an oxygen tank.

It should be noted that while the Brian Williams scandal hurt Brian Williams, it did NOT hurt NBC News who just posted the highest ratings in quite some time.

However Fox News, who get only a fraction of NBC's numbers, is already suffering a crisis of confidence among the viewing public, and this scandal can really only cause a further erosion of trust and, perhaps more importantly, of ratings.

It's Wednesday so time for more Bill O'Reilly lies.

Okay you all can stop digging for lies now.

In his 2012 best-selling non-fiction book Killing Kennedy, O'Reilly writes on page 300 that as a "reporter knocked on the door of de Mohrenschildt's daughter's home, he heard the shotgun blast that marked the suicide of the Russian ... that reporter's name is Bill O'Reilly."

 Guess what, yep you're right, this never happened.

More courtesy of Media Matters:

George de Mohrenschildt was a Russian emigre who befriended Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald and testified before the Warren Commission investigating the Kennedy assassination. On March 29, 1977, the same day he was contacted by the House Select Committee on Assassinations, he committed suicide at his daughter's home in Florida. At the time, O'Reilly was a reporter for Dallas' WFAA-TV who regularly reported on stories related to the Kennedy assassination. 

O'Reilly has bizarrely inserted himself into de Mohrenschildt's story, claiming in books and on Fox News that he was outside the house seeking to interview de Mohrenschiltd at the time of his death. O'Reilly is under heavy criticism and scrutiny for his false claims about his 1982 Falklands War reporting. 

O'Reilly's implausible tale was first flagged by Jefferson Morley in a 2013 post for his website JFKFacts.org. Morley has worked as an editor for The Washington Post, Salon.com, and Arms Control Today, and is a visiting professor at the University of California, Washington Center. 

New interviews with former O'Reilly colleagues who say he wasn't in Florida on the day of de Mohrenschildt's suicide and documents obtained by Media Matters bolster Morley's reporting.

Wait. so O'Reilly just made that entire incident up? Shocked, that's what I am, shocked!

So now, much like the Brian Williams incident, we are seeing a "journalist" who constantly puts himself into the story, in order to aggrandize himself. 

Here is more from Mediaite: 

In a series of audio tapes made by investigator Gaeton Fonzi, who Morley identified as O’Reilly’s “most reliable source on the JFK story,” O’Reilly can be heard saying he is going to travel from his office in Texas to Florida to look into the suicide after it happened. So there is no way he could have heard the “shotgun blast” with his own ears. 

“O’Reilly’s utterances prove that he was not knocking on George Mohrenschildt’s doorstep as he now melodramatically claims,” Morley wrote. “The truth is more prosaic. O’Reilly got a tip on a hot story, worked his sources to confirm it, and rushed to the scene. In making up this story for Killing Kennedy, he slighted the truth of his own professionalism.”

Media Matters has now launched a petition to "Hold Bill O'Reilly Accountable." Which I think all of us should sign.

And it is important that we continue to hold Billo's feet to the fire becasue there are a lot of people now trying to give O'Reilly a pass either because some of these incidents were in the past, or because it is well known that Bill O'Reilly is full of shit.

And that is kind of the problem.

You see the Right can go viciously attack the mainstream media whenever they get even the tiniest fact wrong, but if their side gets shit wrong, and they do that almost every single day, they simply shrug their shoulders and go "Well it's Fox News, what did you expect?"

That double standard only exists because WE let it.

So let's stop doing that shall we?

Ted Nugent continues working toward the day when he will have NO venues willing to allow him onstage ever again.

Courtesy of the You Tube page:  

Conservative rock star Ted Nugent was deputized by local law enforcement at a Tea Party event in Wyoming in which he complained about America’s alleged post-World War II decline and women who do not enjoy hunting, Media Matters reported. “We have bent over since World War II because we couldn’t believe that the universally celebrated good of America crushed the universally understood evil of J*ps and Nazis,” Nugent said during a 30-minute speech to members of the Big Horn Basin Tea Party. “We couldn’t believe that that government that represented us in good over evil could turn on us. They’ve turned on us.” 

Nugent also accused hunters in Colorado of allowing “bureaucrats” to limit their Second Amendment rights, and challenged members of his audience to each “fix” 100 people and get them to vote for conservatives. “If I hear another hunter tell me, ‘Man, I wish I could get my wife to support hunting,’ fix your wife,” Nugent said. “Fix her or replace her.”

Okay who calls people "Japs" these days?

And as for men "fixing" their wives or replacing them, well buddy that goes both ways.

Media Matters also reported this: 

Returning to his usual attacks on elected Democrats, Nugent called Attorney General Eric Holder a "racist" and a "felon," called for the arrest of Holder and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and said that Obama "doesn't have the credentials to drive my tour bus"

What was it that the editor-in-chief of Pollster USA said again?

That soon Nugent will be limited to gigs playing at NRA conventions and Fox News events?

Yeah well that day is certainly sped up by this kind of racist and sexist bullshit.