Eric Cantor Wants a Word With You, Oh, and Your Email Address and Personal Information

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A commercial that lasts about 30 seconds plays first.  That comes with the video as a money making insert for MSNBC.  I noticed that today they played one even for FOX News, Lovely, /sarcasm! I have no control over whether or which ads appear.  Sorry. Close your eyes and think of wind chimes and back runbs or baseball and hockey if you want.  It should be over soon, 
If I worked the clip and share system correctly this video starts where Rachel starts explaining Eric Cantor's new phony "You be the Cosponsor" program which is basically about getting your email address so they can send you propaganda spam and requests for money.  Being able to pass "information" privately is a real score, even with Mainstream news now controlled mostly by billionaires, being able to just straight out lie to you is a boost.  It's how Rush Limbaugh and their other wacko news show hosts, not to mention many southern church leaders have been able to fool a substantial number of Americans. Now Cantor and his Republican partners would like to Not only send you lies directly, but also sell your email and other info to hundreds of other groups.  (I've actually had that happen. It's bad enough having to close or basically abandon an email address, but often, especially with G mail you've got a good part of your legal name involved with the address.) Now they can guess who you are, and I imagine its even possible to figure out your location, but that's okay, because you probably have to give them your address and name to play their scammy "cosponsor" game.  I think after the part about Cantor's gambit then Rachel explains, as I have been trying to tell my friends, how the second term of Barack Obama is looking like the second term of Clinton where phony scandal after phony scandal was parlayed into stealing an election and many people not really caring because they'd been assured by mainstream media and the left that both Al Gore and George W. Bush were the same.

Even after Bush and his warmongers invaded Iraq, we were told by some very liberal people that Gore would have done the same given the information that was being handed out.  But the most damning information was found to be cooked up specifically by departments of the Bush administration, so hey that stupid argument falls apart upon really looking at it.

Reasons we needed to invade Iraq had all the validity that exposing a CIA employee's identity to discredit her, and the Gore administration would not have played that game, unless  maybe the GOP was able to impeach him over a public lie about sex and therefore ever after hold the fact that the Senate didn't remove him over his head so that he played the Republican's game pretty heavily afterwards.

The full video is 18 minutes long, but I've cut some good parts out, including cute penguins in dashikis (If I've spelled that correctly).  So click here if you want to see them and her really fun spiel about crazy FOX News and feat. Penguins in Dashikis.

Could #TrayvonMartin's Family Sue Sources That Trash His Memory For Slander?

Million Hoodies March, NYC, March 21, 2012

Thousands marched for Justice for Trayvon Martin who was killed by a wannabe Neighborhood Watch captain, February 26, 2012

Photo shared using Flickr's native coding and allowed via Creative Commons License Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

There are awful things being said about Trayvon Martin, with, I'm guessing the idea or the contract to protect white, right wing, gun-hugger rights (possibly at the behest of FOX News whose constant push for bigotry and support of the NRA is under fire after the killing of Trayvon Martin).

Dan Linehan of Wagist comes up with a total pile-on of  Trayvon ending up with the idea that because a tattooed teen was pissed off by being asked why what he was doing by a neighborhood watch captain, he attacked the poor overweight guy and therefore deserved to get shot to death with a pistol that requires a lot of force for its size to pull the trigger (according to a video shown by I think Jennifer Granholm).

Oh, and he might have been selling weed at some time in the past year (Upgraded in the title of Linehan piece to a much more deadly product "Drugs").

Dude, I don't use it, but Marijuana is an herb not a drug.  Only creepy right wingers and the jack booted authorities that serve them consider it a "drug".

A fellow writer at Wagist calls himself a liberal, but I haven't seen Linehan describe his positions.  Both writers have pushed for more gun rights or at least gun ownership, the liberal saying he wanted fellow libs to  lay down of line of fire while he runs from Whole Foods to his Prius to save him from the unemployed or something.  That sounds more like what a person making a Teaparty friendly joke would say, not a liberal.

But to sum up, this guy makes a huge case that Trayvon Martin didn't fit the image of  the younger image of him.  Funny, Dude, our society has made sure blcks get pulled over in their cars everywhere they go, and have much harder times getting well paying jobs, and then you claim, that if their kids don't turn out like your ivy league ass they deserve to be accosted everywhere, and better not respond inappropriately or they deserve to get  killed, (and, of course, that fits right in with Florida's shoot to kill if they make you feel creepy law).

Dude, people don't have to be like you to deserve respect.

And the cops themselves told George Zimmerman to back off:

Dispatch: "Are you following him?"

GZ:  Uh, yeah.

Dispatch: "Okay, we don't need you to do that."

Well, Zimmerman didn't back off.

Linehan did not contact one person who knew Mr. Martin that I could see.  He has included no evidence that he contacted the school either though other reports did say a few things about Trayvon's relations at school, using pictures, messages from Trayvon's social media makes an ugly worst case scenario from their details.  He says being in the wrong place at school won't  get you a ten day suspension.  An AP report also noted that Martin also had tardies. Dan Lineham apparently doesn't know how public schools punish heavily unless its like a first problem or you're white.  Really, Dude, have you ever gone to an inner city school or did you grow up in the "burbs".  Don't even answer that because it doesn't matter, unless you're black too.  You obviously don't get it.

If you put people in the poverty box, they aren't going to grow up like you.  You have little right to judge them and decide that a black man has no right to fend off an aggressive attitude from a wannabe cop,  if that is what really happened.  You don't know.  You just made up the scenario that put Zimmerman, and FOX News, and gun rights for whites, in the best spotlight, and decided that was it.

You are simply the worst journalist on the web and one of the most racist jerks whose blog I've ever read.

Go get your checks from FOX and the NRA.  I'm sure you will fool a lot more racists like yourself and put people of color in danger for another decade.

I believe that the family should be able to sue for slander.  This guy probably got a fat check or two for this crap, and at least the truth would come out whether he got any facts from anywhere or pulled them out of his ***.  That might mitigate the racism that FOX and NRA are trying to recover, just because the actual facts of what happened that day would come out. The ACLU, NAACP, and other sources may be able to help the family get a lawyer.

See Wagist: Was Trayvon Martin a Drug Dealer?

He does have links to sources of pictures of Trayvon there.  I guess the family should get those taken down, but they are too busy being heartbroken and real to understand how racists will use them.

Though, Trayvon is gone, his memory is worth something.  It's not Marilyn Monroe, but if right wingers and gun nuts trash it, the value will be ruined.  Someone get these people a lawyer.  (I'm not one and only talked to one once in my life.  I'm not trying to push a profession, but don't think FOX, the GOP, or haters should be able to trash this family's son's memory.)

Bill Press: A Flat Tax is Unfair and UnBiblical

On The Ed Show last night, Bill Press pointed out a very important argument against the flat tax, the one that was made in the Bible.

Over and over the Bible points out that those who get more from life, the economy, or if you want to think of it religiously, from God have an obligation to give more back.

But now Republicans are calling over and over for a flat tax, an action they wouldn't dare do if we had half the quality press we need.  Too many pundits will just repeat over and over again what Republicans say, trying to keep on the good side of the wealthy people paying their wages.

The Bible is all for the big wage earners paying a higher rate of taxes.  It praises generosity in the wealthy, and considers their lot to look out for poorer people.

Remember how Jesus warned that it was easier for a camel to go through the "Eye of a Needle" than for a rich man to get into heaven?   There was some discussion whether there was, in Jesus' days, a small gate called "The eye of the Needle" in which a camel would have to crawl on its knees to make its way through, but pastors I consider more honest said, no, that's about an actual needle.

In fact, the Christian religion actually demands that the wealthy to let go of their love of money, to divest of it, at least in  a committed spirit which would require constant charity inspired giving that would tend to reduce one's ability to grow great wealthy or to become a Bill O' Reilly who is worried about a 50% tax on the immense amount of wealth he makes telling lies on FOX News.

Applying a graduated tax on citizens is also a matter of common sense.  Forcing poor families to pay higher taxes removes their chance to buy a house, create a stable future for their family, and for you, because who is going to buy your home if the tax burden is increased on working and middle class families?

It has been shown that the ability to purchase a home and make some progress in life makes people more dependable and less likely to commit violence.  Many of the rioters in Britain this summer get (or got) no or low rent housing from the government.  That free housing did not keep people calm.  If more of the poor young people had come from a family who owned a house themselves, they would likely have been less willing to burn down someone else's home.

There have been many crazy tax changes.  During the 80s Reagan's new tax plan eased out the personal interest deduction.  Most working class families couldn't get rid of the debt though wealthy Republicans swore it would be easy to do so.  Coupled with Congress' refusal to force credit companies to restrict the interest they charge their captives  .. er .. "customers" many families never were able to pay off that debt, and that is one of the reason we are having huge numbers of bankruptcy cases flooding our courts.

Even if the wealthy want to pretend they can put more tax burden onto the working class, it won't work.   Unequal societies are inherently unstable and can turn over and dump anyone into the muck at any time.

See video linked here for Heidi Harris's complaint that poor people don't have to pay taxes at the same rate as wealthy people and "horrors, the earned income credit means that some poor people don't pay any federal income tax at al"l.  Bill Press's response was my inspiration for this post.  I just thought the Biblical message needed to be explained a little further to help people deal with a perverted idea of what the Christian religion teaches.  

Video: The Extinction of the Rich Imminent?

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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LA Marathon Creator Offers 1.2 Billion (Mostly Chinese) Dollars For LA Dodgers

The View From Dodger Stadium

Around sunset some sights are even more exciting, in fact a few years ago the city and developers were trying to drive the team out of the location so it could be made into high priced homes. (Don't tell Burke and his partners.  We don't want to give them any ideas).

Picture above is used with a Creative Commons' license via Flickr's native placement and attribution coding. Rollover picture to see photographer's id, click on it to go to original location and view other sizes.

Bill Burke, husband of former LA County Supervisor Yvonne Braithwaithe Burke, and the man credited with creating the LA Marathon, has put forward an offer of $1.2 B backed by money from entities described as owned by the Chinese government.

McCourt has not actually put the team up for sale and who knows what he and his buddies at FOX will do about this offer which is good for 21 days.   (Though FOX no longer owns the team, it seems that they have so many connections with the McCourts and their vanity project/piggy bank team that it seems, to my eyes anyway, that FOX sold it to the Boston couple assuming and getting special deals built right in.  In fact, I think it is only MLB that has stopped Frank from signing TV broadcasting rights away to Murdoch's company for years to come.)

(And what is with Dodger games only being broadcast on the AM band for radio.  Who has an AM radio anymore?  You have to go sit in the car to listen to the game? My IPod has an FM station, but the current owner of the Dodgers can't be bothered to come into the 21st Century.)

Author of the LA Times article Frank McCourt gets offer: The Reds are coming? informs us that the deal would make the Dodgers the first MLB team owned by an African American, which would be good, but he is not so pleased with the money coming from groups with ties to the Chinese government.

I'm not that afraid of the Asian money, especially if Mr. Burke has the control. And if they will promise us to use an FM radio station to broadcast the games, I'll be estatic.

Besides, look at the alternative. The McCourts and Murdoch lunching off our local team possibly for years to come.

Norway's Mass Killer Had Ties To British Anti Islamic Groups

Maybe when we mentioned on this blog yesterday that Murdoch's right wing and racist news empire shared responsibility for the Norwegian attack because of their promotion of racist and especially anti-islamic sentiments you felt that we were maybe trying stretch things a bit since Breiviks might not be able to communicate with primary readers of News Corp's political organization that pretends to be a news business.  Well, The Guardian article linked below shows that Breivik was directly in touch with exactly those types.  In addition to racism do News International's publications also promote reckless gun ownership and use like News Corp does in the US? Because if it does we have the gunman's motivation and mindset covered.  Thank the Murdochs for the massacre. http://bit.ly/nuqSJ7

Did the Murdochs Help Promote the Racism that Led to the Norwegian Attacks?

Even Beautiful Norway is Not Spared the Ugliness of Racism

Picture above uses Flickr's native placement and attribution code. Roll over for photographer's name. Click on the picture to go to original site and find other sizes of the same.

For years News Corps' papers in the US and their Fox News Channel have pushed an anti-Islam agenda that gave comfort to racists and encouraged the growth of the hatred of Muslims that now blooms in right wing politicians both within our own borders and which may even effect attitudes and actions in Europe.

I wonder how much they have even promoted European racists and haters both in their UK papers, in the Journal, and on Fox News.

We know they tend to stand behind racists in the US like Representative Steven King R-NY (not the novel writer, but the ugly slug who dances and hoots like a chimp about threats from Muslims).

Mr.Breivik, the Oslo bomber and Utoya Island killer, has praised Geert Wilders' Party for Freedom in the Netherlands.

Has Mr. Wilders been promoted on Fox News or in any of News Corps or News International's scuzzy papers? I'm betting he has.

So thanks, News Corps for another shitty job of turning news into propaganda.

Now over 90 young people and others are dead so you can make money from the kind of fat cats that are willing to pay you for your promotion of a hard right and racist agenda.

The Murdoch family truly is scum.

The people in the Prime Minister's office and at the youth gathering that Breivik attacked were all associated with the Norwegian Labor party. But though the people attacked weren't Muslim, the man's anti Muslim behavior and his affection for the views of Geert Wilders shows he felt that the Labor party was not anti-Islamic enough. Therefore, it appears that his Islamophobia did inspire the man, and the my way or the highway attitude of the Murdochs' empire is sure to inspire violence, as it is often the way that people without millions of dollars in the bank force their will on the world.

Cross searching between Mr. Breivik and Geert Wilders did bring up a connection in Jeffrey Goldberg's article in The Atlantic More on the Alleged Norwegian Killer

Video: Fox Balanced? Jon Stewart Begs to Differ, And Fox Commenters Confirm that Fast and Furious Outrage is Really About Keeping Stronger Gun Laws Off the Books

The Daily Show - Oh, for Fox Sake
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Since Fox is the voice pushing the most for the right, I find it it very significant that they are wailing about the Fast and Furious program as some kind of gimmick to "take people guns away". (In other words get some sanity in US gun laws or crack down on illegal gun sales at shows.)

My Blog partner, CA Lady, told Anderson Cooper that she would no longer watch his show while it was acting like a anti gun law outlet by stressing on the one man killed with a gun that was released in the program while ignoring the thousands killed each year by the out of control sale of guns, many of them done illegally, and/or without background checks. Cooper mentioned the name of Representative Darrell Issa more than once and she guessed that Issa's staff may have pushed to have CNN push the outrage, because they have been proven to push many politically motivated memes to the press before.

Between us we do believe the Republicans want to make a huge deal of the "Fast and Furious" problems to stave off increased regulations on guns and their sales, or even to weaken gun laws more. And in the video you can see the FOX mouthpieces for the GOP raising the idea that the Obama administration created a deliberate problem as a pretext for "tougher guns in the US" which Jon defines as "taking away guns".