The sociopathic wing of the Republican Party does it again

Confused by the coverage of Shirley Sherrod's resignation from USDA and the reasons for it? Perhaps that's because the story was completely fabricated by Fox "News" and Andrew Breitbart and now you're trying to separate truth from fiction. Let Rachel Maddow help you sort it out.

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And if fabricating a story weren't bad enough, when the truth about Shirley Sherrod came out and it was revealed that Sherrod was not a racist working in the Obama administration but was rather a person who learned almost a quarter century ago that all the poor deserved her help, Fox "News" attacked the Obama admnistration for "railroading" an innocent person. This again proves that the people at Fox "News" and other assorted conservative thugs have a sociopathic disregard for the truth and that their only goal is to do whatever they can to bring down the Obama administration.

Everyone at the White House needs to grow a pair.  They must not capitulate to the reprehensible machinations of conservative thugs like Andrew Breitbart, Sean Hannity, and Megyn Kelly any longer. The gutless Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack actually asked for Sherrod's resignation before the truth about this smear could surface. This must end. Everyone working for President Obama must stand up to these thugs and make people see them for what they are.

Of course, they have done more than see to it that an innocent person lost her job. As a result of this deception, they have put Vilsack in an embarrassing position, they have turned Sherrod against the NAACP, and they have kept liberals occupied with this shit storm when they could have been talking about important issues, like jobs. It's all in a day's work for the sociopathic wing of the Republican party.

Update: William Saletan's piece for Slate on this mess is well worth reading.

A Few important videos from The Rachel Maddow Show

Here are two videos, both from an episode of Rachel Maddow's show that I watched last night.

Remember how outraged conservatives were about some alleged wrongdoing by ACORN a while ago? As it turns out, the whole thing was made up by Fox "News," and the actual wrongdoers were the two people who made the ambush video.  Here it is: 

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Surely you've heard about how Republicans have become deficit hawks now that the other party is in the White House. And they're willing to deny unemployment benefits to those who can't find jobs unless those benefits are paid for and don't add to the deficit. As it turns out, Republicans aren't worried about the deficit at all, since they are willing to add to the deficit to pay for—you guessed it—tax cuts. Here it is:

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Stay Classy, South Carolina Republicans!

South Carolina gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley

I am going to make a point about the uproar over Nikki Haley in South Carolina, and I am not aware that anyone else has made the same point.

First, some background. Nikki Haley is a Republican running for governor of South Carolina. According to her campaign internet site, she has been endorsed by Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, and Jenny Sanford, wife of disgraced current South Carolina Republican governor Mark Sanford. She claims also to have been endorsed by several Tea Party organizations. She will face off with three other Republicans in a primary next Tuesday.

The problem for Haley, who has been married for 13 years, is that she has been accused of having two extramarital affairs in the past three years. Lobbyist Larry Marchant claims to have indulged in a one-night stand with Haley in Utah in 2008. This revelation came shortly after Marchant resigned from the campaign of Republican Andre Bauer, who is also running for governor of South Carolina. Political blogger and former spokesman for Gov. Mark Sanford Will Folks claims that he had an affair with Haley in 2007.

Perhaps these allegations are, as Haley has put it, "disgusting politics." Neither Marchant nor Folks have offered any evidence that would support the allegations. Haley has even said that, if elected, she will resign if the allegations are proven true. Perhaps these allegations are made by Republicans who want to outmaneuver Tea Partiers and marginalize them. And South Carolina does have a reputation for dirty politics.  South Carolina gave us the the smears that ended John McCain's campaign for president in 2000. But I don't want to focus on the truth or falsity of these claims; I want to focus on something else.

Though I cannot confirm their affiliations, I think it likely that both Folks and Marchant are Republicans. Haley is obviously a Republican.  Either Haley or Folks and Marchant are lying. Therefore, no matter who is telling the truth, we have another situation in which a Republican is being deceptive for political purposes.

And it doesn't stop there. Republican South Carolina State Senator Jake Knotts just called Haley a "raghead," and said that having a raghead in the White House is enough.  Knotts claims that the comment was made "in jest," which is just the sort of thing a racist usually says when called out. According to Talking Points Memo,

The last we'd heard from Knotts was last September when he accused unnamed forces behind disgraced Governor Mark Sanford of spreading rumors that Knotts' favored candidate for governor, current Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, is gay.

I guess they don't take too kindly to homosexuals and Indians in the Palmetto State.

What is the moral of all of this? Even if Haley is innocent of adultery, the Republican Party in South Carolina seems to be a haven for low-lifes. That's the real story.

On a tangentially related note, Fox "News," the propaganda arm of the Republican Party, has been accused of treating Kellie Pickler "like a prostitute." On Fox and Friends, host Brian Kilmeade asked Pickler, "Will you do me a favor, and offer your services to Chris Wallace? . . . Excuse me—offer yourself to Chris Wallace?" (Follow the link to find out what Wallace seems to think about women in general.) In spite of all the family values talk from Republicans, they make fine sleaze merchants, don't they?

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Fox & Friends' Lingerie Football Romp
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

(This is where Lori Ziganto accuses me of being anti-women.)

(Note: the title of this post was inspired by the title of this Talking Points Memo post.)

Update. Jake Knotts has tried to clarify his remarks about Nikki Haley.  He didn't mean to call her "a raghead."  He actually meant to call her "a fucking raghead."

At a certain point, you have made enough money.

 Former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling testifies before Congress in 2002. 

Fox "News," the propaganda arm of the Republican party, is devoting air time to the following quotation attributed to President Obama:

I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money.  

I saw them talking about it this morning, with text along the bottom of the screen implying that Obama is making war on capitalism itself.  Think about that.  What would Fox "News" have you believe?  This: the claim that some amount of money is enough for an individual is antithetical to capitalism.  Which is to say that no amount is ever enough.  Not one million dollars, not one billion, not one trillion.  All the money in the entire world isn't enough for a single person.  Is this even plausible?  Does it even make sense?

To endorse the view that no amount is ever enough is to endorse a pointless and evil sort of greed.  I acknowledge that the profit motive is important to capitalism, and I acknowledge the importance of capitalism itself.  But the insatiable desire for more and more money is not necessarily good for capitalism.  In fact, it can be bad, as our recent history has shown us.  Compulsive greed leads individuals to make irrationally risky decisions in the pursuit of money; it blinds individuals to the importance of the health of the economy to their own economic well-being; it encourages a sociopathic disregard for law and morality.  And both law and morality are important to capitalism.  Both Adam Smith and Milton Friedman said as much, no matter what the Republican friends of corporate sociopaths would have you believe. 

Fox's election year maneuver here is just another example of the radicalization of American politics.  What do I mean by this?  Radicals accept general principles without admitting any exception whatsoever to them.  For example, pro-life radicals claim that abortion is never permissible under any circumstances.  The NRA lobby wants absolute rights to private gun ownership and argues fallaciously that any restriction would put us on a slippery slope to complete gun control; meanwhile, the mentally ill make the innocent pay for this freedom with their lives.  Fox "News" radicals claim that greed is always good and should be nurtured and encouraged, without exception.  The Fox "News" audience, without realizing it, comes to accept extremist thinking over time.  Those already inclined to extremist thinking watch Fox "News" for confirmation of their views.  The results are obvious: the health care reform debacle was rife with extremist thinking, and it made finding compromise virtually impossible in the end.

But let's get back to the President's statement.  It is always good to ask about a quotation this brief, "What was the context?"  And here it is (emphasis mine):

We had a system where some on Wall Street could take these risks without fear of failure, because they keep the profits when it was working, and as soon as it went south, they expected you to cover their losses.  So it was one of those heads, they tail  -- tails, you lose.  

So they failed to consider that behind every dollar that they traded, all that leverage they were generating, acting like it was Monopoly money, there were real families out who were trying to finance a home, or pay for their child’s college, or open a business, or save for retirement.  So what’s working fine for them wasn’t working for ordinary Americans.  And we’ve learned that clearly.  It doesn’t work out fine for the country. It’s got to change.  (Applause.)

Now, what we’re doing -- I want to be clear, we’re not trying to push financial reform because we begrudge success that's fairly earned.  I mean, I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money.  (Laughter.)  But part of the American way is you can just keep on making it if you’re providing a good product or you’re providing a good service.  We don't want people to stop fulfilling the core responsibilities of the financial system to help grow the economy. 

I’ve said this before.  I’ve said this on Wall Street just last week.  I believe in the power of the free market.  And I believe in a strong financial system.  And when it’s working right, financial institutions, they help make possible families buying homes, and businesses growing, and new ideas taking flight.  An entrepreneur may have a great idea, but he may need to borrow some money to make it happen.  It would be hard for a lot of us to buy a house -- our first house, at least, if we weren’t able to take out a mortgage. 

So there’s nothing wrong with a financial system that helps the economy expand.  And there are a lot of good people in the financial industry who are doing things the right way.  And it’s in our interest when those firms are strong and when they’re healthy.  

But some of these institutions that operated irresponsibly, they’re not just threatening themselves -- they threaten the whole economy.  And they threaten your dreams, your prospects, everything that you worked so hard to build.  

So we just want them to operate in a way that’s fair and honest and in the open, so that we don’t have to go through what we’ve already gone through.  

Now, to any rational person whose thinking has not been distorted by extremist thinking, these are hardly the remarks of someone making war on capitalism.  Why didn't Fox "News" bring any of the following statements to the attention of their viewers?

• "[W]e’re not trying to push financial reform because we begrudge success that's fairly earned."  
• "[P]art of the American way is you can just keep on making [money] if you’re providing a good product or you’re providing a good service."  
• "I believe in the power of the free market."  

We all know the answer.  And we all know why the mainstream media has ignored the comment and Fox "News" compulsively repeats it.

Note the laughter after the statement Fox "News" has taken out of context.  Is this the evil laughter of communists plotting the overthrow of American capitalism?  Of course not.  It is the laughter of those who recognize that, at a certain point, the pursuit of money is the manifestation of a mental disorder.  Obama is not targeting the Warren Buffetts of the world: he is targeting the Jeffrey Skillings and the Andy Fastows.

And he's pointing out that corporate executives and those in the financial services industry do not operate in a vaccuum.  As the Great Recession has shown, what they do affects virtually everyone.  Those who in the compulsive pursuit of money behave irrationally and irresponsibly at the expense of providing a good product or service are threats to capitalism, not practitioners of it. But one must resist the extremist propaganda of Fox "News" to see this.

The insurance industry has an antitrust exemption?

I am fully aware of the irony of embedding an MSNBC video in this post after publishing a post in which I advised you to ignore Fox "News." The difference between the two networks is that MSNBC is, unlike Fox, right more often than not.

I was under the impression that The Morning Meeting was less partisan and more news-oriented than other MSNBC programs like Countdown and The Rachel Maddow Show. That impression evaporated this morning. Ratigan and his guest Eliot Spitzer go after the health insurance companies and argue convincingly that their antitrust exemption ought to be eliminated. (That exemption would, of course, help explain why insurance costs have been skyrocketing.) You can read more about the antitrust exemption here.

The partisan tone of the segment is alarming, given that it appeared in a time slot that was devoted to news before The Morning Meeting premiered some months ago. But the content of the segment is, it seems to me, sound. (Seriously: allowing insurance companies to become monopolies can only make insurance more expensive for their customers. Markets governed by antitrust exemptions are not free and do not function properly.) It is comforting to know that someone on cable is countering Fox "News," the propaganda arm of the Republican Party.

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