Tag Archives: patriotic

Fox “News” is poisonous (or, what’s wrong with America today)

Posted on by

THIS » Fox News Doesn’t Think Olympic Gold Medalist Gabby Douglas Is Patriotic Enough

RESPONSE » ”What’s especially crazy about all this is that after Gabby Douglas won the gold medal in the women’s gymnastics all-around, she stood waving up at the crowd clad in a red, white, and blue jacket with USA written on the back. Later during the medal ceremony she wore a gray jacket with an American flag patch on the shoulder, stood atop the podium, and listened to “The Star-Spangled Banner” as an American flag was hoisted up above her. Even if that weren’t all true David Webb’s commentary would be nonsense, but the fact that it is all true adds to the comic ambivalence about factual accuracy that characterizes so much of what people say on Fox News. What other enterprise would turn Olympic gold for America into an opportunity to make Americans anxious and upset about allegedly waning patriotism? It’s a poisonous approach to news.” – Conor Friedersdorf – The Atlantic

ANOTHER » “Really? Gabby Douglas, the 16-year old African-American gold-medalist who beat out competitors from other countries isn’t a flagrant example of American exceptionalism because she and her team wore hot pink instead of draping themselves in a flag? What about the fact that she hadn’t seen her father in two years because he was serving his country in Afghanistan? He showed up to cheer her on literally waving an American flag. Is that patriotic enough for FOX News and the Tea Party?” — stfusexists

***

(Below: annaetc – Gabrielle Douglas captures gold in the women’s gymnastics all-around competition. She becomes the first African-American woman to win this title and the first American woman to capture gold in both individual and team events in the same Olympics.)

 

Jon Stewart compares coverage of #OccupyWallStreet and the Teaparty

Posted on by

Jon sums up Fox News commentary about Occupy Wall Street protesters like this:

“This group is a laughable gang of disorganized, confused … Nazis. This is an ill-disciplined, highly-trained, weed-smoking, Fascist organization.”

And to Hannity’s comment to Ann Coulter about the Wall Street protesters: “And in the end, ultimately, they really want Statism over free market, so they really don’t like freedom,” Jon says:

“Oh… all right. So rage against duly elected government is patriotic, quintessentially American, whereas rage against multinational shareholder-accountable corporations is anti-American. Gotcha. Okay…”

 

Map: Where do federal employees work — and who will they vote for in 2012?

Posted on by

From FedNewsRadio:

Over 50% are located right along the East Coast and the South. It jumps to almost 70% if you add in the midwest and Great Lakes regions.

Lost in all the teaparty vitriol and GOP political BS about public employees, like city and state employees, federal employees are generally very patriotic. The majority sign on with the sense of serving their country and serving the public. They have a job that’s also a public service which most take very seriously. Before all the rhetoric from the rightwing was turned up, that used to be considered a good thing.

With that in mind, those feds who voted Teaparty Republican in the past (for whatever reason) should take some personal responsibility for the condition of our country’s economy today — and want to fix things in 2012.

There are enough federal workers in almost every state to make a difference. Next time why not vote for the candidates who appreciate your service to our country (instead of candidates who think you’re overpaid, unnecessary, and permanently attached to the government teat).

See state by state breakdown.

Watch “Patriot” Bill O’Reilly interrupt the President of the United States A TOTAL OF 48 TIMES during his interview

Posted on by

As Bill Maher said last night on Lawrence O’Donnell’s show, “…and Bill O’Reilly, who claims to be such a patriot — how unpatriotic, in my view, to treat a President that way. How does that look to other countries when you’re interrupting and belittling?”


(Wonkette)

Ohhh, America, you’re so strong

Posted on by

“Does anyone else think there’s something a little insecure about a country that requires its politicians to constantly declare how exceptional it is? A populace in need of this much reassurance may be the surest sign of looming national decline.

American exceptionalism is now the central theme of Sarah Palin’s speeches. The supposedly insufficient Democratic commitment to this idea will be a core Republican complaint in 2012. Conservatives assail Barack Obama for his alleged indifference to it. It’s part of their broader indictment of Obama’s fishy cosmopolitanism, his overseas “apology tours,” his didn’t-wear-the-flag-lapel-pin-until-he-had-to peevishness. Not to mention the whole anti-colonial Kenyan resentment thing the president’s got going.

Real men – real Americans – know America is the greatest country ever invented. And they shout it from the rooftops. Don’t they?

[...] The conservative use of American exceptionalism as a political sword today is perversely revealing. There’s something off when the first generation of Americans that is less educated than its parents feels a deep need to be told how unique it is. Or that a generation that’s handing off epic debts and a chronically dysfunctional political process (among other woes) demands that its leaders keep toasting its fabulousness. Especially when other nations now offer more upward mobility, and a better blend of growth with equity, than we do – arguably the best measures of America’s once-exceptional national performance.”

Read more: Ohhh, America, you’re so strong

Still, Palin has a long way to go to match Sean Hannity’s and Stephen Colbert’s America Love:

Reagan, Saint of the Tea Party

Posted on by

Saint Reagan’s Tax Hikes

In 1981, Ronald Reagan cut taxes by around $275 billion. But when the realization of staggering deficits began to set in, Reagan did the fiscally responsible thing. He raised taxes 11 times — enough to effectively roll back half of the previous tax cuts. Bruce Bartlett lists the tax hikes in billions of dollars:

Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 +57.3
Highway Revenue Act of 1982 +4.9
Social Security Amendments of 1983 +24.6
Railroad Retirement Revenue Act of 1983 +1.2
Deficit Reduction Act of 1984 +25.4
Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 +2.9
Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 +2.4
Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986 +0.6
Continuing Resolution for 1987 +2.8
Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987 +8.6
Continuing Resolution for 1988 +2.0
Total cumulative tax increases +132.7

Teabaggers would have hectored him out of Washington.

- No, teabaggers wouldn’t have hectored a white Republican out of Washington. Instead, they would’ve screamed that what he was doing with tax hikes was necessary and patriotic. For the white, conservative Christianists who identify with today’s Tea Party, meanings and definitions of words like ‘patriotic’ handily change with the political party running the country. Example: