You’re Tho Groth, Man!

From Crooks and Liars:

Wisconsin state Senator Glenn Grothman apparently doesn’t think much of the protesters spending the night in the capitol building and used the excuse that they’re just a bunch of “slobs” trashing the building as the reason why Governor Scott Walker decided to lock them out.

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Crime of Opportunity

From THINK PROGRESS:

Arizona politicians who support the state’s new immigration law have spent the past few months justifying the passage of SB-1070 by pointing to the high levels of crime that undocumented immigrants have brought to their state. However, over the past few weeks, the media has countered their claims of kidnappings and beheadings with reports that the border is “safer than ever” and “one of America’s safest places.” Today, when pressed by guest anchor Harry Smith on CBS’ Face the Nation, SB-1070 supporter Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) called the reports a “gross generalization”:

SMITH: One of the things that’s come to light over the past last couple weeks is that in some of these border towns that were thought to be susceptible to lawbreaking of illegal immigrants. Crime is actually down. Crime in Phoenix for instance is down significantly over the past couple of years.

KYL: Well, that’s a gross generalization. Property crimes are up, certain violent crimes on certain parts of the citizenry are up. Phoenix is a very large source of kidnapping. It’s called the kidnapping capital of the United States…So there’s a great deal of violence and crime associated with illegal immigrants.

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The Vast Rightwing Idiocy

From MEDIA MATTERS:

Right-wing media continue to attack Sherrod, defend Breitbart even after full video is released

Huddy: Sherrod’s “incriminating” “present tense” statements still “raise questions” about whether Sherrod should be federally employed. On the July 22 edition of Fox News’ Fox & Friends, guest co-host Juliet Huddy called the Sherrod incident a “very strange story” and claimed:

HUDDY: If you go on to listen to the tape, there are things that I think are incriminating for her that I do think raise a lot of questions about whether or not she should be in the position that she held in the first place. She refers to, you know, his people, I think, that was [inaudible] — his own kind. If a white public service — as Bill O’Reilly said yesterday — servant said, you know, we sent him to his kind, meaning we sent — we sent a white farmer to a white lawyer — that’s what she said she did, his kind. If it was flipped around — would be raising hell, trust me.

…snip…

[In a July 22 tweet, RedState editor-in-chief and CNN contributor Erick] Erickson: “No, I do not think Andrew Breitbart needs to apologize.”

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The Amazing Race-Baiter

From JOE CONASON at Salon:

Former USDA official Shirley Sherrod, a dedicated public servant innocent of the prejudice and misconduct falsely imputed to her, deserves justice. As soon as the White House and Tom Vilsack restore her job, with an appropriate apology, they will begin to remove a stain of cowardice from their administration. But while that may be all the government can do, it isn’t sufficient to close this case.

Real justice, as I suspect Sherrod would agree, also requires due process for Andrew Breitbart, the Internet impresario who framed her on his Big Government website. In these circumstances, that means a fair, thorough and tough examination of the media fraud that launched his operation last year: the ACORN tapes, whose misuse by Breitbart closely parallels his behavior in the Sherrod affair.

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Something on a Crisp Shitz Cracker

From THE UPSHOT at YAHOO NEWS:

The Rev. Al Sharpton wants Rush Limbaugh to apologize for calling the late George Steinbrenner a “cracker” who “made a lot of African-American millionaires.” Don’t count on it.

Limbaugh, in an email to Yahoo! News (reprinted in full below), says: “The only thing I can remember the media and the left ever saying about Steinbrenner is that he was an evil, temperamental dictator who made illegal campaign contributions to Richard Nixon and consorted with hoodlums.”

And now, he argues, the media and left-wing commentators are going after him for talking about Steinbrenner.

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The less bein’ said about it, the better

From MEDIA MATTERS (May 12, 2010):

Joe Scarborough and MSNBC’s Morning Joe cast devoted nearly half an hour today to discussing discredited rumors that Elena Kagan is gay — even while noting that the White House says she isn’t gay and repeatedly acknowledging that most Americans probably don’t “care.”

…snip…

The discussion occupied much of the first 15 minutes of the show. Despite the fact that there is absolutely no evidence that Kagan is gay and that the White House and Kagan’s friends have unequivocally said that she isn’t gay, Scarborough portrayed the issue as a “bigger question.” Scarborough and Pat Buchanan repeatedly tied the discredited rumors to false claims that Kagan banned military recruiters from Harvard’s campus.

The purported hook for Scarborough’s discussion was the controversy over whether The Wall Street Journal‘s use of a 17-year-old photo of Kagan playing softball was intended to be a reference to the rumors.

Leading off the show, Scarborough said, “Apparently, I didn’t know this, but softball bat symbolizes a certain lifestyle.”

You know, I don’t remember this much scrutiny about  Senator Susan Collins, Harriet Miers, or Condoleezza Rice.  They’re older than Elena Kagan and unmarried.  How do we know that they’re not in…

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Texas Tea

From Karl Frisch at MEDIA MATTERS (April 24, 2010):

As Media Matters noted in a special report released this week:

In recent years, at least twenty Fox News personalities have endorsed, raised money, or campaigned for Republican candidates or causes, or against Democratic candidates or causes, in more than 300 instances and in at least 49 states. Republican parties and officials have routinely touted these personalities’ affiliations with Fox News to sell and promote their events.

Now the Associated Press is reporting that Governor Rick Perry (R-TX) — whose prospects for reelection in November are considered a “toss-up” by prominent political analyst Charlie Cook — is slated to participate in Fox News host Glenn Beck’s traveling road-show today when it touches down in Texas:

With his Republican primary victory safely behind him, Texas Gov. Rick Perry is still working hard to court conservative voters.

Perry, who is running for a third full term in office, is scheduled to speak Saturday night at conservative radio and television talk show host Glenn Beck’s “Taking Back America” town hall event in Tyler.

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Hanni-tea Insani-tea

From the Cincinnatti Enquirer:

CINCINNATI – Fox News unexpectedly canceled conservative talk show host Sean Hannity’s appearance Thursday night at the Cincinnati Tea Party Tax Day rally, leaving a lot of disappointed fans – and a lot of confusion.

Hannity was scheduled to hold a book-signing and a live taping of his talk show during the event.

Fox News Executive Vice President of Programming Bill Shine issued a statement to the media Thursday evening saying Fox had decided to call Hannity back to New York to do the show because officials believed the Tea Party was using Hannity to make a profit at the event.

Because the tea parties are supposed to make money for Faux News, not the other way around.

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