April 13, 2009 MSNBC

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From Anderson Cooper 360 April 13, 2008. While discussing Rick Warren's recent statements on Larry King Live, which contradicted what he had previously said about his support for Prop 8, the Rev. Mel White slams Tony Perkins for his bigoted stance on gay marriage. Perkins, like Warren, tries to keep the rhetoric from becoming too heated (unlike the Dobsons and Falwells of the world). But as Rev. White points out, that doesn't make their message any less hateful or harmful to the gay community.

White: It's really important for people to realize that Tony and Dobson and these others have been misleading the public for so many years about sexual orientation and gender identity. It's so important to see through their half truths and their hyperbole. It's really important to realize the damage they're doing by not saying that god created us gay. God loves us gay and we should have all the rights that the American people provide to all of us. So, Tony sounds good like, like Rick but they're really saying things that are horrible and destructive.

Cooper: Tony I'll give you a quick response since it was directed to you.

Perkins: Well, I would just say what we...we..it's not true. Uh..the Bible speaks for itself.

White: The Bible says nothing about homosexuality Tony, and it's really important to quit confusing people..(crosstalk).

Perkins: Hey Mel, nonetheless I love you. Appreciate you as a human being.

White: Don't say that. The things you say about gay people lead to destruction, the breakup of families...

Perkins: No, that's not true, Mel.

White: You continue this..we love you, but we hate you.

Perkins: No, I didn't say that.

White: We love you but we don't want you to have rights.

Perkins: I didn't say that.

White: Tony I've read your material. I've monitored you for ten years. You've got to get off this anti-gay stuff because they are leaving the churches because they've seen through your fundamentalist stuff.

Perkins: Actually, Mel, you're wrong on that point. The surveys, the polling data shows that Christians churches that are preaching the truth are the ones that are gaining members. It's the mainline liberal denominations that are losing membership.

White: That's not true at all either.

So we've got religious organizations tracking polling data like we'd expect from political parties now. Isn't that special? And Rev. White is right: You cannot pretend you love gay people and then do things that inflame hatred towards the gay community or suppress their civil rights.

April 13, 2009 MSNBC Rachel Maddow Show

April 13, 2009 CNN

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This wanker was also on Washington Journal today and from the little bit I got to hear of it on my XM radio he was just as infuriating there as well. Apparently Stephen Moore got the same memo as Lou Dobbs today on this "grass roots"...cough... rather astroturf tea bag movement from the conservative lobbyists and Fox Noise as to who is driving it. That Rick Santelli is just such a populist don't you know. He represents the people!

At least Matthews, unlike Dobbs was honest enough to show the extent that Fox is promoting this thing even though he plays as though he's clueless during this interview as to where this movement is being financed. I think Matthews knows full well who's funding it but just doesn't want to come straight out and say it.

Bob Cesca summed this interview up pretty nicely here: Ass Troturfing:

The last time we saw Stephen Moore of the Wall Street Journal, he was participating in Glenn Beck's insane "War Room" episode during which he helped to game out Beck's paranoid delusions. And the next day, Colbert discredited the whole ridiculous event -- right in front of Moore's smirky face.

Somehow being a laughing stock on both FOX News and Comedy Central hasn't prevented Moore from appearing on Hardball where he lied about the tea bag parties:

This really isn't something that's being driven, a) by the Republican Party, or b) by the national conservative groups. You gotta give credit where credit is due on this Chris, it really is a genuine kind of grassroots thing that kind of just spontaneously combusted around the country.

Lies. FOX News Channel, which could be considered a national conservative group, is promoting the tea baggers. FreedomWorks, a national conservative lobby, is funding the tea baggers. Fine -- whatever floats their boat. But don't say it's grassroots when it's clearly astroturfing of the highest order.

From Al Franken's press conference on the news tonight that the Minnesota court had ruled in his favor, declaring him the winner of the 2008 U.S. Senate race in Minnesota.

Norm Coleman's case was dismissed with prejudice by the court. Coleman is expected to appeal the ruling to the Minnesota Supreme Court. As such, it is not yet clear when a certificate of election will be issued, something Franken will need in order to be seated in the U.S. Senate.

The UpTake is a Minnesota-based citizen journalist organization which has provided yeoman's service in covering the prolonged U.S. Senate race in Minnesota.

h/t FairWinds at Daily KOS. From their diary:

On April 6, 2009, the University of Colorado hosted the 61st Annual Conference on World Affairs, which included a panel presentation entitled Rebranding Republicans: Don't Misunderestimate Us, recorded by and broadcast on C-SPAN. Among the panelists was Robert G. Kaufman, author of In Defense of the Bush Doctrine: Moral Democratic Realism and American Grand Strategy, published in 2007. In a ten-minute presentation, Mr. Kaufman posited five "core principles" that Republicans must embrace if they are to succeed "when Obama fails."

There is much to find disturbing in Mr. Kaufman's presentation, such as his assumption that Obama will fail and his assertion that "multiculturalism is a euphemism for the Balkanization of the United States". However, his "recommendation" that the GOP "acquire another television network" to disseminate its message in future elections is both an audacious proposal and a stunning admission.

Kaufman stated: The fifth thing that Republicans have to do is understand the problem of communicating in a world where much of the television media, particularly, is hostile...If I had to recommend one single thing that the Republicans should be doing to help articulate the message, it is to acquire another television network so that there is not just FOX, but multiple sources of alternative information that will do a much better job than we did in 2008 to keep things honest.

Kaufman is not a spokesperson for the GOP but this slip is one that probably deserves some notice as the diarist writes. Heaven forbid that any of them they don't have enough control over our airways as it is already. Right now there are about six media companies that control almost everything we watch on television, at the movies and listen to on the radio. How could the GOP survive without one more Fox News channel to promote their agenda? It just boggles the mind.

My take on this is that it was unusual to have anyone actually admit that the GOP controls Fox, much less say they need another one. Maybe someone can look up Mr. Kaufman to see if he wants to stand by his statement and ask him who told him that the GOP has "acquired" Fox.

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From Countdown April 13, 2009. David Shuster gives an innuendo filled description of the tea bag protests. I think he decided to give Rachel Maddow and Ana Marie Cox a run for their money with this one. Lawrence O'Donnell weighs in on how wrong headed and desperate these protests are. The Republicans have a leadership vacuum and these protests are the best they can come up with to whip up their base who probably doesn't even understand what they're protesting.

Transcript via MSNBC:

SHUSTER: For most Americans, Wednesday, April 15th will be Tax Day. But in our fourth story tonight: It‘s going to be teabagging day for the right-wing and they‘re going nuts for it. Thousands of them whipped out the festivities early this past weekend, and while the parties are officially toothless, the teabaggers are full-throated about their goals.They want to give President Obama a strong tongue-lashing and lick government spending—spending they did not oppose when they were under presidents Bush and Reagan. They oppose Mr. Obama‘s tax rates—which will be lower for most of them—and they oppose the tax increases Mr. Obama is imposing on the rich, whose taxes will skyrocket to a rate about 10 percent less than it was under Reagan.

That‘s teabagging in a nut shell. Taking its inspiration from the Boston Tea Party when colonists tossed British tea into the sea because the tax in it had not been voted on by their own duly-elected representatives—that‘s exactly the opposite, of course, of today‘s taxes, known in some quarters as taxation with representation.But as “New York Times” columnist, Paul Krugman, points out today, this time, the tea bagging is not a spontaneous uprising. The people who came up with it are a familiar circle of Republicans, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, both of whom have firm support from right-wing financiers and lobbyists. As well as Washington prostitute patron, Senator David Vitter, who has issued statements in support of teabagging but is publicly tight-lipped.Then there was the media, specifically the FOX News Channel, including Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity. Both are looking forward to an up close and personal taste of teabagging themselves at events this Wednesday.

But most amusing of all is Neil Cavuto, a member of the network‘s executive committee. Neil‘s online bio says he joined the network in July of 1996, three months before the FOX News Channel went on the air.Cavuto, defending his network‘s proportion of teabagging said, quote, “We are going to be right in middle of these teabaggers, because at FOX, we do not pick and choose these rallies and protests. We were there for the Million Man March.Can we roll that footage, the FOX News coverage of the Million Man March backing in October of ‘95?Of course, the Million Man March occurred, as NewsHounds.org points out, almost a year before FOX News was on the air.We can only speculate why widespread teabagging made Cavuto think of the Million Man March, unless he got them confused with Dick Armey. And in Cavuto‘s defense, if you are planning simultaneous teabagging all around the country, you‘re going to need a Dick Armey.

While discussing whether gay marriage is a big issue or not and if there has been an appropriate amount of media coverage given to the subject, Dennis Prager ends the segment with this whopper:

Prager: I think we are more likely to survive economically than we are the redefinition of marriage.

Yeah that's it Dennis. Gay marriage is going to end life as we know it but a depression....meh. Or maybe he just meant we have a better chance of coming out of this bad economy than we do not seeing gay marriage become legal?? Maybe someone can explain it to me. Who knows but Dennis, when you use the word "survive" it sounds like you're trying to equate gay marriage with something that's going to kill us.

John Aravosis rightfully has a good chuckle at Prager's expense after he made the statement. These conservatives are getting more ridiculous by the day with their rhetoric. Of course Prager also doesn't understand why this is a civil rights issue and why he and his ilk are looked at as bigots for their stance.

I've got a question that either John or Howard should have asked Dennis. What do you think is a bigger threat to marriage? Gays being allowed to marry or someone like yourself being allowed to get divorced twice and married three times? Come on Dennis! If you can do it three times can't the gay people be allowed to get married even once? Conservative...hypocrisy is thy name.

The President and First Family attended the annual White House Easter Egg Roll. President Obama read to a group of gathered children the classic Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.

Perhaps it is being struck by the contrast between his predecessor reading My Pet Goat, or that I'm just waiting for the Spike Jonze film version to come out in the fall that this somehow seems noteworthy.