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Stephen Colbert took apart Breitbrat Ben Shapiro, the right wing echo-chamber that fell for his hit piece on Chuck Hagel and the Republicans who are now asking President Obama to withdraw Hagel's nomination, who he should obviously give into after it appears all but inevitable that he's going to be confirmed.

After wondering what other groups Hagel might belong to that the crack team over there at Breitbart's site might not have discovered yet that Hagel doesn't belong to, Colbert wrapped things up with this slap at the Republicans and their ridiculous request.

COLBERT: President Obama, you must withdraw Hagel's nomination, or you will lose the support of every moderate Republican, another group, that doesn't exist.

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Jon Stewart took the hypocrites over at Fox apart again for their cries of tyranny over President Obama's executive orders on gun violence in America -- which, as Stewart pointed out, somehow the likes of Sean Hannity or Dana Perino had absolutely no problem with when their buddy Bush was issuing them.

He also gave a little history lesson to all of the wingnuts out there who believe that the 2nd Amendment gives them some protection from government tyranny and who are throwing out ridiculous hypotheticals like saying that the Jews having guns would have protected them from Hitler or that we wouldn't have had slavery if African Americans were allowed to have guns.

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From Monday night's The Daily Show, Jon Stewart went after Mitt Romney and his fellow right-wingers like Lou Dobbs, for their priorities on deficit reduction where PBS, which is a minute portion of the budget would get slashed, but heaven forbid we can't touch those subsidies for the oil companies, because those amounts would be almost meaningless -- or so says Dobbs and his faulty math.

After pointing out the obvious and that it really can't be the deficit they're concerned about, Stewart made a mockery of the talking heads over at Fox for their attacks on Sesame Street as some kind of evil socialist indoctrination program that's harming our children by teaching them things like how to share.

Jon and his Daily Show senior correspondents, Wyatt Cenac and John Oliver had some suggestions for how to make Sesame Street more palatable to conservatives, like putting Ayn Rand on the recommended reading list for the kids.

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Stephen Colbert had a bit of fun this Thursday evening with Fox carping about the polls, which are moving away from Mitt Romney, supposedly being skewed to favor Democrats. Heaven forbid, as Stuart Varney complained, they're basing their samples on "scientific gobbledygook."

Colbert informed the audience that he's got his own source of polls -- conservative blogger Dean Chambers -- Conservative Polling Alternative Plans Expansion:

Dean Chambers, founder of unskewedpolls.com, is expanding his empire after receiving calls of encouragement from Republicans this week.

Since his website caught fire this week for 'unskewing' presidential polls — Chambers re-weights national polling data on the assumption that more Republicans will vote than poll results show — the blogger has purchased two additional domain names: unskewedpolitics.com and unskewedmedia.com. [...]

The 'unskewed' methodology was widely criticized this week — even Scott Rasmussen, whose numbers are Chambers's statistical baseline, said the method wasn't sound — but Chambers says he has been getting calls of encouragement since Monday.

"I've been hearing from people inside the Tea Party movement and Republican movement calling to say that they support what I'm doing," said Chambers. "It's given them a boost of confidence. They're glad to see that someone's questioning the credibility of national polls." [...]

As far-right Republicans embrace the 'unskewed' numbers, even the Romney campaign is now suggesting that national polling can't be trusted.

In response to criticism this week, Chambers does concede that his polls may not necessarily be accurate — "Unskewing isn't exact, it's an estimate," he says — but the blogger does believe that his numbers can be trusted in what they reflect about Nov. 6.

"Some people say I'm creating an illusion, but that will be settled on Election Day," he said.

Republicans last great hope -- someone doing polling who is too biased for Rasmussen. Yee hah.

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Tea party favorite Rep. Allen West (R-FL) is slamming President Barack Obama for using the word "Forward" as his campaign slogan, insisting that it is an "old Soviet Union, Marxist-Socialist theme."

"This is about whether we continue to be a republic governed by the Constitution," West told a Republican Jewish Coalition rally in Boca Raton, Florida on Sunday. "Or will we become a liberal-progressive, bureaucratic, welfare nanny state, which is exactly what the other side wants?"

He continued: "They want to bring out an old Soviet Union, Marxist-Socialist theme for their campaign called 'Forward'. I have to ask you one simple question. Where is the Soviet Union today?"

After the Obama campaign unveiled its campaign slogan in April, conservative outlets like The Washington Times and Breitbart.com warned that the word had a ties to Marxism.

"The Obama campaign apparently didn’t look backwards into history when selecting its new campaign slogan — or maybe they did," Fox Business host Lou Dobbs said at the time. “That’s because ‘Forward’ has a very long history with Marxists and socialists and communists.”

"Forward" is also the motto of Wisconsin, where Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan serves as a congressman.

(h/t: Think Progress, Shark Tank)

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Lou Dobbs continues to prove that his move from CNN to Fox Business Channel was not good for him or for anyone still watching him if they would like to be presented with some semblance of the truth instead of perpetual fearmongering. In the wake of the Aurora massacre, one of the topics on this Friday's show was gun control, whether it be the possibility of new gun control laws being passed in America, or one of the right's favorite conspiracy theories, which is that the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty is going to take away everyone's guns.

And who better to bring in to weigh in on the topic, than discredited gun "researcher" John Lott. Media Matters has a long list of posts on Lott which you can read here. And Digby wrote about this nut back in 2006 here: Resurrection.

As Dobbs reported on the show, the U.N. failed to meet the deadline which was this Friday due to 51 Senators refusing to vote for it: Global arms treaty hits resistance as deadline ticks down:

Negotiators at the United Nations worked to complete a treaty to regulate the global arms trade by a Friday night deadline but faced resistance from some nations, including Iran, Syria and North Korea, and a request for more time from the United States.

The treaty aims to halt the cross-border flow of weapons and ammunition that has fueled violent conflicts around the world.

But some countries made clear their unhappiness with the restrictions in the treaty, which requires approval from all 193 United Nations members. And the Obama administration said it needed to study the text, which has gone through a series of revisions in a four-week negotiating process.

Complicating the politics of the negotiation, 51 U.S. senators have joined gun rights advocates in opposing the treaty, which they fear would infringe 2nd Amendment rights to bear arms.

The senators, in letters to President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, expressed "grave concern" that the treaty could affect Americans’ ability to buy arms. Arms-control advocates contend that the worry is groundless. [...]

[Updated 5:24 p.m. Friday July 27: U.N. members ultimately failed to reach agreement by the Friday deadline. The conference chairman, Ambassador Roberto Garcia Moritan, said that despite the stalemate,“we certainly are going to have a treaty in 2012,” the Associated Press reported.]

Think Progress has more debunking their U.N. conspiracy theory here: The Right-Wing’s Favorite New Conspiracy: The U.N. Is After Your Guns:

Continue reading »

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Adolf Hitler never wore a beret so Fox Business host Lou Dobbs is linking the U.S. Olympic team's headgear to the next best villain he can think of: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Earlier this week, the co-hosts of Fox & Friends echoed conservative outrage over the berets that are being provided to the Olympic team by U.S. fashion designer Ralph Lauren.

"The big question, though, is should the American team be wearing a beret?" co-host Steve Doocy wondered. "Why not a baseball cap? Why not a cowboy hat like we had when we went to Calgary? Why not just do something very American and just go topless?"

On Thursday, Dobbs picked up on the controversy by noting that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid thought they should burn the uniforms, which were made in China, and find new ones.

"But the controversy doesn't stop there," Dobbs complained "Some are also criticizing Ralph Lauren for topping off what is supposed to be a patriotic with a classic French beret of all things! I know, the U.S. Army Green Berets, Black Berets, etc. But it just so happens, I don't like those berets either."

"Berets are also the signature headgear of socialist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez," the Fox Business host added.

(h/t: Media Matters)

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Stephen Colbert weighed in on what he called "the biggest scandal that he had ever forgotten about" which "luckily Fox News had not," the "fast and furious" gun running scandal which led to the House Judiciary Committee voting to find Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress this Wednesday.

Colbert took the opportunity to have some fun with Fox and the Republicans for their recent conspiracy theory:

COLBERT: Yes, very clearly, Obama started this gun tracking program in 2006, when he hypnotized George Bush. Then he secretly ordered Attorney General Holder to order the Justice Department, to order the ATF to order gun shops to sell guns to Mexican drug cartels, and then lose track of them, thereby panicking Americans to gin up support for the draconian gun control measures that Obama has never introduced.

Colbert also took the opportunity to mock "Joe the Plumber's" new ridiculous political ad he has out: 'Joe the Plumber' Shoots Fruits, Claims Gun Control Caused the Holocaust.

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A member of the Fox News Medical A-Team on Thursday warned that legalizing polygamy was inevitable if "narcissistic" LGBT couples were allowed to adopt children.

During a discussion about President Barack Obama's recent "evolution" on marriage equality, psychiatrist Dr. Keith Ablow wandered off topic to tell Fox Business host Lou Dobbs that there was "some psychology in the background of this issue" that had to do with children being adopted by same sex couples.

"Children in same sex households, unless the donor of sperm or ova -- eggs -- is known, which is unusual, unless that's the case, these kids don't know their biological parents," the Fox News "expert" pointed out. "Now, we don't know the psychological impact of that at all and we need the data, we really do."

"We are making public policy, as you suggest here, on the adoption of children without an understanding of the psychological impact that effect will have on their conduct and behavior," Dobbs agreed. "And we seem to be doing so as though we've been inspired on high to do so. It's really been remarkable the manifestation of our disregard for successive generations."

"And it's the opposite of inspiration on high, which suggests that you would empathize and care for others," Ablow replied. "This is narcissistic. I feel like it so I'm going to do it -- no matter what the science might show. And we need the data."

He added: "But the bottom line is, how did we decide that kids are just fine to grow up absent their biological parents? Because why? Because we love each other. Well, three people can love each other so polygamy has to be close behind. How can you have same sex marriage and not believe that three people can fall in love, which they absolutely can?"

While Ablow obviously has a low opinion of LGBT people (he compared a transgender reality star to an anorexic and heroin addict last year), his problem with adoption is not limited to same sex couples.

In February, the psychiatrist suggested that Media Matters founder David Brock was "dangerous" because he "is an adopted boy."

"He’s a dangerous man, because having followers and waging war," Ablow explained to Fox News host Steve Doocy. "This is an adopted boy who needs to plumb the depths of his psyche. He was adopted. Many adopted children are tremendously well-adjusted, but for some reason, this man feels he’s unloved and unloveable, shunted to the side, and that’s the antidote he feels: unlimited power."

According to the American Psychological Association, "there is no evidence to suggest that lesbian women or gay men are unfit to be parents or that psychosocial development among children of lesbian women or gay men is compromised."

But Ablow has also accused American Psychological Association of being "infected" by "manipulations of the truth on a scale never before known."

(h/t: Media Matters)

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Last week on his show, Fox host Bill O'Reilly and his guest Lou Dobbs decided to attack former Secretary of Labor and professor Robert Reich, calling him a "communist" who "secretly adores Karl Marx." O'Reilly was called out by Reich both on MSNBC and in a post he wrote at the Huffington Post here -- Why Anyone Should Care That Bill O'Reilly Calls Me a Communist .

Reich challenged O'Reilly to a debate both on Ed Schultz's show and in his column. O'Reilly's response? He was "obviously joshing around" and laughing when he called Robert Reich a Communist. Whether O'Reilly and Dobbs were joking or not, Fox intentionally confuses their audience by conflating the words Communist, Marxist and Socialist on a regular basis, with the worst being Glenn Beck when he was still on there, to the point that all of them are meaningless and nothing but a general slur or insult to be lobbed at liberals. The sad joke is that their audience doesn't know the difference between any of them. And I doubt most of their viewers thought O'Reilly was joking at the time.

h/t Media Matters