DOWNLOADS: (302)

PLAYS: (3226)

Embed

Fox News host Bill O'Reilly sent his best ambush journalist to Hawaii this week to get the scoop on President Barack Obama's roots ahead of his Christmas vacation and found out about a guy named Barry who had a "big afro," and and "African father" who "talked about Kenya" and lived on an island with lazy people, lots of marijuana and prostitution.

In a segment that aired on Thursday's O'Reilly Factor, Fox News producer Jesse Watters put on a polo shirt, turned up the collar and hit the beach to talk to women in bikinis in hopes of finding out the truth about Barack Obama.

"Growing up in Hawaii, President Obama was known as Barry," Watters reported. "He was abandoned by his African father and lived with his mother and grandparents in a small apartment complex in Honolulu."

"My mother-in-law remembers him scooping Baskin-Robbins ice cream on King Street with a big afro in high school," one resident explained.

"There were several memories that I think that we all had and one was very strong, and one was his father came to speak to the 5th-grade class," a woman who had gone to school with Obama recalled. "It was actually about Kenya."

"He's a little lazy and he's lazy because he grew up here," Watters observed to one bikini-clad woman, who said she voted for Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) in 2008.

"He's Hawaiian!" the woman agreed. "Dude, if you're Hawaiian, you have no ambition, you're lazy."

Watters found several African-American women who said that they supported the president because if Mitt Romney had won then "we would get no more food stamps. We need Obama."

"He said he experimented with pot and sometimes cocaine," the Fox News producer reported.

After Watters returned to New York to present his investigation, O'Reilly wanted to know if he had discovered why Hawaii was so liberal.

"I think it's very multi-cultural and there's a lot of an Asian influence too," Watters opined. "And the economy is such that you don't have a big middle class. So, you have extreme wealth and extreme poverty and the sun makes you lazy. So, they kind of try to take care of everybody. And then, you know, you have very loose pot laws, prostitution is not technically legal but..."

"It's a libertine society," O'Reilly agreed. "A lot of people want to know why you have the little collar on the polo shirt up?"

"It's my trademark, Bill," Watters insisted. "That's my pop collar."

DOWNLOADS: (132)

PLAYS: (1322)

Embed

Fox News host Megyn Kelly on Tueday said that President Barack Obama may have "gone native" when he mocked Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney by pointing out that the U.S. military no longer used as many "horses and bayonets."

During the third 2012 presidential debate, Romney had criticized Obama because “our Navy is smaller now than any time since 1917. The Navy said they needed 313 ships to carry out their mission, we’re now down to 285."

In response, Obama promised that military spending would not be cut, adding, “I think Gov. Romney maybe hasn’t spent enough time looking at how our military works. You mentioned the Navy, for example. And that we have fewer ships that we had in 1916. Well, governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets because the nature of our military has changed.”

During a segment on Fox News the following day, conservative strategist Michael Reagan told Kelly that the "horses and bayonets" line may have been too harsh for undecided voters.

"It showed Barack Obama, who he is: very condescending," the son of the former president explained. "You begin to see why he's accomplishing nothing in Washington, D.C., where my father was accomplishing everything in Washington, D.C. because when he spoke to you, he spoke with you. He did not speak down to you."

"Last night, no respect from the president of the United States towards Mitt Romney, a lot of presidential respect -- as if he were already the president -- from Mitt Romney to, in fact, the other," Reagan added.

"That's an interesting point, that it speaks to an ability to be bipartisan," Kelly agreed. "And whether the president has that, and whether he's been in Washington maybe too long, maybe it's gotten to him and he's sort of gone native because the guy who was going to be hope and change got to Washington, and now he sounds a lot like the people he said he was going to change."

According to Queen's Univ. of Belfast's The Imperial Archive Project, the term "going native" originally referred "to the trepidation felt by the European colonizers in Africa that they may become desecrated by being assimilated into the culture and customs of the indigenous peoples."

"In today's liberal and anti-racist society, ‘going native' is understandably considered a derogatory and offensive term," Sinead Caslin wrote for The Imperial Archive Project.

A recently as last week, Comedy Central's South Park dealt with racism in Hawaii with an episode titled "Going Native."

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms suggests that the term has a more innocent meaning: "to become like the people who have lived in a place for a long time."

DOWNLOADS: (175)

PLAYS: (909)

Embed

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) recently speculated that President Barack Obama's family could have conspired to fake his citizenship by announcing his birth with a "telegram from Kenya."

During a tele-townhall event recorded last week, King was asked why he wasn't "investigating Obama's ineligibility."

"Before he was sworn in for the presidency, we went down into the Library of Congress and we found a microfiche there of two newspapers -- only two newspapers in Hawaii -- each of them had published the birth of Barack Obama," the congressman explained. "It would have been awfully hard to fraudulently file the birth notice of Barack Obama being born in Hawaii and get that into our public libraries and that microfiche they keep of all the newspapers published."

King added: "That doesn’t mean there aren’t some other explanations on how they might’ve announced that by telegram from Kenya. The list goes on."

But the Iowa Republican concluded that there was no point "drilling into that now" because "even if it turned out that Barack Obama was conclusively not born in America, I don’t think we could get that case sold between now and November."

During his 2008 run for president, Barack Obama released his certificate of live birth. After so-called birthers continued to question his citizenship, the White House made the president's long form birth certificate available in 2011.

"I have to say that over the last two and a half years I have watched with bemusement, I've been puzzled at the degree to which this thing just kept on going," the president said last year. "We've had every official in Hawaii, Democrat and Republican, every news outlet that has investigated this, confirm that, yes, in fact, I was born in Hawaii, August 4, 1961, in Kapiolani Hospital."

"We've posted the certification that is given by the state of Hawaii on the Internet for everybody to see. People have provided affidavits that they, in fact, have seen this birth certificate. And yet this thing just keeps on going."

(h/t: Think Progress)

DOWNLOADS: (445)

PLAYS: (4582)

Embed

Here we go again with more birthers coming out of the woodwork making embarrassments of themselves. CNN's Anderson Cooper spoke to one of them this Monday evening, but here's some background first from Think Progress.

North Carolina Republicans Go Birther: Certificate Is A ‘Poorly Reproduced Forgery’:

North Carolina is apparently ground zero of the latest resurgence of the birther movement, as a number of Republican candidates in the state are expressing doubts about President Obama’s birthplace.

ThinkProgress has previously noted that Richard Hudson, running for a congressional seat in the state’s 8th district, said Obama is “hiding something on his citizenship,” while the Charlotte Observer rescinded its endorsement of Jim Pendergraph, running in the 9th district, after he expressed his own doubts about Obama’s birth certificate.

Now, the Observer reports that Dr. John Whitley, one of Hudson’s opponents in tomorrow’s GOP primary, has also gone birther. He declared Obama’s birth certificate a “poorly reproduced forgery” after comparing it to the Hawaiian birth certificate of one of his campaign workers. “There is a tremendous amount of smoke here,” Whitley said. “In fact, it’s called a smoke screen.”

In the interview above, Anderson Cooper just simply asked Whitley for what proof he had that the birth certificate was a forgery and allowed Whitley to spin himself into looking completely ridiculous. Whitley's proof that the birth certificate was a forgery? Wingnut Sheriff Joe Arpaio's "investigation" that we wrote about here: Arpaio Probe Offers Boilerplate Birtherism in Dramatic Presser.

When asked who any of Arpaio's so-called experts were that he was relying on, Whitley couldn't name them. When asked how he knew his friend's birth certificate was legitimate, his answer was basically that he'd looked at it himself, even though he concurred that he was not an expert on evaluating documents and records.

I really wish these yahoos would get called out for exactly what they're doing in one of these interviews, which is race baiting. Sadly I guess this still goes over well in Republican primaries in North Carolina, since we've got so many of them playing this ugly game. Shameful.

(Note on the video clip above. The CNN broadcast had problems with their video hanging up during a portion of the interview, but the audio continued to work, so it's not a problem with our servers or your computer.)

DOWNLOADS: (294)

PLAYS: (1664)

Embed

Here we go again with some "fair and balanced" reporting from what is supposed to be one of their "straight news" shows, as opposed to what they admit is opinion during their evening lineup on Fox. Every time President Obama takes any vacation time in Hawaii, this is the kind of "reporting" we end up with from Uncle Rupert's stenographers.

From Thursday night's Special Report with Bret Baier, guest host Chis Wallace and Fox reporter Doug Luzader do their best to spin President Obama as some out of touch "elitist" because... get this... they might have spent as much at $260 at a Hawaiian restaurant to feed a family of four. OMG!! Hell, that's almost $100 less than Paul Ryan's now infamous bottle of wine, but I don't think Fox bothered to tell their viewers about that. What's worse is it was immediately followed by them showing a clip of Mitt Romney on the campaign trail hammering President Obama for being out of touch. Yeah, that man of the people, Mitt Romney.

Here's more from our friends at News Hounds -- Fox News Hypocritically Uses Jobless Claims To Play Class Warfare Against President Obama:

Once again, those Fox News hypocrites who complain the left plays class warfare jumped at the chance to do so themselves for the sake of swiping at President Obama. In a Special Report segment today that purported to be about “rough economic news,” reporter Doug Luzader gratuitously mentioned that the Obama’s spent more on dinner last night than most others in Hawaii can afford. Then he immediately moved on to suggest that Republican presidential candidate – and Mitt Romney, of all people - is more in touch.

Luzader said,

“Even here in the Aloha state, they’ve said hello and good-bye to jobs. The unemployment rate here is on the rise again. Not many can afford the $260 that the President and First Lady are believed to have spent on dinner at this island restaurant last night.” [...]

Luzader didn’t mention that Romney has far more money than Obama. Nor did he mention where the Romney family goes out to eat.

Fox News, we distort, you decide. It's only fair to call someone an out of touch elitist if they've got a "D" behind their name and they're not one of those "job creators" don't you know. Otherwise as always, the rule is IOKIYAR.

DOWNLOADS: (59)

PLAYS: (195)

Embed

Our friends over at News Hounds caught this segment from Fox's Your World with Neil Cavuto, with guest host Eric Bolling. Bolling apparently thinks it's impossible for someone who has a lot of money to both support the concerns of the Occupy Wall Street movement and be rich at the same time and stay at expensive hotels when you go on vacation. He also did a lot of complaining about what it costs the taxpayers for the President to spend some time in Hawaii as well while he was on vacation over the holiday.

First off on Pelosi. I've got my issues with her on allowing Bush to have a pass after the invasion of Iraq, the Attorney General scandals, domestic spying and a host of other issues that are too long to name here. What I don't have an issue with is the way she led the House and the amount of progressive legislation she managed to get passed despite the Blue Dogs in her ranks that would have and did, if it made it through the Senate, benefit everyday working Americans. And given the amount of progressive legislation on economic issues she did manage to get passed, Pelosi has as much of a right as anyone to speak in support of the economic concerns of those from the Occupy Wall Street movement. Just because she's rich and stays at expensive hotels when she goes on vacation doesn't disqualify her from being allowed to do that.

And to his complaints about the cost of President Obama's security while on vacation, when the hell did any of them ever even discuss the topic of how much it cost to protect any President, no matter where they're at until President Obama got elected? It's just more hyperbolic crap from Fox wanting to gin up resentment from their viewers about both of them on a topic that frankly, is not one that should be of great concern to most voters.

How either of them have actually governed when it comes to looking out for the working class if fair game. Going after what security details for the President cost, like those are any less expensive whether he's on vacation or not, is frankly just ridiculous.

And as our friends over at NewsHounds noted, it's also a complete double standard from Fox when it comes to their carping about "class warfare" and anyone being mean to those in the one percent. Apparently that standard only applies when it comes to Republicans and not their favorites to attack, that being the former Speaker Pelosi and President Obama. It would be a cold day in hell before you'd ever see similar concerns raised over Speaker Boehner's security details while he's out playing golf, and I guarantee you Fox never did a report like this on what it cost to protect George W. Bush while he was in office and out "clearing brush" at the ranch, or hitting the golf course with his buddies.

Here's more from NewsHounds -- Fox News Hypocrites Engage In Class Warfare Over Nancy Pelosi's "Pricey Hawaiian Hotel":

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (50)

PLAYS: (212)

Embed

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich campaigned in Hawaii over the weekend. Honolulu TV station KHON reported that the former Speaker drew a "packed house" to the Door of Faith church in Wailuku Saturday. He was expected to campaign in Maui on Monday.

Gingrich and his wife Callista are celebrating their 11th wedding anniversary during the trip. It is Gingrich's third marriage.

Several members of his staff resigned in June after the candidate took a break from campaigning to go on a cruise with his wife in Greece.

DOWNLOADS: (700)

PLAYS: (3242)

Embed

It's so good to see Michele Bachmann wants to keep her wingnut credentials in tact. As if she wasn't crazy enough on her own, she decided to appear with Orly Taitz for a teabagger luncheon. Isn't that special?

Orly Taitz And Michele Bachmann Appear At Lunch Together:

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) posed for a picture with Birther leader and California secretary of state candidate Orly Taitz at a tea party lunch event in California Friday, Taitz tells TPM.

Taitz and Bachmann both spoke at a lunch sponsored by the Tea Party Patriots, Taitz said in an email. But Birtherism did not come up at the event, according to Taitz.

"Michelle Bachmann spoke at the lunch, however she did not talk about eligibility, but rather general status of economy, politics and elections," Taitz says. "I spoke at the lunch, however I did not speak about ongoing legal actions involving Obama's use of ss number 042-68-4425, which was assigned to another individual, I also did not talk about Obama's refusal to unseal his original birth certificate, currently sealed in HI or any other issues of Obama' illegitimacy to presidency which are raised in the pleadings. I talked only about my candidacy for the position of the Secretary of State of CA."

Apparently being batsh**t crazy has an appeal in Bachmann's district. This on the heels as Keith noted of Hawaii finally having enough of Taitz and her ilk.

'Birther' measure signed into law:

Gov. Linda Lingle yesterday signed into law the so-called "birther" bill that is intended to limit the number of requests for President Obama's Hawai'i birth certificate.

Hawai'i state officials receive dozens of requests for Obama's birth certificate each month from people who believe he is not a natural-born U.S. citizen and thus not eligible to be president.

The new law, Act 100, allows state agencies a limited exemption from Freedom of Information requirements when duplicative requests for information are made by the same person. Although the law covers all agencies, the measure targets people who repeatedly request a copy of Obama's Hawai'i birth certificate.

The requests are being made to the state Department of Health, which keeps the birth certificates.

In testimony before the Legislature in February, DOH Director Dr. Chiyome Fukino said her department receives about 50 e-mail inquiries a month for Obama's birth certificate, primarily from the same four to six people.

"The time and state resources it takes to respond to these often convoluted inquiries are considerable," she testified.

Fukino has repeatedly vouched for the authenticity of Obama's birth certificate.

State law limits access to birth certificates to those who have "direct and tangible interest." This would include the person named in the record, the spouse, parent, descendant or personal representative; someone involved in marital, parental or death litigation; and official agency or organization representatives, including the health director.

Sadly given the make up of Bachmann's extremely red Congressional district, this will probably do nothing but endear her to the voters there. It always amazes me that a state with enough sense to elect Al Franken even if it was narrowly has a district that is so screwed up that they keep reelecting a woman who is nothing more than a shallow flame thrower and not much better than Glenn Beck with her rhetoric.

DOWNLOADS: (99)

PLAYS: (214)

Embed

Pacific under tsunami threat after massive 8.8 quake strikes Chile:

A massive magnitude 8.8 earthquake rocked Chile early Saturday, killing at least 122 people and triggering tsunami warnings for the entire Pacific basin.

"I would like to offer my condolences to the families of the 122 people who lost their lives during the earthquake," said Chilean President-Elect Sebastian Pinera. "And by the way, the number of victims could get higher."

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said she expected the death toll to rise.

"We are taking all the necessary measures at this time," she said.

Officials did not give any information on the number of those injured. The full extent of the damage was not yet known, although there were reports of collapsed buildings and hundreds of people in the streets. Read on...

And from the Upstream -- Tsunami Warning for Hawaii Live Coverage

h/t Logan

DOWNLOADS: (157)

PLAYS: (726)

Embed

Lou Dobbs claims there are "new developments" in the Obama birth certificate "controversy" and goes on to defend the remarks he's made on his radio show and on CNN. And just what is this "new development" Dobbs felt he just had to "report" on? The state of Hawaii now says they did retain a hard copy of the original birth certificate. Wow Lou. Breaking news there, huh? Apparently Dobbs is determined to keep this up no matter how ridiculous it's making him look.